{"id":68321,"date":"2025-12-27T09:05:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-27T07:05:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/?p=68321"},"modified":"2026-01-16T23:09:21","modified_gmt":"2026-01-16T21:09:21","slug":"bervini-and-la-pellegrina-aia-why-so-little-transparency","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/bervini-and-la-pellegrina-aia-why-so-little-transparency\/","title":{"rendered":"Bervini and La Pellegrina (AIA): Why So Little Transparency?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]Drafted on December 24, updated on December 27, 2025.
\nOn Bervini<\/a> and La Pellegrina<\/a>, read here.
\nExcerpt from this article in\u00a0Il Fatto Alimentare<\/i><\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026the slaughterhouse also supplied Simmenthal and Star, which have suspended their business relationships as a precaution. Bolton [owner of the Simmenthal brand]<\/strong> told\u00a0Report<\/i>\u00a0that only 6% of the canned meat came from Bervini\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cThe practice of thawing and processing imported meat (mainly from South America) had already been underway since 2018\u2026<\/strong>\u201d
\n\u201cAnother plant in the group, the one in Trento, is said to have been involved in cooking expired meat<\/strong>. According to a worker, the label was replaced on some packages, with a new expiry date moved forward by two years\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

What makes this affair even more serious is not only what happened in the Bervini slaughterhouses, but the silence<\/strong> that surrounded it afterwards.<\/p>\n

Il Fatto Alimentare<\/i>\u00a0filed a formal request for access to documents, which was rejected. It requested two interviews about the case from ATS Val Padana; both were refused because \u201cthe investigations are ongoing.\u201d We sent several questions to ATS Val Padana to clarify how they operate and what checks they carried out, without success. We asked the company Bervini for clarifications, with no response. We requested an interview with Lombardy\u2019s Regional Councillor for Welfare, Guido Bertolaso, which went unanswered.<\/p>\n

A wall of silence that cannot be dismissed as a simple organizational difficulty. Because when tons of expired meat end up in catering, on cruise ships, and in pet food, this is no longer a matter of internal checks, but of protecting public health\u2026<\/p>\n

And yet, for more than 45 days, there was no public statement, no national alert, no list of the clients involved.<\/p>\n

As if the matter concerned only the relationship between a company and the local health authority. As if citizens had no right to know where what they ate\u2014or fed to their animals\u2014ended up. And yet in Italy the food-recall system works reasonably well\u2026 For Bervini, however, it seems something jammed. It is hard to consider the absence of a complete and transparent alert, or of official notices, as an \u201caccident\u201d in the two scandals that emerged involving ATS Val Padana: Bervini<\/a> and La Pellegrina<\/a> (AIA Group)<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

The impression is that the alert is triggered only when it does not create systemic problems, while it is scaled down when it affects large supply chains, numerous clients, and significant interests. At this point, the question is no longer technical, but political and institutional: who decides when a food-safety issue deserves a public alert and when it can remain confined to offices? And above all: why, in the face of such serious cases, does consumer protection seem to become a secondary consideration?<\/strong><\/p>\n

P.S.: It had already happened with AIA: an omert\u00e0-like silence, even though raw sausages had killed four people<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Below: rats infest pig farms belonging to La Pellegrina, part of the Aia Veronesi group (another case involving ATS Val Padana).<\/a>[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”68323″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][vc_separator][vc_column_text]Note that transparency is provided \u201cintermittently\u201d: in the case of the listeria risk in cooked ham, turkey breast and pork loin. Here, the recalled batches were accompanied by all the relevant information<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the record, we reproduce the text from\u00a0Repubblica<\/i>\u00a0of December 26, 2025<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Ministry of Health has decided, as a precaution, to recall some products from the market due to the risk of microbiological contamination\u2014in particular, the possible presence of the bacterium\u00a0Listeria monocytogenes<\/i>\u2014and, in one case, an excess of histamine compared to the maximum permitted values.<\/p>\n

The measure, adopted to protect citizens\u2019 health, came right during the holiday period and concerns certain cured meats and other foods commonly found on Christmas and New Year\u2019s Eve tables.<\/p>\n

On December 24, attention focused on two Lenti-branded products, both produced by Rugger Srl. The first is \u2018Lenti & Lode<\/strong> \u2013 High-quality cooked ham,\u2019 for which batches 2541327 and 2541328 were recalled.<\/p>\n

The second is roasted turkey breast (\u2018Gran fesa di tacchino arrosto\u2019), recalled for the same microbiological reason in batch 2541330.<\/p>\n

On December 23, a precautionary withdrawal was ordered for a batch of oven-roasted pork loin (\u2018arista al forno\u2019) under the Fior Fiore Coop<\/strong> brand, sold in 120-gram trays. The product concerned is identified by batch 2541329, with a minimum durability date set for January 3, 2026. In this case too, production is attributed to Rugger Srl, at its plant in Santena, in the province of Turin, for Coop Italia.<\/p>\n

Last December 19, the Ministry reported the recall by the producer of a batch of vacuum-packed pork cracklings (\u2018ciccioli\u2019) under the Serafini<\/strong> brand, with number 07\/2025\u2014corresponding to the month of production\u2014and an expiry date of March 31, 2026.<\/p>\n

Finally, due to excess histamine\u2014a substance that can cause food poisoning if consumed in large quantities\u2014the Aragon<\/strong> anchovy extract (\u2018colatura di alici\u2019) was withdrawn from the market.<\/p>\n

The Ministry advises consumers not to eat products belonging to the indicated batches and to return them to the point of sale where they were purchased.\u201d[\/vc_column_text][vc_separator][vc_single_image image=”68324″ img_size=”full”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Expired meat and rats: why, when faced with such serious cases, does consumer protection seem to become a secondary issue?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":68322,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-and-health"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68321"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":68327,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68321\/revisions\/68327"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fondazioneguidovenosta.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}