It is a story that is difficult to live.
The hottest item on the black market is often yellow or white, as thieves target wholesale supplies of artisanal cheese rather than raiding, say, jewelry stores.
Recently, a 63-year-old man was arrested in England for ripping off gourmet London cheese maker Neal’s Yard Dairy worth $389,000 – about £48,000.
The October heist, however, is just one example of the magnitude of how premium, high-value cheese is flowing into the underworld.
It’s to the point that fed-up suppliers like the Parmigiano Reggiano Consortium are microchipping their products.
“They know that crimes involving food result in less severe sentences than for importing drugs,” Andy Quinn of the UK’s National Food Crime Unit told the British Broadcasting Company, noting that thirsty people for money “can still make similar amounts of money”.
While some bad thieves will use food to smuggle drugs, others target perishable foods like cheese because it’s less important if they get caught — or maybe busted — by the law.
“There is a long-established link between food and organized crime,” Quinn added.
High-priced cheeses also face counterfeit competitors, and the difference is much more subtle for shoppers than using fake Louis Vuitton bags sold on New York’s Canal Street, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Adulteration has become so widespread and tasteless that purveyors of the popular Parmigiano Reggiano variety began placing tracer food microchips – smaller than a grain of rice, the BBC reported – in their 90kg wheels of Parmesan more than a year ago first.
The chips contain digital authentication.
“We keep fighting with new methods,” Alberto Pecorari, who deals with authenticity issues for the Parmesan consortium, told the Journal.
The World Trade Organization reports that food fraud, which excludes alcoholic beverages, costs the industry between $30 billion and $50 billion annually.
In recent times, cheese has been a significant part of the illegal profits, according to dairy specialist Patrick McGuigan.
As “an energy-intensive business” due to refrigeration and the need to heat milk, the Russian invasion of Ukraine caused cheese prices to rise due to rising fuel costs, McGuigan explained to the BBC.
Parmesan expert Pecorari said the industry will not crumble under criminal pressure, no matter how many sophisticated methods are advanced.
“We will not give up,” he said.
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Image Source : nypost.com