Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
Funded under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), Mission 4 Component 2 Investment 1.3, Theme 10.
The differently-sweet-diet of the anthropocene
Coordinator
Aims at co-designing and testing different strategies aimed at increasing the purchase and consumption of healthy and sustainable food in supermarkets and alternative food networks.
A set of specific interventions addressing healthy and sustainable eating (including food waste reduction etc) in public canteens and out of home settings will be co-designed and then tested by engaging local users.
Report on tailored interventions’ design and testing for better home food procurement (M36)
Report on tailored interventions’ design and testing for public canteens (M34)
Report on tailored interventions’ design and testing in other out of home situations (M34)
Alongside the physiological dynamic of flavor perception, a range of factors play a role on basic taste shaping: indeed, far from being innate, flavors are deeply intertwined with contextual food habits and fads. This latter ones cannot be investigated without wide consideration of backdrop factors such as dietetic believes, product access, market integration and industrial technology. We know that every historical age has got its own likings and preferences, insisting on some basic flavors and disregarding some others (sour and spicy in the late Middle Ages, sweet and fatty in the modern and contemporary scenario, and so forth). Furthermore, we detect in the fermentation process one of the most effective links between flavors (notably sour-sweet and bitter-sweet) and will use it, in several forms, to shape an innovative diet.
The ‘differently sweet diet’ project aims at mapping prevailing flavors using the historical perspective and will focus on neglected fermented food practices and fermented products in order to rebalance the role of sweetness within the flavor spectrum.
Together with a theoretical frame dealing with historical development of prevailing flavors, the project will implement a number of actions to boost the ‘differently sweet foods’ as a benchmark for innovative dietetic patterns.
Through dedicated menus in public canteens with specific targets (notably in school and hospitals) the projects will adopt fermented foods and dishes to widen the range of flavors in target consumers and define an innovated ‘bliss point’ inspired by major concerns about public health.
