Cheese me not?

A simple summary of what happened:
"The Campania region around Naples, source of most of Italy’s buffalo milk, is also plagued by illegal burning and dumping of trash and industrial waste by the Camorra, the local mafia. Dioxins, an especially nasty type of chemical pollutant, turned up in January in buffalo milk from some dairies in the region, probably because of the dumping. Investigations, scary headlines, health warnings and consumer qualms about the otherwise coveted cheese have ensued."
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/fallout-from-the-mozzarella-scare/

Basically, due to this incident, it cause a fiasco among cheese-lovers in Europe. Being a cosmopolitan city, this shocking news hit our shores before we knew it.

SINGAPORE, March 29 (Reuters) - Singapore has stopped sales of all Italian mozzarella cheese made from buffalo milk after Italy on Friday ordered a recall of the product that was potentially contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin.
Singapore's Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said it had stopped all sales of the cheese pending laboratory tests as a precautionary measure.
The last import of Italian buffalo mozzarella cheese into Singapore was on Jan. 6, but due to limited information it was unclear if the imported cheese was contaminated, the AVA said.
Italy's Health Ministry said on Friday it was withdrawing products from 25 companies in the Campania region, where Italy's best buffalo mozzarella is produced.
http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSSIN146195

The source of mozzarella cheese comes from Buffalo milk. And the contaminant being dioxin. So what is dioxin?
It refers to a group of chemicals that are highly persistent in the environment. This group of toxins are usually produced by burning items that contain chlorine and hydrocarbon (i.e. plastic, fuel, CFCs [Chlorofluorocarbons] etc.) This toxin is usually found near incineration plants. Surprisingly, production of this atrocious toxin can occur naturally i.e. volcanic eruption.
This toxin, when exposed to, can cause skin irritation and at worst, cancer.
Cheese is valued in European countries. With this crisis, cheese prices have hit a bottom low.
However, since we belong to a Asian society, our contact we mozzarella cheese is minimal. But, let us not be complacent but learn from this incident.

Lesson learnt:
*Be aware of the enviroment i.e. The placing of food processing factories shouldn't be near toxin producing ones.
*If toxins are introduced, make food recall to stop the affected food from being transported.
*Apply HACCP techniques to prevent

References:
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/italys-mozzarella-makers-fight-dioxin-scare/
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/03/28/fallout-from-the-mozzarella-scare/
http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/
http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs225/en/index.html

Eat and face the consequences

In this day of technology, studying has no longer been enveloped in a building but advanced to more than just books, paper and pen; As you are reading this, you should know that this blog is part of studying! As a matter of fact, it is for my latest module - Food Safety. Just by the name, all sort of thoughts run through my mind: Testing whether this food is harmless, knowing the steps in ensuring minimal or nil presence of microbes on food, procedures to be aware of…and the list goes on.

With all the food scares/incidents, how to ensure food that reaches our table are safe and consumable? Tune in to find out =D