BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's prime minister has accused the European Union of damaging the country's food industry with a mistaken alert over a possible E. coli link to Romanian sheep's cheese.
Premier Dacian Ciolos, formerly an EU Agriculture Commissioner, said Monday that Italy misinformed the EU, which issued a notification after Italy said it had confirmed a link between the cheese and a Romanian toddler hospitalized in Florence with E. coli.
Romanian food safety officials said there was a health risk from cow's milk cheese produced in a dairy plant in central Romania, but not sheep cheese.
Romanian authorities say 20 tons of cheese has been withdrawn from sale.
Romania annually exports tens of thousands of tons of sheep cheese. It was unclear whether sheep cheese would go back on sale.
