What do Modica PGI Chocolate and PDO Grana Padano have in common? Parma Ham DOP and Balsamic Vinegar of Modena IGP?
They are all Italian food excellences. But their common denominator, tastes aside, is called "trust". When we eat them…we know what we are eating. But few know that behind this certainty – very reassuring, in its context, in an era of general uncertainty – there is a very rigorous system of certification of the quality of agri-food products.
Which, moreover, is the only barrier to the spread of imitations, alitalían sounding” (the one for which in Holland they pass off “spagheroni” as spaghetti and in Germany Zottarella as mozzarella) which drains (translated: steals) 100 billion of potential higher exports from Italian producers.
Well: 51% of all Italian Geographical Indications, whether PDO, PGI or STG, are checked and certified by CSQA, the sector's leading certification body, a sort of "star shield" to guarantee the authenticity of food products (and not only that, as we will see), which today "filters" and guarantees the supply chain and the quality of production processes.
«The food industry is a wonderful heritage for our country, but it is very fragmented», explains Pietro Bonato , Director General of CSQA, «so if certifying the processes and products that produce the big – giants seems relatively simple, certifying typical cheeses means, for example, going around the thousand Italian valleys, meeting hundreds of small producers who contribute to the production of that specific product…
Think that for Grana Padano DOP, the flagship product of Made in Italy, over 200 different dairies are involved in the production! Which then, in this as in other cases, create a system through the Protection Consortia, or rather the Italian way to industrial critical mass».
Welcome to Thiene, half an hour's drive from Vicenza, the Italian capital of quality. Here, in the headquarters and in the 13 branches that the Organization has throughout Italy, 270 super-experts – average age 37, 70% women, with a very low turnover – supported by over 500 Auditors, guarantee us the quality of Italian food production. In other words: they certify the "quality of life", or at least one of its fundamental elements, nutrition. (Source: Sergio Luciano, https://www.economymagazine.it /)
All the good to be certified