How the Italian diet is changing, according to Nutricity

There is a great deal of talk about the evolution of Italians' consumption patterns, which is quickly reflected in their diet, with potentially significant implications for medicine or at least for health.
First of all, however, we would like to point out that consumption is a widely monitored phenomenon in our country, both by public health bodies and by renowned social research institutes and foundations (Censis above all).
It is also worth remembering that the observation of consumer behaviour is carried out regularly over the years, which makes it possible to develop representative analytical models, but also to interpret and partially predict behavioural changes in the light of social and economic shifts.

The most recent data and surveys highlight precisely the growing influence of economic factors, driven by the ongoing crisis, on Italian dietary trends. Simply publishing these updates is therefore rather pointless; from a medical and preventive standpoint, the essential objective is rather to understand whether the recent economic crisis has or has not undermined a dietary model (that of the Mediterranean diet) which has been steadily consolidating in Italy over the past 30 years.

According to what emerged from the now traditional gathering in Cernobbio, the forum organised by Ambrosetti-European House, which devotes a section to the problems of agriculture and food prepared by Coldiretti using Coop Italia data, Italian food consumption is said to have fallen by an average of 3%.
Two trends appear evident: on the one hand, an increase in the consumption of cheap foods (pasta +3.6%) and a consequent contraction for more expensive foods (meat -5.5% and fish -1%); on the other, a marked increase in purchases of "basic" products linked to "do-it-yourself" cooking, such as flour +8.3%, eggs +5.3% and butter +2.8%.
The same reading applies to the 7% drop recorded in purchases of sweets and candy, as well as chocolate (-3.3%), while ground coffee is up 3.3% and rusks and assorted biscuits up 5.9%. All symptoms of an economic squeeze pushing people towards more home-based lifestyles, with breakfast increasingly eaten at home.
Notably, the reduction in food consumption has not affected olive oil, which posted a +6.8%, a sign that "more domestic" food choices dictated by economic reasons have not dented a food tradition deeply rooted throughout Italy: the use of olive oil as the main condiment.

The comparison with the British situation is illuminating as to how the economic crisis of recent years has affected eating habits.
According to research conducted by Worldpanel Kantar for the well-known newspaper The Guardian, the cost of food in Great Britain has risen by an average of 32% since 2008, considered year zero of the current economic crisis. What is immediately evident is how the rise in prices has been reflected in eating habits, with 900,000 Britons giving up fruit and vegetables and turning to so-called junk food.

In the USA, it is estimated that the rise in food prices has meant a contraction in household spending on the "home pantry" (5.5% of family income), which in other words has led to growth in the consumption of fast-food products, with the consequence that 21% of the American national health budget in 2012 was allocated to medical care resulting from a diet based on cheap food with no regard for nutritional aspects.

From a strictly economic point of view, which interests us here only in part, it can be concluded that the demand for agri-food products is more price-elastic than commonly thought, and that substantial price variations can therefore have a heavy impact on consumption. But the data on Italy reveal an interesting element: the solidity of certain "good" eating habits (see the consumption of olive oil), which are deeply rooted and withstand economic hardship. Added to this is the rediscovery of do-it-yourself cooking as a way to guarantee a certain level of quality in product choices while saving on the production cost of the final product.
We would point out, however, that this is a very recent trend, dictated by the economic crisis. A 2005 Ismea-ACNielsen survey showed a substantial increase in meals eaten outside the home, albeit with ever smaller portions. Rising unemployment in Italy has probably provided one more justification for a return to home food preparation, although this fits into a long-term trend that over 20 years has seen the large-scale retail segment grow in Italy as well.

In conclusion, the news that recently caused such a stir — Coldiretti's announcement of a first sign of weight loss in the Italian population after more than 20 years of the opposite trend — finds, in light of the above, a perhaps better articulated explanation. The survey was conducted on ISTAT's historical series on "Italian consumption", which, as we have seen, is characterised by certain underlying trends (long waves) at times corrected or broken by contingent factors (economic and social crises).

Consumption is falling today as an effect of the crisis, and reduced attention to food quality can be taken for granted, although it emerges far less clearly in the substantial survey presented at the 2012 Ambrosetti Forum in Cernobbio.
In essence, under the pressure of inflation consumers have indeed turned to lower-quality products, but after more than twenty years of growing attention to food quality. As also confirmed by a report from the Ministry of Economic Development (Agri-food Consumption in Italy and New Technologies), Italian consumers are increasingly demanding about the quality of the products they buy, and the crisis has not erased this trend but, as the data presented in Cernobbio reveal, has brought the full weight of the price variable back into the equation.