Gelato Newest Front In EU Food Wars

War has been declared in Europe between tradition and bureaucracy, and Italian ice cream shops are the front line, reports CBS News Correspondent Allen Pizzey.

The famous Italian gelato is under attack from the European Union, which is threatening to impose uniform regulations that would change how Italian ice cream is made.

In Italy food is sacred, and uniformity laws threaten a host of Italian gourmet treats with extinction.

Parmeggiano reggiano cheese, for example, is being copied in Germany.

Chocolate has already been adulterated.

Italian small businessmen, who make up 95 percent of the world's fifth richest economy, see it as a globalization plot.

Luigi Spalanzani, the president of the Artisans Organization, says, "The big multi-nationals they are not able to beat us with the quality and with the price and so they need to have laws against us to win this kind of fighting against us."

For 180 years the Giovanni Fassi ice cream shop has been in no doubt about how gelato should be made.

His shop doesn't use the animal and vegetable fats common to other European and American ice cream.

His shop features 210 flavors of Italian ice cream.

But choosing isn't as difficult as it might seem, because it's all superb, at least for now.