Italy must do more to stop dioxin in mozzarella-EU

BRUSSELS, March 27 (Reuters) - The European Commission urged Italy on Thursday to take urgent steps to ensure that mozzarella cheese contaminated with cancer-causing dioxin will not enter EU markets, saying steps Rome had taken so far were not enough.

"The European Commission has urged the Italian authorities to take further measures to ensure that dioxin-contaminated mozzarella cheese will not enter the EU market as it considers insufficient the actions taken up to now," a statement said.

It said measures taken so far by the Italian authorities were still too limited since because no recall of potentially contaminated products had been carried out and the surveillance programme on farms in the Campania region was insufficient.

"If it considers this further action as inadequate, the Commission will consider proposing safeguard measures for dairy products originating from the region of Campania," it said. (Reporting by Jeremy Smith, editing by David Brunnstrom)