Italian authorities told the European Commission today that an investigation into adulterated wine from Italy found no health risks to consumers, a spokeswoman for the EU executive said.
"The Italian authorities have informed us that their investigations have confirmed that this is purely a case of adulteration of wine and that there is no health risk," Nina Papadoulaki, spokeswoman for EU Health Commissioner Andreu Vassiliou, said.
"In fact the problem concerns the addition of water and sugar beet."
Brussels, which oversees food safety across the 27-member bloc, requested assurances from Rome following a number of police investigations into allegations that harmful chemicals had been added to various consignments of Italian wine.
Despite record high euro-dollar exchange rates pushing up the price of exports, Italy's wine sector saw its foreign sales rise 12 per cent in the first seven months of last year with Italian wine outselling its French competitors in the United States two-to-one.