Search

Jewish-Roman cuisine, the traditional food of one of Europe's longest-standing Jewish communities, is among Italy's most distinctive hyper-local repertoires. Gastronomes increasingly acknowledge the importance of Jewish foodways for Italian cuisine, but a few famous "signature dishes" often dominate popular ideas of Jewish food in Italy. In Rome, carciofi alla giudìa – deep-fried "Jewish-style" artichokes – have long been used to symbolize the diverse and complex Jewish-Roman tradition. Blending ethnographic methods with discourse analysis, I ask how and why carciofi alla giudìa occupy this role, and what this means for contemporary Jewish-Roman identity. I then examine a selection of "origin stories" behind other dishes in the Jewish-Roman tradition, arguing that going beyond the near-ubiquitous artichoke can complicate and enrich our understanding of Jewish-Roman history, culture, and identity. Rather than attempting to prove or disprove these stories, I analyze them as tools for self-fashioning. I identify a variety of characteristics that these narratives are used to communicate: including ancient roots; resilience and resourcefulness; and an openness to new arrivals and external influences. Finally, I interrogate the relationship between the Jewish-Roman tradition and the city's cuisine at large, arguing that this too has important repercussions for Roman and Jewish-Roman self-perception and identity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we introduce an innovative application of clustering algorithms to assess and appraise Italy's alignment with respect to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on those related to climate change and the agrifood market. Specifically, we examined SDG 02: Zero Hunger, SDG 12: Responsible Consumption and Production, and SDG 13: Climate Change, to evaluate Italy's performance in one of its most critical economic sectors. Beyond performance analysis, we administered a questionnaire to a cross-section of the Italian populace to gain deeper insights into their awareness of sustainability in everyday grocery shopping and their understanding of SDGs. Furthermore, we employed an unsupervised machine learning approach in our research to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of SDGs across European countries and position Italy relative to the others. Additionally, we conducted a detailed analysis of the responses to a newly designed questionnaire to gain a reasonable description of the population's perspective on the research topic. A general poor performance in the SDGs indicators emerged for Italy. However, from the questionnaire results, an overall significant interest in the sustainability of the acquired products from italian citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the study of "Takeve", an Italian food delivery platform that employs only women. The research conducted by interviewing both the workers and the founders of this small platform provides an opportunity to re-discuss the business models of food delivery platforms. The aim is to understand how and in what ways it is possible to initiate a participatory and multi-stakeholder model in which opportunities for fair and decent work, business-to-business cooperation, and even dialogue between companies and institutions are created. Although the case presented is circumscribed and very limited in size, it seems to be a good example to reflect on the possibility of rethinking the model of food delivery platforms in a gendered perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How are devices changing our relationship with food? Do they help us to orient ourselves in a world where the production and circulation of commodities bring our certainties into question? In this paper I discuss food insecurity and develop on ethnographic research conducted in Tuscany (Italy) in a period running from 2016 to 2017. The aim of this research is to reflect on two aspects: first, the growing fear, insecurity and diffidence with regard to food in Italian society determined by the rise of global agribusiness, and the role devices play in mediating this relationship through self-tracking; and second, the analysis of these devices stemming from the idea of the orthorexic society, signs of which have been found in beliefs and policies regarding food throughout Italy for more than 30 years, often summarized in the famous Slow Food slogan "good, clean and fair." I studied how relationships with food are changing via the use of devices and digital technologies, and I assert that apparatuses and devices have become mediators between us and food. My research paints a picture in which people are produced as subjects through a series of devices that determine choices and behaviors, changing their perception of food. