Saturday December 2, 2006 5:31 PM
ROME (AP) - Imagine a delicious dinner of pasta with meat sauce and grated parmesan. Add a salad of fresh mozzarella and Roman tomatoes sprinkled with Tuscan olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Maybe you'll wash it down with some Amaretto liqueur.
But there's a catch: none of this food was actually made in Italy.
Foods that look or sound Italian but are produced elsewhere amount to $66 billion in annual sales - nearly half the $135.5 billion worth of real Italian food that is sold worldwide in a year, says Coldiretti, Italy's farmers association.
Italian producers have launched a campaign to set the record straight in hopes of boosting their own sales.
``They might not be illegal, but they are deceptive,'' Coldiretti's spokesman, Paolo Falcioni, said. ``It's wrong for two reasons: You take the (market) of the real food, but most importantly you're deceiving the consumer.''
It's possible the fine print identifies a food as not being made in Italy, but Italian flag colors or Italian references on labels can lead rushed consumers to think otherwise, Falcioni said.
For Italians, many of whom believe they have the world's best cuisine, that's tough to swallow.
Associated Press
