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DEC. JAN. 2019 II products that, for obvious reasons, we have not included in our portfolio, but of all those ingredients that represent the basis from which our restaurateurs create the “Mediterranean cuisine”. And the CIC 2018 sales data – which is really flattering – helps us understand that the choice to offer a range of high-quality, strictly “Made in Italy” products is the right one! And we’re proud to tell you. Happy New Year! By Antonio Di Lorito Member of the Board of Directors Cooperativa Italiana Catering AT PAGE 6 Qi News Four out of 10 Italians would be willing to eat insects Good quality food. It is this combination that has always represented Italy at the table, with its unmistakable cuisine rich in variety and regional gastronomic traditions that have known, and still know, how to conquer the most demanding palates anywhere in the world. And if pasta and pizza can never really be replaced in our food, the Italians however have begun to face novel food , which brings new food to our tables, among which insects and arachnids such as grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, caterpillars and scorpions . Insects, for example, are environmentally friendly and protein-rich foods and are increasingly regarded as the real food of the future. But what if instead of the traditional Christmas capon, and the inevitable duo of pork sausage and lentils for New Year’s Eve, Italians had been offered a menu based on insects? Rentokil Initial , commissioned Doxa to investigate the feelings of Italians regarding entomophagy. The survey showed that more than 40% of Italians believe that insects can be one of the foods of the future and it is in particular young people between 18 and 34 who show greater openness (49%) against 63% of over 55 who think that insects will never be accepted as food in Italy. According to a study conducted by FAO in 2013, as well as being environmentally sustainable thanks to the easy availability of ingredients, insect-based foodstuffs are also nutritious and rich in proteins, good fats, calcium, iron and zinc and generally healthier than those “traditional” ones. The restaurant bill? In Milan you pay in Instagram followers Technology changes habits. For a few weeks in via Lazzaro Papi 6 in Milan, from “This is not a sushi bar”, the bill is paid in followers on Instagram. Depending on the amount of “followers” displayed on the social platform, those who eat the meal at the tables of the small restaurant in the Porta Romana area can get one or more dishes for free – or even a meal free for influencers – presenting a post at the cashier with photos of the dishes consumed and hashtags that refer to the restaurant. The idea is that of the brothers Matteo and Tommaso Pittarello, from Padua: “The purpose is twofold. On the one hand we aim to stimulate in an innovative and inclusive way the presence in the premises and the participation of our customers, as more than 80% of our business is focused on home delivery, and on the other hand we want to make this restaurant unique, and not only nationally,” explains Matteo Pittarello, president of This is not a sushi bar. Origin Italia, new body for the protection of PDO and PGI products Origin Italia is born, a new body representing Italian PDO and PGI products . The aggregation, the result of the path undertaken by the Italian Association of Geographic Indication Consortiums (Aicig) , requires the involvement not only of individual consortiums but also of associations of the consortia relating to specific product segments. The project was created to align itself even more with the international perspective and to be networked with Geographical Indications under the same umbrella of Origin Europa , at the birth of which Italian consortiums have made an incisive contribution. The “Origin” network, established in 2003 with the aim of bringing together producers of geographical indications also from other continents, today has 560 consortia worldwide. In presenting the new subject, the president of Aicig, Cesare Baldrighi , explains that “it is necessary to be ever more united to increase the knowledge of the value of denominations and at the same time raise awareness of the consumers on strictly topical issues on product protection.” “The Protection Consortia that manage PDO, IGP and STG products – adds Baldrighi – have repeatedly made it clear that they want to create a system . The turning point towards which we are moving with the transformation from Aicig to “Origin Italia” is mainly represented by the fact that the associations of the Protection Consortia for the various product categories – with Afidop primarily for PDO and Isit cheeses, both PDO and IGP for cured meats – they agreed on the need to give rise to a new association, a new point of reference to aggregate the bodies of the products defined in the EU quality policy with Geographical Indications”. MAGAZINE