Milan, father of little Mattia Maestri at Pirellone: "Review the motion on raw milk"

The motion on raw milk cheeses presented in the Lombardy Regional Council has caused much controversy.

The proposal, which bears the signature of Giacomo Zamperini of FdI, calls for economic support for the production of raw milk cheeses with contributions for microbiological tests and calls on the Ministry of Health to issue a circular that allows for the attribution of differentiated levels of risk to companies on the basis of "real self-control measures and production conditions", avoiding "penalizing obligations such as labelling".

The same goes for pasteurization systems which must be installed only by those "voluntarily interested", without obligations.

Firmly opposed to the motion was Giovanni Battista Maestri, father of little Mattia, who died last August 2 after nine years in a vegetative state following a serious form of Haemolytic-Uremic Syndrome contracted after ingesting a raw milk cheese contaminated by Escherichia coli Stec.

Ministerial guidelines

Maestri appeared in the Lombardy Chamber yesterday to ask for the proposal to be reviewed.

"I want to see in the face who has the courage to vote for this motion" he said, underlining that "there have also been a series of convictions in the Supreme Court where the link between the consumption of raw milk cheese and the death of my child was demonstrated" with the Trento Prosecutor's Office which "opened proceedings for manslaughter against the two responsible".

"We're talking about human lives and the lives of children - added Mattia's father -.

I was amazed to read that among the signatories of this motion there are four women who are probably four mothers and I cannot understand this and I cannot even accept it.

In 2023 there were 93 cases throughout Italy, now we are down to 45 probably also thanks to the ministerial guidelines that FdI is proposing to scrap today."

In-depth analysis

Raw milk, 43 cases of serious syndromes in 2025.

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