Food Policy

Food Policy

Italian politics play a key role in shaping the food and consumer culture of the country. According to Langer (2015), the Liberal government that arose during World War I adopted several policies that devolved food regulation methods, which transformed the government into a more centralized and complex wartime bureaucracy. This led to an intervention that accustomed Italians to goods like wheat, olive oil, canned tomatoes, and pasta, which they are highly known for today.

Farm to Fork Campaign Poster. Courtesy of European Commission.

Food rules and regulations are implemented by Italian authorities according to European Union rules, directives and regulations for food and agriculture. According to the European Commission (2021), the provision of safe, nutritious, high quality and affordable food to Europe's consumers is the central objective of the European food safety policy. Dating from 2003, the policy centers on the concept of traceability both of inputs, such as animal feed, and of outputs, such as primary production, processing, storage, transport and retail sale.


The EU employs standards that guarantee food hygiene, animal health and welfare, and plant health and to control contamination from external substances, such as pesticides. Meticulous checks occur at every stage of production, and imports from outside the EU are required to meet the same standards and go through the same checks as food produced within the EU. The "From Farm to Fork" campaign by the European Commission aims to ensure a high level of food safety and animal & plant health with adequate monitoring within the EU and by the European Food Safety Authority (2021).

Additionally, there are different Italian Ministries that have varying responsibilities when it comes to Italian food and its production. For example, food safety is the primary role of the Italian Ministry of Health, while food production is the responsibility of the Italian Ministry of Agriculture. Italy also implements the Law n. 166/2016, also called “Gadda law”, which regulates “donations and distribution of food products and pharmaceuticals for the purposes of social solidarity and waste limitation” (Arcuri, 2019). This law limits the amount of food waste that Italian produce by donating it to organizations that need it.

Citations:


Arcuri, S. (2019). Food poverty, food waste and the Consensus frame on charitable food redistribution in Italy. Agriculture and Human Values, 36(2), 263-275. doi:10.1007/s10460-019-09918-1

European Commission. (2021). Lex access to European Union law. Retrieved March 25, 2021, from https://eur-lex.europa.eu/summary/chapter/3010.html

Langer, N. (2015, May 31). Pasta politics: Politics and Italian FOOD practice in the fascist and Post-war periods. Retrieved March 11, 2021, from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6xx668xz



Cover photo courtesy of Gambero Rosso