52 research outputs found
Traditional Foods
The semantic meaning of \u2018traditional food\u2019 should be clear: a
food in which broad-sense knowledge (ingredients, way of
preparation, role, etc.) is transmitted from generation to generation.
Although not encompassing explicit reference to the
way the knowledge is transmitted, common interpretations of
this definition are the following:
\u2022 \u2018Traditional\u2019 knowledge is the complex of information and
skills belonging to communities, as a result of the interaction
with the environment in which they live and the
available resources.
\u2022 The transmission of \u2018traditional\u2019 knowledge generally
occurs through informal means, often orally.
Recent debates indicate that people have no difficulty to independently
interpret tradition, in connection to food, attaching
personal facets to this term, such as old-fashioned, consumed
often in daily life, linked to special events, folkloric, belonging to
a specific place, homemade, not elaborated, tasty, and natural.
For sure, \u2018traditional\u2019 is not a technical term and does not
indicate precisely defined attributes; it is rather routinely used as
a broadly agreed concept, with a not surprising share of subjective
interpretation. The term \u2018traditional food\u2019 encompasses a
series of different, overlapping, sometimes contrasting attributes,
with relation to the sociocultural and economic context.
Nevertheless, reaching a so-called objective definition of
traditional foods has been central in contemporary discussions,
even since traditional foods recently attracted the interest
of both industry and consumers, for different and, also in
this case, partially contrasting reasons.
These aspects will be shortly treated in this presentatio
Traditional foods and food systems: a revision of concepts emerging from qualitative surveys on-site in the Black Sea area and Italy
BACKGROUND: The European FP7 BaSeFood project included a traditional food study contextually analysing their function
in local food systems to stimulate consumers\u2019 awareness and indicate co-existence options for different scale exploitation.
Background concepts were (1) the available traditional foods definitions; (2) the theoretical background of food quality
perceptions; and (3) the different levels of food functions.
METHODS: Field investigations were carried out by face-to-face in-depth qualitative interviews with local stakeholders, in
the Black Sea region and Italy, on all aspects of traditional food production chains: raw materials, products, processes and
perceptions. Critical and intercultural comparisons represented the basis of data analysis.
RESULTS: Eight hundred and thirty-nine foods were documented. The direct experience perception of traditional food value
observed in local contexts is somewhat contrasting with the present European tendency to communicate traditional food
nature through registration or proprietary standards. Traditional foods are generally a combination of energetic staples with
other available ingredients; their intrinsic variability makes the definition of \u2018standard\u2019 recipes little more than an artefact
of convenience; cross-country variations are determined by available ingredients, social conditions and nutritional needs.
Commercial production requires some degree of raw material and process standardisation. New technologies and rules may
stimulate traditional food evolution, but may also represent a barrier for local stakeholders. A trend to work within supply
chains by local stakeholders was detected. Specific health promoting values were rarely perceived as a fundamental character.
The stable inclusion of traditional food systems in present food supply chains requires a recovery of consumers\u2019 awareness of
traditional food quality appreciation
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