Food odors frequently provoke and trigger public debate on olfactory tolerance. There is a current case on food odors in Italy.

It fits in a boarder picture of normalizing a strict olfactory regime. Interestingly, this case is once again connected to migration issues. There is even a new legal terminology: “olfactory molestation” as The Telegraph reports:

Cooking may be a national passion, but Italians who allow the pungent aroma of a simmering pot of pasta sauce or a vat of deep fried fish to waft into a neighbour’s home are committing a crime, the country’s highest court has ruled.

In the best traditions of legalese the world over, the Court of Cassation in Rome even came up with a term for the offence – “olfactory molestation”…