New Law in Sicily Protects and Promotes the Mediterranean Diet

In a first for Italy, a new regional law in Sicily for­mal­izes the role of the Mediterranean diet as a cru­cial part of the local iden­tity.

The Mediterranean Diet Recognition and Protection Act paves the way for a plethora of pub­lic and pri­vate ini­tia­tives to boost con­sumers’ con­scious­ness about the ben­e­fits of the Mediterranean diet.

The pur­pose of the new law approved by the semi-autonomous regional assem­bly is to pro­mote local agri­cul­ture and food pro­duc­tion at a national and inter­na­tional level, MedDiet edu­ca­tion, wine and oleo­tourism, enhance pub­lic health and encour­age envi­ron­men­tal pro­tec­tion strate­gies.

Support will be given to pub­lic and pri­vate ini­tia­tives whose aim is to inform the pub­lic about the MedDiet and the cul­ture behind it. Educational cur­ric­ula for schools and uni­ver­si­ties about the diet are also included in the law.

The over­ar­ch­ing goal of the law is to for­mally rec­og­nize the spe­cific con­nec­tion between Sicily and the Mediterranean diet, defined as ​“the pro­tec­tion of the his­tor­i­cal-cul­tural her­itage, expres­sion of the Sicilian ter­ri­tory iden­tity.”

A sus­tain­able lifestyle, respect for the land and expres­sion of the cohab­i­ta­tion of dif­fer­ent cul­tures are also cited as part of the local approach to MedDiet prin­ci­ples.

“The unique fea­ture of Sicilian food and cook­ing is that its tra­di­tion per­fectly over­laps with the prin­ci­ples of the Mediterranean diet: the choice of the ingre­di­ents, the use of locally-pro­duced food, the vari­ety of the col­ors of the local diet, which is mostly plant-based, and the extreme pop­u­lar­ity of olive oil in the house­holds,” Ettore Barbagallo, a pro­fes­sional olive oil taster and author of the Mediterranean diet sec­tion of the Etna Volcano Museum in Sicily, told Olive Oil Times.

“The whole Sicilian approach to food includ­ing its social aspects, his­tor­i­cally adhere to the Mediterranean diet,” he added.

The new law also funds the cre­ation of a multi-func­tional MedDiet museum and the open­ing of ole­ou­touris­tic strades (Italian for routes), a series of ini­tia­tives con­nect­ing regions and extra vir­gin olive oil pro­duc­tion. The idea is to facil­i­tate the tourists’ dis­cov­ery of high-qual­ity local prod­ucts and their diver­sity among the dif­fer­ent regions.

Such strades already exist for the pro­mo­tion of wine pro­duc­tion. Since the new national law on oleo­tourism was enacted, olive oil-related touris­tic ini­tia­tives also are flour­ish­ing.

The new law also allows for the coop­er­a­tion between these wine and olive oil net­works with other local food pro­duc­tion chains.

The new law also aims to rein­force pub­lic and pri­vate sec­tor coop­er­a­tion through the Mediterranean Diet Network Operators, which will encour­age local gov­ern­ments to work with all kinds of dif­fer­ent com­pa­nies to pro­mote the Mediterranean diet.

Furthermore, March 21 has been declared as the regional day for the Mediterranean diet as a uni­ver­sal her­itage by the new law, in explicit ref­er­ence to the diet’s inclu­sion on the list of World Intangible Heritage by UNESCO.

The law also refers to the social aspects of the Mediterranean diet, which are illus­trated at the base of the MedDiet pyra­mid.

“That is a very inter­est­ing part of the Mediterranean diet which is often ignored,” Barbagallo said. ​“The social role of the pyra­mid is exactly the social role of meals in Sicily and other south­ern regions of Italy, as eat­ing together expresses a unique form of social­ity that can­not be repli­cated in dif­fer­ent moments of the day, and it’s part of a healthy lifestyle.”

The new law also encour­ages local insti­tu­tions in Sicily to col­lab­o­rate with other pub­lic and pri­vate enti­ties across the Mediterranean basin to pro­mote the cul­ture of the Mediterranean diet and rein­cofrce its iden­tity across the region.

The role of extra vir­gin olive oil is rec­og­nized as cru­cial by experts in pro­tect­ing and nur­tur­ing the Mediterranean diet.

“Extra vir­gin olive oil has a unique pro­file,” Barbagallo said. ​“While olive oil is part of the tra­di­tion, more recently, Sicilians are begin­ning to explore the dif­fer­ences between the dif­fer­ent qual­i­ties of extra vir­gin olive oil. It is a trend. We see even younger gen­er­a­tions explore typ­i­cal prod­ucts, higher qual­ity prod­ucts, local prod­ucts.”

According to Barbagallo, the rea­son that MedDiet-related prod­ucts increas­ingly are appre­ci­ated is their recog­ni­tion as part of the local iden­tity.

“The con­nec­tion with the ter­ri­tory is highly felt,” he said. ​“Take, for exam­ple, Sicilian extra vir­gin olive oil, now rec­og­nized by the European Union with a Protected Geographical Indication. It is a pro­to­col which defines extra vir­gin olive oil only if locally pro­duced, a true recog­ni­tion of its con­nec­tion with the land and its cul­tures.”

Barbagallo also hinted at the need for local busi­nesses and farm­ers to fully under­stand and unleash the eco­nomic, social, healthy and envi­ron­men­tal poten­tial of the Mediterranean diet.

“Many still do not seem to get the role the Mediterranean diet can play in shap­ing our future,” he said. ​“More peo­ple are dis­cov­er­ing the healthy aspects of the MedDiet. What often gets neglected is the enor­mous poten­tial of the MedDiet in terms of cul­ture and envi­ron­ment. I hope this new law will help many to focus on this.”

The vice-pres­i­dent of the regional assem­bly and first sig­na­tory of the law, Angela Foti, said ​“the approval of such a law rep­re­sents a con­crete step 10 years after the MedDiet was included in the list of UNESCO Intangible Heritage.”

“Historically, Sicily is the place where a num­ber of dif­fer­ent pop­u­la­tions and civ­i­liza­tions have met,” Barbagallo con­cluded. ​“It is the exact cen­ter of the Mediterranean Sea where so many dif­fer­ent genetic codes coex­ist, tra­di­tions com­ing from many dif­fer­ent areas of the world which here have joined together, giv­ing form to a way of being, to a lifestyle which has a very spe­cial con­nec­tion to MedDiet.”

• ARS Sicily
• Palermo Today