Labeling of ethnic food in the Prato Chinese community

Ethnic food consumption is a quickly growing reality within Chinese communities, which have a well-organized “internal” food market for both Asian and ethnic foods produced in the European Union. The main problems associated with these markets are related to hygienic conditions, certifications of accomplishment, and personnel management. Moreover, controls and identification of the products are difficult because of cultural and linguistic barriers. In this study, five markets managed by the Chinese were visited, and the conformity of the reported label information found on different kinds of food (prepackaged or loose) was assessed by a collaboration between the Local Authorities of Control of the Prato territory, which hosts the largest Chinese community in Italy, and of native speakers of Chinese. All visited markets presented products (n = 75) with non-conformities: lack of translation (6%) and incomplete/mistaken translation of the commercial name (72%) and place of production (12%). In addition to the legal implications of the observed non-compliances, certain sanitary issues were taken into consideration. In fact, a number of the products that belong to risk categories could be misclassified in a non-risk category. Lastly, missing ingredients or complete alteration of their commercial names may represent health threats in cases of allergen ingestion by allergic or intolerant consumers.