At the sblanket of food products, for healthy, conscious and sustainable nutrition. Milan Center for Food Law and Policy – an international association set up with the aim of following up on the themes of Expo Milano 2015 “feeding the planet, energy for life” – presents today in Rome (Piscine complex conference room of the Foro Italico) ‘Positive Food’, the first food labeling system in the world that also provides information on product sustainabilityborn in Italy as a certification to sensitize consumers to a more conscious nutrition.
The project, developed with the scientific know-how of the University of Milan and in collaboration with the Mission Structure for National Anniversaries and National and International Sporting Events – Presidency of the Council of Ministers – is an absolute innovations in the global food scene – reports a note – Positive Food is in fact the first label that bases the evaluation of a food in a multifactorial perspective, going beyond the content of nutritional information. The certification, which will be issued to companies on a voluntary basis, has the purpose of describing a food product as completely as possible and providing the consumer with a set of useful information for eating consciously. The consumer who purchases a food product labeled with the Positive Food system will be able to benefit from important data and values linked to the various dimensions of the sustainability of the food and the relative supply chain, from the ethical-social to the nutritional one.
The label – details the note – was developed starting from four indices. 1) Environment: food must be produced in harmony with the planet and its resources and its impact, whatever it may be, must be declared. The objective of this index is to clarify how many and which processes affect a certain food in relation to the surrounding world: how much a product impacts on climate change, on land use, on the depletion of mineral and energy resources, how much the water resources, how much food contributes to the ecotoxicity of fresh water and many other indicators. In this way, by knowing all the study and research parameters, consumers will be able to better understand the real impact that a product has on the planet and consequently make responsible and informed choices.
2) People: at the origin of a good food is the well-being of those who have contributed to producing it, of the workers of the entire supply chain who must be guaranteed healthy, safe, fair and equitable working conditions. The economic and social sustainability of each product allows for the creation of a virtuous circle that feeds a transparent production cycle and responsible consumption and is based on objective and recognized criteria, including the well-being of workers, inclusion and diversity, innovation social, employment and gender equality. All these indicators combine to certify food products which in this way will be able to return a history of guarantee and transparent information.
3) Supply chain: each product will provide a complete overview of the social impacts, opportunities and challenges in food production. It is important that its path, from birth to distribution, up to the sale, is responsible and that the supply chain always remains traceable. Territoriality and traceability, social promotion, innovation, circular economy and animal welfare are indicators that will be represented to provide the consumer with a picture of the food product along the entire supply chain. 4) Nutrients: a correct and complete diet must be varied and of high quality, and allow you to draw on a large number of different nutrients. Providing this type of nutritional information – in conjunction with the other indices – allows the consumer to make informed choices and actively contribute to their own health, as well as the collective one.
During the first phase of research and development of the Positive Food label – the note continues – scholars and researchers concentrated on dairy products: in this case, in search of the nutritional characteristics of interest in the scientific literature, three other nutritional quality indices consistent with the information previously collected. These are the contribution in calcium, that of protein in relation to fat and salt. Positive Food provides a scoring system for each index, from 0 to 5, which returns an overall value in which the higher the score, the greater the overall sustainability of the product and the supply chain. The objective of the label is to make the consumer aware of the environmental, social and economic impact that characterizes the supply chain of the various foods, in addition to the nutritional contribution. The label – concludes the note – will incorporate a QR Code which will lead to a report hosted on the Positive Food website in which the consumer will be able to read and analyze the data, the methodology and the partial results, in order to ensure maximum transparency and replicability of the model .
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