If you are a fan of locally-made salami, you might be wondering that happened to Milwaukee based Bolzano Artisan Meats. Due to a recall and now a suspended license, the company’s product is no longer available in Wisconsin and several other states. The situation upsets the company’s owner, while state regulators say they’re just following procedures.
If there’s one thing Bolzano owner Scott Buer would say he’s an expert at, it’s making salami.
“Instead of cooking it, we use fermenting and drying so it’s a really unique process," Buer says. "We’re the first in Wisconsin, one of the few in the country doing it this way. (It’s) a very difficult food, but it’s the kind of specialty manufacturing and processing that the state should be trying to encourage."
Instead, Buer says the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture has suspended his company’s license. The agency reports that Bolzano changed the way it processes meat without demonstrating the safety of its new technique.
Just last month, the USDA recalled more than 5,000 pounds of company's salami because its labels indicated it had been federally inspected – a necessity for selling meat across state lines. Buer says he thought he was apart of a Cooperative Interstate Shipping program, which would have allowed him to ship outside the state. The recall did not cite safety concerns.
Bolzano is now attempting to raise donations, while getting rid of its meats. Owner Scott Buer blames the state's Department of Agriculture for being uncooperative in addressing issues he’s raised. He says they've stopped communicating with him and so he doesn't know what the problems are and how they can be remedied. The agency says it’s protecting consumers.
