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