Home » Frozen foods, the strange story of the asterisk in the menus that is not a legal requirement

Frozen foods, the strange story of the asterisk in the menus that is not a legal requirement

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There are not a few chefs to whom the asterisk on the menu, to mark a frozen ingredient, has cost heavy fines. Yet, there is no law that prescribes the obligation to indicate which dishes have been cooked with frozen raw material: “For the administrative legislation, no, but for the Italian criminal jurisprudence, yes – says Roberto Calugi, director general of Fipe, federation of public businesses – due to some causes dating back to the 60s, whoever fails to report it runs into the crime of commercial fraud: the penalty includes imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 2,065 euros “. For Fipe, it is “a completely anachronistic interpretation – says Calugi – which has remained anchored to past patterns and which fails to understand how freezing and freezing techniques have evolved over time, guaranteeing today a quality and a healthiness even higher than the product treated as fresh ». Spain, Greece, France: none of our three tourist competitors bordering the Mediterranean ask their restaurateurs to use the asterisk: «Does it mean that all the fish we eat in those restaurants has just come out of the sea? I think not, ”says Calugi.

Apparently, however, all this pointing the finger at the frozen food served at the restaurant does not seem to influence younger customers: according to a survey carried out by Bva-Doxa and presented yesterday by Iias, the Italian frozen food institute, two thirds of consumers (64%) in the choice of dishes, because the awareness that they are nutritionally comparable to fresh food has increased. «The asterisk – explains Giorgio Donegani, president of Iias – is information from a past world that no longer exists, which rested on the implicit belief that a frozen food was a lower quality product than fresh. To understand how wrong this idea is, just remember that frozen foods are so technologically advanced that they keep all the nutritional qualities of the fresh product intact. On the contrary, a fresh product such as a vegetable consumed a few days after harvest greatly reduces its nutrient content ».

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At home, frozen products are now an integral part of our eating habits, so much so that in 2020 the Iias certifies that we have exceeded 15 kg of per capita consumption per year for the first time. Italians choose them because they allow them to overcome the seasonality of fresh products (37%), they help fight food waste (36%); they are safe and traceable food (21%) and have the same quality as fresh products (19%). ). Furthermore, 92% of Italians declare that they use frozen ingredients in their home preparations when fresh analogues are not available or in season.

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