De Cecco reveals why there is a bucatini shortage in America

I loved the original article, and (spoiler) it pretty much turned out to be what was posited but they&#x27;re not sure why the iron levels were low. In the way these things usually go, they decided destroying the withheld US stocks was cheaper than shipping it elsewhere for sale or (illegally?) feeding the needy.<p>I&#x27;m wondering though, is fortification&#x2F;enrichment in staples widespread? The US seems to do it a lot, but I checked in Australia and I can find only 2 cases of mandatory fortification[0] - Vitamin D for oil spreads (e.g. margarine) and vitamin B1 and folic acid for bread flour, and iodised salt in the bread. I suppose you can also include fluoridated tap water as fortification. I don&#x27;t have either of those foods that often so hopefully I&#x27;m getting these nutrients elsewhere.<p>0: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.foodstandards.gov.au&#x2F;consumer&#x2F;nutrition&#x2F;vitaminadded&#x2F;Pages&#x2F;default.aspx" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.foodstandards.gov.au&#x2F;consumer&#x2F;nutrition&#x2F;vitamina...</a>

The funny thing is that in my italian eyes, De Cecco is in the &quot;meh&quot; quality of pasta...<p>btw: the &quot;fortified pasta&quot; is something I cannot stand. You american should lobby to make &quot;normal pasta&quot; the only one available.

For those who missed the original post: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=25566652" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=25566652</a>

I&#x27;m not American and I had no idea &quot;fortified pasta&quot; was a thing. What about organic&#x2F;artisanal pasta? Do they still legally have to add iron?

This... is just De Cecco piggy-backing on the buzz from the original article to do some self-promotion, isn&#x27;t it?<p>Q: &quot;Can you speculate on who reported your product to the regulators?&quot;<p>A: &quot;De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. We do not wish to speculate on this topic.&quot;<p>Q: &quot;Why was your pasta deficient in iron?&quot;<p>A: &quot;De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. We do not know.&quot;<p>Q: &quot;How soon can we expect to see your pasta in stock again?&quot;<p>A: &quot;De Cecco is committed to providing consumers with the highest quality of pasta product. Some time in the future! We look forward to seeing you in the kitchen!&quot;

What a shame they had to waste the pasta for being slightly less than the iron nutrition guidelines.

Have had no problems finding Made-in-Italy La Molisana-branded Bucatini at my discount grocery story in Canada.<p>It’s even on sale at Amazon.ca right now, $1 (or ~US$0.75) for 450g:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.ca&#x2F;-&#x2F;fr&#x2F;Molisana-Bucatini-N-12-450&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B07N21XB55&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.amazon.ca&#x2F;-&#x2F;fr&#x2F;Molisana-Bucatini-N-12-450&#x2F;dp&#x2F;B07...</a>

I found both articles to be underwhelming. Other brands sell this pasta shape, correct? At no point did bucatini sell out from Eataly For example.<p>It was a fun headline of course and clearly one type of the pasta was not available, but “great shortage” was taking more than a little license. I guess it was more tongue in cheek than I initially understood?

&quot;Why was iron low?&quot; &quot;We don&#x27;t know.&quot; &quot;It&#x27;s better now?&quot; &quot;Yes we fixed it!&quot;<p>If they don&#x27;t know what&#x27;s wrong, how did they know what to fix? This is still fishy to me. Also, shame on the author for using the term &quot;ratted out&quot; when this company was selling a substandard product to Americans.