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between Uruguay and Italy has its roots in the migratory flows that began around the middle of the 19th century and continued until after the Second World War, resulting in large numbers of immigrants to the small South American country. Montevideo has a lively community of tanos, no longer children but grandchildren or great-grandchildren, many of whom apply for Italian citizenship based on ius sanguinis. Starting from the life stories of some Italo-Uruguayans, the essay deals with some key themes relating to the construction of their identity: the relationship with Italian food and the Italian language, family ties and the rituals of domestic life, the memory of migration, the journeys made to their ancestors' places of origin in the course of which Italy as an ancestral land is configured above all as a territory of the imagination. All these are spaces in which the terms of individual and family group identity are negotiated, identities that are fluid and changing. Finally, the dialogue with descendants reveals the reasons that led them to apply for Italian citizenship, reasons that are emotional, historical, social, political, and related to justice. From a citizenship point of view, the family practices of the descendants of Italians are configured as strategies of legitimation and the memory of migration in this context becomes a resource activated to act concretely in history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The collection of occurrence data on Alternaria toxins in food and feed across the European countries is required since 2012 by the European Commission, endorsing the relevant scientific opinion by the EFSA CONTAM Panel. Within this framework, occurrence data for Alternaria toxins (Alternariol, Alternariol monomethyl ether, Tenuazonic acid, Tentoxin, and Altenuene) in 97 samples of cereal foods, tomato products, and sunflower seeds have been provided as requested by the Italian national monitoring programme (years 2017–2020). To this purpose, an LC-MS/MS method was set up and validated, obtaining fit for purpose sensitivity, recoveries (70–120%), repeatability (≤20%) and within laboratory reproducibility (≤26%). Occurrence data showed that oilseeds were the most contaminated food group with levels of Tenuazonic acid up to 16752 µg/kg and Tentoxin up to 570 µg/kg, whereas for the other mycotoxin/commodities combinations, the percentage of left censored data (below the limit of quantification) ranged from 74 to 100%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Global food systems are broken and in need of profound change. These imbalances and vulnerabilities are particularly strong in cities, where most of the global population lives and that are at the core of the major challenges linked with food production and consumption. The food system transition needs cities as key game-changers towards more sustainable, equitable, healthier and fairer food systems. Against this backdrop, the present article analyses the role of food policies within urban policies, with a focus on Italian cities. In particular, the article discusses data collected from representatives of 100 municipalities across Northern, Central and Southern Italy. Moreover, it addresses the types of policies and initiatives adopted at the local level, the main obstacles encountered, the role of national and international city networks and the impact of Covid-19 on urban food security, with the aim to identify potential models of urban food policies as a structural component of a broader urban agenda. By doing this, the article aims at filling a research gap in current literature, as it is the first large-scale survey on urban food policies in Italy, identifying models of urban food policies that are already being developed within broader urban development agendas. [Display omitted] • More than three quarters of the cities interviewed know the UN Agenda 2030, with projects launched to achieve the SDGs. • Almost all (94 %) cities interviewed have launched urban food policies, but these are still too sectoral. • Urban food policies still struggle to have adequate human resources, as well as the proper assessment tools. • Cities' networks play an important role to replicate urban food policies. • All cities were impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic in terms of food utilization, food stability and food availability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses the gender issues raised by the representation of the woman in the kitchen on Italian food TV. In Italy, food and women have always been constructed as a whole, but today this model seems to be redundant. Controversial postfeminist readings of Nigella’s cooking shows and Williams’ categories of dominant, emergent and residual help investigate, in a constructivist sense, how Italian TV deals with this social change. Through qualitative, semiotic and gender analyses, the article focuses on three Italian food shows broadcast at noon. Results show that the three programmes mediate the role of the woman, drawing on the model of trattorie, traditional Italian restaurants in which the women cook and the men serve the tables. This negotiation helps balance gender relations without revolutionary outcomes. In fact, at the same time, it modernises the old model of the housewife and does not move the woman out of the kitchen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article evaluates the creation myth of the pizza margherita as presented by those texts which presume to describe its history, as well as an alternative possibility for the story's genesis. It begins with a description of the contested historiography of Italian unification, then examines evidence for the veracity of the story, concluding with some questions about the assumed boundaries between folklore and history. