Exposed to the Nas of the carabinieri for a video, which went viral on YouTube, showing Flavio Briatore with splendid specimens of Alba truffles on behalf of a Monegasque restaurant: "This year they are not found in Italy, we find them", says the 'entrepreneur.

The president of the National Association of Italian Tartufai, Riccardo Germani, signatory of the complaint, asked to investigate this message, presented to the Milan command of the anti-sophistication nucleus of the Arma and also addressed to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry Policies.

According to Germani, the crime could be configured, contemplated by article 517 of the Criminal Code and relating to the "sale of industrial products with false signs".

The request contained in the complaint, "for the protection of consumers", is to check the sales notes to ascertain "whether the truffles are actually not only from Alba, but also quarried by truffle hunters from the Langhe and Monferrato".

With the extreme drought of the summer - from May to the end of September, the National Association of truffles points out - white Alba truffles are very rare (at the Fiera d'Alba they have reached a price of up to 600 euros per hectogram) and 'is therefore the suspicion that "behind the network of the truffle supply chain and traders there are important companies that market, transform and sell truffles from abroad and sold or processed as Italians".

Germani recalls that Italy is, at the same time, "the largest importer and exporter of truffles" and that there are large companies that "have owned land and processing industries in Romania, Slovenia, Austria, Bulgaria, Afghanistan, Iran, Tajikistan , Turkey, Uzbekistan ".

Finally, the National Tartufai Association asks Mipaaf to review the 1985 law that regulates the search for truffles, liberalizing it, and to "issue an urgent note" for the entire supply chain and the control authorities for the distinction between the Italian truffle and the imported one ".

(Unioneonline / vl)