The Italian government held emergency talks with intelligence chiefs on Tuesday following cyberattacks targeting supermarket refrigeration systems in at least 11 European countries.
The attacks, which took place in recent days and have not been claimed by any party, prompted the European Union to warn of a deliberate attempt to disrupt food supply chains across its member states.
European Union spokesperson Thomas Regnier said: "The bloc's agencies are holding meetings with national authorities to discuss the best way to respond collectively to these attacks."
He added: "National authorities are currently conducting investigations, and we are in close contact with them."
He stressed that "these attacks are not isolated incidents and that the European Union must have the collective capacity to withstand and prepare for such cyber incidents."
Supermarkets in Belgium, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania and Sweden reported problems with their refrigeration systems, forcing many of them to discard food products after temperatures inside refrigerators rose.
The attacks came three weeks after a similar cyberattack targeted supermarkets in France, causing food stocks to spoil as refrigerator temperatures increased.
Italian government ministers met with intelligence chiefs and the National Cybersecurity Agency.
The Cybersecurity Agency issued technical guidance to retailers to help protect their systems.
The government said preliminary investigations showed that the impact of the attacks in Italy was very limited, with only a small number of retail outlets affected.
Reports indicated that "the affected stores had outdated security systems, software interfaces directly exposed to the internet, and weak authentication mechanisms."
Around 20 stores across Italy were reportedly affected.
Belgium was among the hardest-hit countries, with dozens of stores belonging to several major supermarket chains reporting refrigeration system failures. Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into the incident.
