{"id":1546,"date":"2024-10-15T11:28:28","date_gmt":"2024-10-15T11:28:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/?post_type=cp_magazine&p=1546"},"modified":"2024-12-17T11:08:47","modified_gmt":"2024-12-17T11:08:47","slug":"ultraprocessed-to-who","status":"publish","type":"cp_magazine","link":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/magazine\/ultraprocessed-to-who\/","title":{"rendered":"Ultraprocessed to who?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Feeding the planet requires less ideological methods of growing, producing and distributing food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

A ghost roams Europe, indeed the world, ultra-processed food. It is the cause of all our ills. It ruins health and mood. I remember Walter Chiari’s very cute gag about sarchiapone, ultraprocessed food reminds me very closely of it: everybody talks about it, it can be very dangerous but nobody knows what it is. Starting with the Economist, which publishes no less than three articles against ultraprocessed food without ever defining what it is. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Well, agriculture, in its organized genesis from the wilderness, was already an early form of industrial modification of nature. From the birth of agricultural man onward, so many discoveries have enabled man to survive in winters when horticultural crops were less available, curdling milk to make cheese (it’s a process), sterilizing tomatoes in glass jars in July and August (it’s a process identical to that followed by Mutti and Cirio, only with much larger pots and with levels of food safety they did not have at home). And in the same way they preserve fruit by making jams out of it, they preserve cod by drying and sponging it and calling it cod (processed twice), they sterilize tuna and boiled meat to feed infantrymen in the trenches, and, by the same token, rice becomes precooked to heat for American soldiers during World War II. In more recent years, food technology experts and especially microbiologists give an important role to freezing (or the more noble blast chilling).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

After all, if frozen fibers do not contain too much water, this process makes the product fresher, once thawed, than fresh ones that have been stored poorly or too long. But not only that, blast chilling food kills even heat-resistant bacteria. So freezing is a food preservation technique that does not need any preservatives: cold is enough. Even for frozen pizza, cold is enough. So what? Certainly some meats sold refrigerated, such as Valtellina IGP bresaola from authentic Brazilian Zebu, if not Nebraska, or like Parma or San Daniele, need some nitrites and nitrates to resist especially if they are pre-sliced. How, too, does salami keep nice and red? Only the very tight specification of Varzi, which is so tight that nobody imitates it (and that may be why nobody knows it), does not allow the use of chemicals. But all this planetary uproar just for that little bit of salami (called pepperoni) that goes on pizza? And was it necessary to demonize the entire food industry? Remember that the Italian food industry has high-quality production processes that guarantee the absolute safety of the food sold. If anomalies happen in these processes, there are criminal measures for violators. Adding additives to food that are not declared on the label is aggravated fraud that cannot be reconciled (meaning the person responsible goes to jail, period). Not so for the poorly preserved product in the quaint local small business, the one with a few employees that even if it does some innocent mischief is still homegrown mischief. What is the penalty for the small miller who writes Italian product on an imported flour? But what do you want it to be? It’s small, it’s business, it’s one of us. That if it were a multinational corporation instead no control system, no auditor, no judge would be lenient. But then what narrative are we living? If we are to feed, nutritionally well, nine billion people on the planet we will have to have less ideological methods of growing, producing and distributing food. We should value capable and robust industry (regardless, indeed rewarding those who are internationalized). We should dignify organic production in which Italy has a competitive advantage, we should promote sustainable supply chain agriculture, we should incentivize regenerative agriculture and value the non-use of genetically modified raw materials as one of our competitive advantages.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

We need to align the narrative about food with reality and not bend it to logics that seem rather scandalistic on a global scale than genuinely interested in feeding the planet. A separate discussion deserves meat: so much attention to techniques (especially cheating ones I would say) to meat production, and very little attention to the growing global demand for protein. All countries coming out of the poverty line dream of a Western diet, or at least one with a protein content \u201clike\u201d that of the West. How can we give them something that will make them satisfied (especially \u201cfit\u201d as protein eaters in the world are perceived) without destroying the planet by flooding it with intensive farms to produce steak? We should, I guess, promote different proteins. Low-processed plant proteins that can provide all the nutrients of meat without the environmental damage of beef. For this to happen, consumption styles and cuisines that can enhance these uses should be promoted. Ethnic cuisines, traditional Italian dishes that enhance the use of protein vegetables. It is necessary that we all, with the regulator in the lead, begin to take charge of how to feed the planet sustainably.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Similar articles<\/strong>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rethinking business strategy in the face of unprecedented disruption in consumer behavior<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/magazine\/rethinking-business-strategy-in-the-face-of-unprecedented-disruption-in-consumer-behavior\/<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Registration open for Verona’s Festival of the Future<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/magazine\/registration-open-for-veronas-festival-of-the-future\/<\/a>
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Business Excellence in Vicenza to reflect on the future of Italian SMEs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/magazine\/eccellenze-dimpresa-in-vicenza-to-reflect-on-the-future-of-italian-smes\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cp_magazine\/1546"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/cp_magazine"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/cp_magazine"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eccellenzedimpresa.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1546"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}