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In this article, I attend to how nineteenth-century Italian children's writer Collodi portrayed food, particularly in the schoolbook Il viaggio per l'Italia di Giannettino (Giannettino's travel throughout Italy). My analysis builds on recent contributions – such as Montanari's (2006), Ferguson's (2020), and Pezzotti's (2020), – that examined food and its related cultural background as significant indicators of character, whether individual, regional, or national. Scholars have turned their attention to how governments, writers or even communities employed food as part of material culture to consolidate imagined communities, or invent or recycle traditions. Existing analyses of the relationship between food and nationalism in Collodi's works have limited their focus to Pinocchio, and so have not considered Collodi's schoolbooks, which is what my article contributes to the scholarship. This article analyzes the substantial space Collodi dedicated to local foods in his schoolbooks. I argue that Collodi uses local foods to emphasize the importance of multiculturality as a valuable resource for national bonding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on soy sauce exports from Hong Kong to the United States, this article traces the origin of the 'Made in Hong Kong' label to the US-led embargo on Chinese goods during the Korean War and explores the repercussions the recent Sino-US conflict generated on the label. By examining the history of an enterprise embroiled in two episodes of global trade disruptions, this article reveals how politically motivated US trade policies steered businesses in Hong Kong to pursue commercial opportunities by leveraging geopolitics, both global and local. Strategically capitalizing on Hong Kong's position during the Cold War that allowed local exports to the United States, Hong Kong entrepreneurs created an international product chain. When the latest Sino-US trade war erupted, Trump's elimination of the distinction between China-made and Hong Kong-made exports coincided with a wave of local consumerism in Hong Kong and unintentionally imbued meaning into homegrown products. From a commercially expedient marker aimed at satisfying the US government's anti-China trade requirements, the 'Made in Hong Kong' label has recently been repurposed as a badge of local pride and perseverance as Hong Kong/mainland tension escalated. Necessitated by global trade policies and infused with connotations of shifting geopolitics, the malleable 'Made in Hong Kong' label signified not only reactions to US policies but also fluid Hong Kong/China relations. In successive rounds of US-initiated trade disruptions, the place-of-origin label reflected Hong Kong's changing place in global geopolitics and the city's position vis-à-vis the PRC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we provide a framework for studying the ways in which food endures the passage of time. Central to our inquiry is the following Duration Question: when is it that the predicate-schema "Is an X-Food," where "X-Food" stands for a certain type of food (e.g., Champagne, yoghurt) ceases to apply to an entity? We show that the answer depends on two independent theoretical aspects: the underlying conception of food and the kinds of change that a specific food can undergo. We then argue that specific answers to the duration question should take the form of conceptual rethinking among different stakeholders (e.g., producers, consumers, institutions), where philosophers would feature among the experts guiding the negotiation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We cannot underestimate the importance of food in schools, yet in the education sector, we have. Despite increasing societal focus, broad attention to food in schools remains largely missing from mainstream education research, and teacher education more specifically. This paper is a contribution in emerging scholarship that critically considers food in education research by arguing that food in schools is a crucial area generally overlooked by the field of teacher education. This paper articulates my experience incorporating food within teacher education, through the design and teaching of a course entitled "Food and Schools" for education undergraduate students at a flagship state university. I highlight major course themes and aspects and key insights from students and conclude with considerations for teacher education programs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eating local food has become a mainstream proxy for virtue and a reliable model of sustainable dieting. It suffers, nonetheless, from genuine criticisms and limitations. In this paper, we suggest theoretical amendments to reorient the local food movement and turn eating local into a robust concept—comprehensive, coherent, and inclusive, affording a firm grip over structural aspects of the food chain. We develop our argument in three parts. The first contends that 'local' can be said of lots of entities (e.g. whole or multi-ingredient foods, recipes, menus) and that its meaning varies depending on which entities are under consideration. The second examines three dimensions of being local: the distance from the place of production; the geographical origins; the social links to consumers and producers. The third presents our robust conception of eating local, grounded on a more realistic model that accommodates for heterogeneous and complex actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fermented foods have a valuable and positive impact on food security and prove to be an efficient way for improving food shelf life, reducing cooking time, preventing spoilage, and thus reducing waste. Keywords: Lebanese food; Spontaneous fermentation; Food identity; Traditional food; Microbial diversity; Deliberative democracy EN Lebanese food Spontaneous fermentation Food identity Traditional food Microbial diversity Deliberative democracy 589 600 12 07/12/22 20220601 NES 220601 The Challenge to Traditional Fermented Food and Beverages We address the crucial challenge for fermented food and beverage production of achieving the quality currently expected by international health and economic standards in terms of safety, nutritional values, and process manageability, without threatening the survival of the products and compromising their identity. Laban is a nutrient-dense fermented food containing bacteria and various macro- and micro-nutrients along with bioactive metabolites derived from fermentation. [Extracted from the article]

