Italy must raise its guard against tomato products from China, farm organisation Coldiretti said Thursday.
Speaking after a series of Chinese food scares in the United States, Coldiretti said a "flood" of paste, preserves and canned tomatoes from the Asian giant - up 150% this year - posed "a particularly dangerous situation".
It was all the more urgent to boost safety checks, Coldiretti said, since the European Union recently turned down compulsory labelling for food products, "raising the real possibility that imported products are passed off as made in Italy".
Paste and other tomato products, it said, are one of the bastions of Italian food excellence and "must be defended at all costs," Coldiretti said.
Tomatoes from China account for more than 30% of all the food imports from the country, it said.
China sends about half of its tinned tomatoes to Italy, it noted.
Italy is the second-biggest tomato exporter in the world after the United States but China has been gobbling up ground since it started exporting the fruit in the late 1990s.
Coldiretti recently warned that Chinese tomato products are flooding markets worldwide, "destined to be diluted and mixed with Italian produce so as to pose as Italian on our most traditional dishes worldwide, such as pizza and pasta".
Italy has grown increasingly assertive in protecting its food specialities, winning European Union approval for a slew of regionally specific produce and pushing for international standards for Italian-style pizza as well as a seal of approval for restaurants that cook Italian as it should be cooked.
There have been at least five food scares in the United States involving tainted Chinese products including fish and pet food in recent months.
Chinese authorities have admitted about 20% of its domestic food market does not meet satisfactory hygiene standards.
