Why European Food Standards?

In the EU, food is much more tightly regulated than the United States. This means that by default, food produced against the EU standards does not allow many additives or practices that allowed in the US. 

It's crazy, but the American food system operates under a "innocent until proven guilty" model. The regulatory keyword for this is "GRAS"—generally recognized as safe. This causes issues such as the FDA taking 40 years to recognize that trans fats are terrible for people.

In addition to the fact that we believe the many EU-produced foods just taste better, this is another reason why we love buying foods that are produced under Euro standards. 

"Made In" vs "Produced In"

Decoding these food labels is challenging. Here's what we've learned as we've investigated this:

• "Made In". This indicates that the product was assembled in a specific country but does not give you any guarantee about how the ingredients used to make the product were produced. None of our products are labeled "Made In Italy" since generally that indicates something sneaky is going on with the ingredients. 
• "Produced In". We make sure that everything we sell is "Produced in Italy" which ensures that all food products are held to the European Union food production standards. Note: this is interchangeable with "Product of". 
• "Produced In Italy with 100% Italian Grain". Product of Italy does not mean that all flour is sourced from Italy (it's sourced from the EU). This indicates that all flour used in the product is sourced from Italy. 
• Region Designations. Also known as "DOP". This is the most stringent  (and therefore the most expensive) requirement that is Italy-specific. It indicates that the product was produced using requirements specific to a region in Italy. 

Potassium Bromate in Flour

All flour in the US has potassium bromate added to it by default. This is not required to be on the ingredient list. Potassium bromate is a possible human carcinogen and is banned in Europe. 

We originally discovered this idea here. What's most interesting about his post is this snippet:

We started buying only bread with un-bromated wheat, and my wife’s “gluten sensitivity” disappeared. I feel better too. It’s not the gluten that is causing problems for people in the US. It’s the bromate.

This mirrors our experience. Using "Produced in [European Country]" materials has eliminated the gluten issues in our family. 

This is why we ensure all our products are Produced in Italy (or another EU country).