Featured Application: The data presented here recommend a systematic analytical flow based on a metabolomic approach to be applied for different foods, food bioresources or byproducts valorization, identifying the profile of valuable components, including phytochemicals, as authenticity biomarkers and health-promoting molecules. Functional vegetable oils are highly considered not only for their nutritional value, but also for their health benefits. The profile of phytochemicals responsible for their quality is useful also for the identification of possible mislabeling or adulteration. The comparative composition of eight categories (sunflower, pumpkin, hempseed, linseed, soybean, walnut, sea buckthorn and olive) of commercial vs. authentic oils was determined. Fatty acids, volatiles, carotenoids, tocopherols, and phenolic components were analyzed by gas- and liquid chromatography-based techniques coupled with diode array, mass spectrometry, or fluorescence detection. Classification models, commonly used in metabolomics, e.g., principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, hierarchical clusters and heatmaps have been applied to discriminate each category and individual samples. Carotenoids, tocopherols, and phenolics contributed mostly, qualitatively, and quantitatively to the discrimination between the eight categories of oils, as well as between the authentic and the commercial ones. This metabolomic approach can be easily implemented and the heatmaps can be considered as "identity" cards of each oil category and the quality of commercial oils, comparative to the authentic ones of the same botanical and geographical origin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper was to establish a food identity for one of South Africa’s least visited provinces, the Free State Province. Twenty-nine qualitative responses were obtained via structured interviews from tourism government and tourism association employees, local restaurateurs, local food and drink producers, local residents and a local historian. Key findings indicate that the Free State’s food identity can be described as hearty, comfort food cooked from ingredients typically found in the Free State, using recipes and preparation techniques passed on from generation to generation in Basotho and Afrikaner families. Meat and beer emerged as fundamental local items to be focussed on and promoted. Implications of the study include local tourism stakeholders gaining knowledge of which food items to promote as Free State food. The study shows that food tourism can assist in growing the tourism sector in the Free State, the development of a food tourism route and lead to the creation of a new tourism brand focussing on typical Free State food. Key literature contributions of this study include closing a literature gap by further studying food tourism in South Africa and establishing a determination process of authentic food identities for any destination.

Current generations have been strongly influenced by mass communication and massive immigration flows, which may change local lifestyles and perceptions of inhabitants towards traditional foods and beverages (TFBs). TFBs constitute a core element of the cultural identity of a country, although some of them are losing their appeal. In this study, the authors explored the TFBs perceptions of inhabitants in nine countries to determine if their food identity is changing by analysing the TFBs most frequently mentioned by different age cohorts within a country. Six countries were found to have a distinctive core of TFBs shared across age cohorts (homogenous), whereas the remaining showed a heterogeneous pattern. Correspondence and cluster analyses usually grouped younger generations together implying higher similarities among these cohorts. Furthermore, the binary logistic regression analyses performed identified significant differences in the probability of mentioning a specific TFBs across age cohorts per country. Data collected show younger cohorts focusing on TFBs categorised as snacks and foods on-the-go, whereas older cohorts more often refer to time-consuming savoury preparations. The results suggest that lifestyles and current societal trends in food consumption, for example, convenience and healthiness, are impacting the food culture and identity of countries, and therefore play an important role in the variation of TFBs perception and consumption between age cohorts within countries. The results obtained in this study could not only be used by food policymakers and nutritionists to distinguish the current trends that are reshaping the food identity and eating behaviours of the population but also to improve or develop new dietary strategies by age cohorts in the countries studied.

