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Earlier this week I was disheartened to learn about the imminent closure of Il Mondo Vecchio, an acclaimed Denver, Colorado-area salumeria that has been producing a wide variety of artisanal cured meats—including Italian-style dry sausages and whole muscle salumi—since 2009.
Il Mondo Vecchio’s owner, Mark DeNittis—who’s followed the group I lead, Keep Food Legal, for some time on Twitter—reached out to me about his company’s plight after I tweeted about the pending closure of a Scottish bangery. (I don't know if that's what a Scottish sausage plant is called, but there's no doubt that's what it should be called.)
In the case of the Scottish sausage plant, Freshlink Foods, EU bureaucrats decided that the 30-year-old producer would have to comply with new EU cold-storage regulations.
One plant worker speaking to the British website Food Manufacture—presumably one of the 144 workers who will lose their jobs over the new regulation—characterized the costly new requirement as akin to mandating “a Rolls Royce engine in a Ford Escort.”
Il Mondo Vecchio's problem is a similar one—regulations run amok—according to a release prepared by DeNittis and his co-owner, Gennaro DeSantis, last week.
"In August, the USDA imposed additional requirements on Il Mondo Vecchio’s production methods. After two months of sharing information and collaboration back and forth between Il Mondo Vecchio and the USDA as well as various attempts to modify the production methods," the owners announced, "Il Mondo Vecchio has determined that the impact of the regulatory requirements on dry cured sausage products was detrimental to the quality of the product and therefore, Mark and Gennaro are forced to close the[ir] doors."
This conflict between modern regulations and traditional methods is something DeNittis thought for a time he could navigate.
"We adhere to Old World techniques of natural process while following New World regulations,” Il Mondo Vecchio’s website states.
When it comes to Old World methods, I think it would be hard to find a better example of a traditional, conscientious, sustainable, and local producer than Il Mondo Vecchio.
And then we have a Denny's franchisee in Florida that will be adding an Obamacare surcharge and making most of its workers part time, Papa Johns, Jimmy Johns and others already plan on reducing employee hours likewise. It's just beginning...