Fury in Italy as police warn of crackdown on tourist scam threatening country

Orecchiette being made in Bari, Italy. (Image: Getty)

A group of “pasta grannies” have been accused of fraud as the authorities have intervened to solve the ongoing problem.

A group of women in Italy spend their days making delicious homemade pasta called orecchiette Italian for “little ears”.

Known as the "pasta grannies" they can be found down the winding alleyways in Bari, an historic city in southern Italy. 

The seemingly-innocent group has gained popularity over the years, becoming a tourist attraction for Bari visitors. People have been known to flock from their cruise ships to get their hands on a bag of their pasta.

However, the pasta-making group have been tarnished with a spate of harmful allegations that some members of the group are secretly buying factory-produced orecchiette, dividing it up into their snack sized bags and flogging it as homemade. 

The accusations came flooding in after white cardboard boxes that had once contained store-bought pasta were found in wheelie bins on the outskirts of the town. 

The scandal, now known as “Orecchiette Gate”, is yet to see any culprits come forward yet there are discussions within the group of a few women who became greedy, the Telegraph reports.  

Speaking to the newspaper, a 55-year-old pasta maker said: “Some of the women have been selling the commercially made stuff.”

“They shouldn’t have done it and now it’s given us all a bad name.

"My grandmother taught me to make orecchiette when I was five. If you are from here, if you come from this tradition, then you need to be honest, transparent.”

Orecchiette is packaged up and sold on the streets. (Image: Getty)

In response to the growing scandal, the police have now stepped in. Local authorities are introducing new rules and regulations for the industrious pensioners, which include regular health and hygiene checks on their homes. 

The women will also have to buy new fridges to keep their pasta products in, separate from the fridges that they keep their personal food in. 

Most importantly, police are planning to introduce a stamp of authenticity to guarantee to customers that the pasta is homemade. 

A less popular policy implemented is, instead of making the orecchiette outdoors where they chat to one another, they will have to make the food in their kitchens to protect it from dirt.