Italy to Maintain Ban on Grapefruit

The Italian government decided Friday to maintain its nationwide ban on the storage and sale of grapefruit despite an investigation’s finding that a bright blue substance found injected into Israeli grapefruit in a Rome supermarket was harmless.

Hours earlier, the U.S. armed forces lifted its ban on the sale and consumption of grapefruit at military mess halls, commissaries, cafeterias and food shops serving 300,000 U.S. servicemen and their families throughout Europe, a military spokeswoman said.

The European Communities’ executive commission in Brussels also canceled its alert to 12 member states, saying Italy had informed it that the scare was caused by “an isolated case.”

But Health Minister Carlo Donat Cattin said after a Cabinet meeting that the ban in Italy would be maintained until scattered reports of tainted grapefruit imported from Israel have been thoroughly investigated.