Cernobbio – A farmers’ collective has called for Neapolitan pizza to be recognised by UNESCO as an “intangible cultural heritage” in order to protect Italian ingredients and producers.

 At the International Forum of Agriculture and Food the farmers’ group Coldiretti pointed the finger at foreign products such as Brazilian “pomarola” tomato sauce, American “Pompeian” oil and German “zottarella” cheese which imitate Italian products.

 They launched a petition on change.org calling for pizza to be included in the UNESCO listings of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Such a listing would limit the use of foreign products by redefining “real” Italian pizza as being made with exclusively Italian, traditional ingredients.

 Coldiretti stated that in 2013 some 481 million kilos of olive oil or pulp were exported into Italy, alongside 80 million kilos of milk curds to make mozzarella, and 105 million kilos of concentrated tomatoes. There are around 50,000 pizzerias in the country, which bring in around 10 billion euros to the economy each year.

 The president of Coldiretti, Roberto Moncalvo, said that, “the recognition of UNESCO would have an extraordinary value for Italy, which is the country with the most deep-rooted culinary traditions, where our cuisine, and pizza, are symbolic of our national identity.”