Daily Mail

What a sour taste!

£13m of fake balsamic vinegar seized in Italy – but some bogus bottles could already be on shelves

- By Dora Allday

OVER the past decade it has joined houmous, avocado and sourdough as one of the modern kitchen’s must-have ingredient­s.

But now lovers of balsamic vinegar are about to be left with a sour taste.

Retailers have been warned to check their shelves for fake balsamic vinegar after millions of pounds worth of inferior dressing was seized in Italy. Investigat­ors confiscate­d £ 13million of low-grade vinegar made out of cheaper grapes.

Authoritie­s stressed the imitation version is not dangerous – but it is not authentic balsamic, so shoppers could be paying over the odds for a poor man’s copy.

Under the EU’s protected foods scheme, true balsamic vinegar must be produced within the Modena and Reggio Emilia regions of Italy and made from certain grape varieties. Bottles cost anything from £3 for mass-produced versions to a staggering £350 for 50-year-old vintages.

It is not yet known if any brands sold in Britain have become victims of the Italian fraudsters but some well-known manufactur­ers and supermarke­ts have denied they have been affected, according to trade magazine The Grocer.

Products made from low-grade grapes along with fake authentici­ty documentat­ion were seized as part of a major fraud investigat­ion dubbed Operation Global Wine.

In 2017, Italy suffered its worst grape harvest in 60 years, which may have led to low-quality grapes being used to make the vinegar.

Britain’s Food Standards Agency said it is yet to find any fake bottles in the UK supply chain but it is ‘monitoring’ the situation.

A British Retail Consortium spokesman added: ‘We have not received any informatio­n yet indicating that any BRC members are affected. But retailers have now been made aware of the investigat­ion in Italy and are liaising with suppliers about it.’

Antica Acetaia Dodi, a supplier which exports to the UK, told The Grocer: ‘We can confirm we have purchased from this company only once and very recently, therefore the faulty raw material has been immediatel­y set aside and placed at the disposal of the authoritie­s.’

None of it had been used in the company’s products, it added.

True balsamic vinegar is made with grape must, or juice, which is simmered to make a concentrat­e.

It is allowed to ferment then matured in barrels for a minimum of 12 years. The result is used sparingly on salads, as a pungent ingredient in cooked dishes, or as a dip for bread alongside olive oil.

This is not the first fraud scandal to hit foodies. Last year, investigat­ors in France discovered approximat­ely seven million litres of cheap Spanish wine were masqueradi­ng as fine French rosé, with up to ten million bottles affected.

And lovers of manuka honey were stung this year when research revealed that around half the £100 jars of ‘liquid gold’, which is made in New Zealand and sought-after because of its antibacter­ial properties, may not be genuine.

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