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The present manuscript reports on monitoring data of 12 ergot alkaloids (EAs) in cereal and cereal-derived products, collected in Italy over the period 2017–2020, for official control purposes under the edge of the Commission Recommendation 2012/154/EU on the monitoring of the presence of EAs in feed and food. To these purposes, an LC-MS/MS method was set up and applied, after in-house verification of its analytical performance. Besides satisfactory recoveries and precision, the method's quantification limits proved suitable to assess the compliance of cereals and cereal-based foods with the recently issued EU maximum permitted levels (Commission Regulation 2021/1399/EU). The validity of the generated data was also evaluated through the adoption of four proficiency tests, from which acceptable z-score values (−2 ≤ z ≤ 2) were obtained. The method was then applied to analyse a total of 67 samples, collected in Italy over the period 2017–2020. The samples consisted of 18 cereal grains, 16 flours (14 of wheat and 2 of spelt) and 31 other types of cereals derivatives (including 9 for infants). Overall, the EAs analysis returned a high percentage of left-censored data (>86%). Among the positive samples, the highest contamination levels, up to 94.2 µg/kg, were found for ergocristine (12% incidence), followed by ergocristinine (7% incidence) with levels of up to 48.3 µg/kg. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Levels of As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Tl (seaweed and fish) and I (seaweed) were determined • 19.2% of seaweed samples exceed the limit for Cd suggested by CEVA (France) • 12.5% of fish samples exceed the limit for Pb imposed by Reg. (EC) No. 1881/2006 • Correlation analysis showed linear relationships among different pairs of elements • Chemometric analysis of elements allowed a good clusterization of product types In this study, heavy- and semi-metals (As, Cd, Cr, Hg, Pb, Tl) content in seaweed and dried fish purchased in ethnic food stores located in southern Italy was assessed. In algae, also iodine was quantified. As was the most abundant element in seaweed (average = 8.19 ± 6.62 mg/kg), followed by Cd (0.38 ± 0.25 mg/kg), and Pb (0.12 ± 0.10 mg/kg). In fish, As was the most abundant element (average = 0.47 ± 0.37 mg/kg), followed by Hg (0.12 ± 0.17 mg/kg). The 19.2% (5/26) of seaweed samples exceed the limit for Cd suggested by CEVA (France), while 12.5% (1/8) of fish samples exceed the limit for Pb imposed by Regulation (EC) No. 1881/2006. Correlations among Hg-As, Cr-Tl, Pb-Tl (seaweed), and As-Cd, As-Pb, Cd-Pb, As-Cr (fish) were observed. The chemometric analysis resulted in a satisfactory clusterization of samples for product type, while the grouping for geographic origin was less precise. Heavy- and semi-metals content in fish and seaweed, as well as iodine levels in algae commercialized in southern Italy, do not seem to be of concern for consumers, but constant monitoring is desirable to increase the data on contamination of these products and for the risk assessment process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stretched ("Grissino stirato") and rolled ("Rubatà") bread-sticks are typical italian bakery products that are also widely produced in other EU countries. Despite their wide distribution there are no studies available on these products. Therefore, the aim of this study was to distinguish them according to their chemical composition and textural characteristics determined by a compression test using a Texture Analyser. Fifty samples (25 of each kind of bread-stick), produced by different bakers, were examined. Variance analysis showed that the two bread-sticks only differed with respect to texture parameters. There were no differences in chemical parameters. The higher values of the maximum force and of the average puncturing force indicate that the rolled "Rubatà" bread-stick has a firmer character than the stretched "Grissino stirato" bread-stick. On the contrary, the number of spatial ruptures and the ruggedness index were higher for the stretched "Grissino stirato" bread-stick. For product authentication an Artificial neural networks (ANN) with a three-layer, fully interconnected, feed-forward architecture was used. ANN is an effective and powerful tool for distinguishing these products with a very high average learning (94% for rolled bread-stick and 93% for the stretched bread-stick). The model obtained can be easily used for product authentication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper takes an ethnographic journey into Italian-Australian cultural production through an examination of the Italian term for both the flavour and taste of herbs, aroma. Here, I explore the ways in which staple foods and their commensalities engender staple cultural production without necessarily overdetermining the culture produced. Taking the material indeterminacy of culture as a theoretical starting point, I argue that this is the reliable beauty of aroma as well as is its capacity to capture the realities of culture as lived experience. When culture is approached from this direction, stature is returned to ethnographic subjects as people living lives rather than as automatons of cultural form. From this vantage, a theoretical preoccupation with order and structure may be seen to hinder rather than enhance an apprehension of ethnographic fact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on la finanziera, a dish that can be found exclusively in Piedmont, Italy. It mentions that the name finanziera is tied with cockscomb stew dish which is a favorite dish of court banquets and is prepared with cockscomb as an important ingredient. Moreover, it notes that the finanziera dish is favored by 18th and 19th century businessmen as affirmed by Daniele Sacco, director at Ristorante del Cambio. Information on how the cockscomb and dish are prepared is also offered.