Together with the emergence of attention to health and environmental sustainability among the drivers of choice for Italians, organic food is also finding more and more space on the menus of public establishments. This was revealed by an ISMEA survey carried out in collaboration with FIPE and AssoBio.
The survey was conducted in September and October 2022 in a representative sample of national bars and restaurants and collected over 2,000 telephone interviews.
Over the last year, over 50% of Italian bars and almost 70% of restaurants have offered or used organic foods, drinks and raw materials in their preparations, on various occasions for consumption, from breakfast to aperitifs to main meals.
Bars and restaurants, which bio?
Of the approximately 111,000 bars active in Italy, one out of two has partially oriented its offer towards items obtained with organic methods, with a higher incidence in the points of sale located in the cities of central and northern Italy and with more than 6 employees.On average, almost 20% of food and beverages offered at these establishments is made up of organic products, with a greater representation of fruit, milk and wine.
Breakfast and an aperitif have been indicated by the operators as the most suitable consumption occasions for the inclusion of organic proposals, while in terms of prices, the organic product is sold at almost 15% more than its conventional counterpart, due to higher procurement costs.
On the catering side, the data is even more comforting, confirming a high penetration of organic products which are used in as many as two thirds of the over 157,000 restaurants active on the Italian scene.
Even higher percentages are found in Central Italy (over 76%) and in the North West (69%), with a progressive increase in the incidence as the number of employees increases (from 60% in restaurants with only one employee to 81% of those with more than 49 employees).
Within these businesses, organic products represent over 30% of the value of purchases, with peaks of 42% in the case of vegetables and 34% of extra virgin olive oil. Also in this case the organic product generates a surcharge of almost 17%, always justified by a surplus in costs .
Side dishes and appetizers are the dishes in which the presence of organic products manages to be more significant, but in general, the restaurateurs interviewed reveal, organic can be used in the best way in almost all courses.
The future of bio in commercial catering
In relation to the prospects in the near future, over 80% of the restaurants and almost all of the bars interviewed state that they intend to confirm the current policy of purchasing organic products, in quantitative terms.Among the former, however, 13.5% could consider the choice of becoming an exclusively organic establishment, a figure which in the case of bars is reduced to 6%. (Source: https://www.foodandtec.com/ )