Food, Wine & Co. - Food for Future. Future for Food is a conference organized by the Master in Economics and Management of Communication and Media of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, now in its eleventh edition.
It is a moment dedicated to brands, excellent products and services, as well as to Italian companies and territories that make food their flagship, a distinctive brand and a lifestyle, which involves numerous aspects, such as nutrition, health, sustainability and sociability.
Ended last October it involved, as always, sector players, marketing and communication professionals, and enthusiasts, and at the end of this interesting journey, the salient points, trends of Italian food that await us in the future, were identified.
Let's go and discover them.
Keywords: authenticity, sustainability, customer oriented.
In light of the global situation that surrounds us, more and more people are aware of the weight that food has on human well-being but also of the planet, so the food of the future is organic, as much as 0 km, sustainable and traceable. The authenticity of food and its intrinsic value are rediscovered above all by the younger generations, as shown by international research conducted by the University of Rome Tor Vergata, which are by no means insensitive to the charm of Made in Italy as a brand, but which on the contrary, it pushes them to pay more and more attention to PDO and PGI denominations.
Priorities
83% of Italians, when choosing what to put in the cart (whether it is at the supermarket or on their favorite app) are attentive to the impact on health, while 93.5% reuse the food left over from lunches and dinners to reduce waste. In Food Delivery, 1 out of 2 chooses sustainability and 65% of those who order at home aim for food at km 0.
The current situation
Covid is not yet behind us, the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the climate crisis are changing the agrifood industry from various points of view. Availability, methods of production, distribution, consumption, and the way consumers approach food. Faced with these critical issues, there has been an exponential growth in food delivery, greater use of 4.0 technologies, blockchain and Smart AgriFood systems to ensure sustainability and traceability. Unfortunately, these choices have also affected the polarization of society, resulting in a more marked division between upper and lower classes.
Fight against fraud
The success of the agrifood sector of the future passes through organic farming, exports, investments in the development of technologies and digitization, and Industrial Districts. Protection and traceability remain the keys to enhancing and protecting the "Brand Italia", starting with the fight against the phenomenon of Italian sounding, which in 2021 caused economic damage of about 100 billion euros, with 5.5 million kg of goods seized.
Interesting topics that the market has already been witnessing for some time, destined to be confirmed and deepened. There are still many difficulties that permeate the sector, and there is no doubt that, right now, the system is far from perfect given the economic repercussions and the ecological impact of some phases of it - but the ever increasing attention shows how there is the will to invest, improve and make healthy and sustainable nutrition within everyone's reach.