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A recent arti­cle in Italian news­pa­per La Stampa warned against the effects of adver­tis­ing on the eat­ing habits of chil­dren, cit­ing an International Health Organization report. Experts unan­i­mously agree that the food pref­er­ences of chil­dren have been going from bad to worse over the last few decades. 

In Italy, a coun­try known for its rich culi­nary her­itage and exquis­ite pro­duce, the great­est fear is that these tra­di­tions might even­tu­ally be sub­merged beneath the weight of media adver­tis­ing for for­eign, low-qual­ity processed foods. 

While some Italians may do lit­tle more than lament the likely demise of cen­turies of culi­nary tra­di­tion, Nicola Di Noia, an olive oil som­me­lier and agron­o­mist at the Italian farm­ers’ asso­ci­a­tion, Coldiretti, has decided to do some­thing about it. 

Di Noia’s work is a tes­ti­mony to his pas­sion for olive oil and he has begun to hold instruc­tional tast­ings with chil­dren as young as 4 years old. 

During a recent event, one-third of the atten­dees were the chil­dren of olive oil and wine enthu­si­asts, Di Noia said, but the rest were the sons and daugh­ters of ordi­nary Italians, per­haps look­ing for a way to share their rich culi­nary her­itage with the younger generation. 

As many par­ents sim­ply give up and often feed their chil­dren what­ever they want, Di Noia is try­ing to help kids dis­cover a whole new world of fla­vors and scents, and start­ing them on the road to bet­ter nourishment. 

The ques­tion is, can young chil­dren be taught to dis­tin­guish low-qual­ity olive oil from antiox­i­dant-rich extra vir­gin olive oil? And how can they ben­e­fit from that knowl­edge in the long term? Di Noia shared details of his unique expe­ri­ence with Olive Oil Times. 

OOT: Why did you start out with the olive oil tast­ings for kids?

Di Noia: Children are our future, it is impor­tant that they under­stand imme­di­ately that eat­ing prop­erly is essen­tial for their lives. Proper edu­ca­tion about nutri­tion should be a core sub­ject in schools. If chil­dren learn to dis­tin­guish good food from bad, they will surely live a bet­ter life. Extra vir­gin olive oil is essen­tial for a proper nutri­tion. Learning to rec­og­nize qual­ity EVOO oil is easy, and it can also be fun. Children are always ready to face new expe­ri­ences, they lack the con­straints and pre­con­cep­tions that often bur­den adults. If they learn from a young age how to use their sense of smell and taste, they will be able to choose bet­ter food through­out their lives. 

OOT: How was your first expe­ri­ence tast­ing with children? 

Di Noia: It was excit­ing. I tried it with a small group of chil­dren, who also included my own chil­dren, and their responses were enthu­si­as­tic and full of joy. I was encour­aged by this, and we started doing the first tast­ings in schools, and then we expanded to dif­fer­ent loca­tions, but we always made a point of cre­at­ing a wel­com­ing and relax­ing atmos­phere. We made the chil­dren feel at ease, so they could focus on olfac­tory recog­ni­tion activ­i­ties and the tast­ing of the oils. 

OOT: What do you want to achieve with these events? 

Di Noia: I wish to spread the cul­ture of qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil, and teach chil­dren that olive oils are not all alike. Raising aware­ness in chil­dren is also a way to rapidly reach their par­ents. When kids learn that rec­og­niz­ing qual­ity extra vir­gin olive oil is essen­tial for their health, par­ents become aware of it too. As a result, par­ents are more will­ing to search for qual­ity oils for the good of their chil­dren, who now have the abil­ity to appre­ci­ate them. Oils rich in polyphe­nols and antiox­i­dants can be rec­og­nized through sen­sory and scent analy­sis. They smell like cut grass, tomato, almond, and they reveal hints of bit­ter and spicy fla­vors when tasted. It is impor­tant to know these things, and it’s never too early or too late to learn. 

OOT: What kind of spe­cific responses do you get from the kids? Do they enjoy the events? 

Di Noia: For them, it is a lot of fun. They feel like they are play­ing a game. They not only learn how olive oil is pro­duced and stored, but they also redis­cover their senses, espe­cially smell and taste. During the tast­ings, chil­dren also have the oppor­tu­nity to smell nat­ural prod­ucts, such as grass, arti­chokes, and toma­toes. The idea is to famil­iar­ize them with the scents of these prod­ucts, so that they can redis­cover them in oil. The ses­sions are never too the­o­ret­i­cal. They com­bine knowl­edge with games. It is very impor­tant to make them inter­act, to get them to talk and judge foul smells, because they should also be able to tell when an oil is of poor quality. 

OOT: How has glob­al­iza­tion changed the diet of Italian children? 

Di Noia: Some mod­ern eat­ing pat­terns are unfor­tu­nately spread­ing an inap­pro­pri­ate diet. Children are eat­ing more and more snacks, which are very rich in sugar, inex­pen­sive, and read­ily avail­able, but they also dam­age their health. Advertising has changed our lifestyle and eat­ing habits in a deci­sive man­ner, espe­cially for chil­dren. Adults must help them make bet­ter choices, because it is too late later in life to reverse the effects of a poor nutrition. 

Coldiretti, with the aid of the Campagna Amica Foundation, is ded­i­cated to help­ing fam­i­lies make informed deci­sions about food, favor­ing local Italian pro­duce, and high­light­ing the need to con­sume sea­sonal prod­ucts. Children must learn to con­sume more fruits and veg­eta­bles and to pre­fer prod­ucts made with whole grain or unre­fined flours. 

Thanks to its scents and sen­sory char­ac­ter­is­tics, extra vir­gin olive oil can steer chil­dren towards foods that do not often attract them, such as vital legumes. Quality EVOO oil is a fruit juice with strong antiox­i­dant pow­ers. We should bring back the tra­di­tion of the old times, when instead of indus­trial prod­ucts, chil­dren used to eat bread and olive oil as a snack. 

OOT: What was the most unex­pected response you ever got from a child? 

Di Noia: After one of our tast­ings, a lit­tle girl went back in school and taught the whole les­son to her class­mates, leav­ing every­one speech­less, includ­ing the teacher! 

• The Guardian


• La Stampa