purchasing groceries
 

We are staying for a week in a villa south of Florence. We would like to cook in the house but were not sure about buying groceries. Specifically, should we be concerned about food being pastuerized, etc? I don't know if Italy has food standards such as those set by the FDA here. I know this is a silly question but we are traveling with someone who will be worried about this and I'd like to set his mind at ease. THanks everyone!

You will have no problems with food standards. Italy is not a 3rd world country, and has some of the finest produce, dairy, and meat products anywhere.

FYI, my family buys a lot of organic products (esp dairy), and we found organic milk & yogurt widely available at the local markets, including Spar & Conad chains.

Thank you J62! I am very happy to hear that organic products are available!

a note about the organic products. We might have lucked out at the markets we shopped at in Tuscany (near Montepulciano). We browsed in stores in Florence, Rome, and Venice and found that not every chain, nor every store of Spar & Conad had organic (bio) products. It may be hit or miss, depending on local shoppers.

Since Italy is a member of the
European Union, you will find the
standards for food are if anything
higher than the FDA standards in the
US.

Italian food is of the highest quality IMHO and the markets/supermarkets are a joy to
shop in.

The grocery shopping in Italy and everywhere in Europe is great as others have said. However, if you are use to shopping at health food stores or whole foods, you will not find the same kind of organic products in stores like they have in the U.S.

You can find some organic and health food stores, but nothing like they have in California ( which tends to have much more cheap organic food than some other states).

They call it bio here usually and not organic.

We use to eat all organic food, but had to give that up in Europe, although we do get some ( and found some in Italy..hit and miss).

Some of the cheese may not be paturerized and the milk tends to taste different in Europe. One adapts to that easily and the good news is they have milk that does not have to be refrigerated until opened.

So much depends on how fussy you are.

Look for local farmers markets and small shops besides the big chains too.