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| Authentic of large scale industrial production? Foto from this blog |
Most food publicity has been done by the big companies
selling their products on the world scale. Products which are usually so called
processed foods: some ingredients put together to create something which always
has the same flavor and appearance and which we all seem to like and which off
course contains a lot of fibers, less sugar or whatever can add up to your good
health. Things I usually don’t believe before I’ve read what else is in the
package. More fibers but also lots of sugar? Real chocolate but without a good
life for the farmer? Authentic flavor added through hypermodern chemicals?
Last weekend I visited a luxurious food event. It was set up
in a big room in one of Milans biggest museums
for modern art. Already from the posters which I’ve seen in the city I knew it
would be kind of posh.
The event was well sponsored. This wasn’t only visible on
the posters, flyers and the ‘Welcome to the event’ signs but also in the
program. Round table ‘discussions’ with three persons all from the same company
explaining how well they are organized, how many years they already produce
organic products, etc. doesn’t lead to real discussions. After 10 minutes I
couldn’t stand it anymore and walked away to have a look at the other stands.
Then something got my attention. I saw some flyers from
Italian producers producing typical
Italian products as it has been done for centuries. I suddenly realized
that during the last months I had already visited some events
where producers and vendors tried to sell me these kinds of products. And
sometimes I even believed it because it all looked so real, so original and so
well meant.
But this time I was skeptic. Normally commercial budgets are
only available for producers with high outputs and which can create a strong
(inter)national market position. Will that be different in Italy? I don’t know
but I don’t think so. A good product does sell itself. It doesn’t need to be
published in glossy magazines and flyers to be attractive.
So what did I learn? I need to be more careful. Not every
type of publicity is bad and means that I might be caught by a large producer.
But also not every producer telling us how authentic his product is, really is
authentic in a way that he produces on a small scale with only the help of his
family. But also this isn’t bad. Stay alert.