Commensality is a term that has been used by social scientists to address the practices that lead people to share a meal at a common table. Recently, food scholars have focused beyond the actual act of sharing a meal to specifically study the networks of relationships that come together to make this sharing of a meal possible. Through the analysis of three food-centered oral histories I gathered in 2018–2019 for El Paso Food Voices digital project, part of the Institute of Oral History at the University of Texas at El Paso, I illustrate how an individual's evolving relationship with food gives form to everyday commensalities. To understand the kinds of social transformations that emerge at the personal, familial, and community level, I am calling these commensalities ancestral, embodied, and responsible. The stories I present emphasize how each individual reached a turning point that changed them as cooks, infused food with culturally specific symbolism and socio-economic realities, and transformed cooking into an act of social responsibility. The overall goal is to stress that food is transformative and acts of significant social change are experienced through individuals' everyday culinary practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Functional vegetable oils are highly considered not only for their nutritional value, but also for their health benefits. The profile of phytochemicals responsible for their quality is useful also for the identification of possible mislabeling or adulteration. The comparative composition of eight categories (sunflower, pumpkin, hempseed, linseed, soybean, walnut, sea buckthorn and olive) of commercial vs. authentic oils was determined. Fatty acids, volatiles, carotenoids, tocopherols, and phenolic components were analyzed by gas- and liquid chromatography-based techniques coupled with diode array, mass spectrometry, or fluorescence detection. Classification models, commonly used in metabolomics, e.g., principal component analysis, partial least squares discriminant analysis, hierarchical clusters and heatmaps have been applied to discriminate each category and individual samples. Carotenoids, tocopherols, and phenolics contributed mostly, qualitatively, and quantitatively to the discrimination between the eight categories of oils, as well as between the authentic and the commercial ones. This metabolomic approach can be easily implemented and the heatmaps can be considered as “identity” cards of each oil category and the quality of commercial oils, comparative to the authentic ones of the same botanical and geographical origin.

Meat and, less so, dairy are contested for their significant ethical and social‐ecological impacts. Abjuring animal products, veganism is conventionally treated as a dietary ideology related to consumer identities. Drawing upon practice and materialist turns, this article explores variations in the performance of veganism and how its boundaries are drawn. Yet, rather than an eating practice, I suggest to look at veganism more broadly and conceptualised as a food practice which also involves provisioning. By example of stockfree organic agriculture (SOA), a production‐based, processual understanding is outlined by which plant foods are 'vegan' if animal by‐products are not used as fertilisers in crop cultivation. Thereof, a conceptual case is made to shift the focus away from veganism as a consumer identity and towards performative vegan food practices (VFP) as a global responsibility to reduce the 'long shadow' of livestock and maintain Earth as a relatively safe operating space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This review provides an overview of the importance of good manufacturing practices in the elaboration of artisanal products, aiming to generate a discussion about this subject. The elaboration of artisanal food has been gaining prominence in several countries of the world since these products carry the identity and culture of a place. The traditional and artisanal way of manufacturing provides the food with a variation in its characteristics, which makes it peculiar in comparison to its similar, pleasing the most diverse demands of consumers. In addition, they are considered healthier and natural foods. In the Northeast of Brazil, these products are highlighted by the significant commercialization, being sources of income generation for the region. Among the most prominent products are the coalho and butter types cheeses, bottled butter and carne de sol. Despite the economic and cultural importance of these products, the traditional way of manufacturing, without proper hygiene care, can be a limiting factor for the formal commercialization of these products. Therefore, adopting good manufacturing practices at artisanal food processing places may be the first step towards the production of higher quality products that meet the requirements of the legislation but retain their artisanal manufacturing characteristics.

The migration of the Chinese community to Malacca in the 16th century has enabled the process of cross culturing and culinary acculturation, producing a unique mixture of Baba Nyonya food. Even though Baba Nyonya food is pretty much has been localised (Malay), its Chinese representation cannot be denied. This study aims to assess how the acculturation of the Baba Nyonya community affects Malacca food identity. A quantitative methodology is employed in this study. This study classifies Baba Nyonya food acculturation through (1) types of food; (2) methods of cooking; (3) ingredients; and (4) eating decorum. From the regression analysis, this study found that Baba Nyonya cultural polarity explains significant variation in the formation of Malacca food identity. This study then elaborates on the importance of Baba Nyonya food in Malacca destination branding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Salts are available in different grades and in a wide price range. Some contain more impurities than others, while some have special culinary traits that determine their identity. Acoustic profiling, which is based on the 'hot chocolate effect', may provide an interesting strategy to characterise salts of various origins to underpin their identity. In this study, the link between the identity of 60 food grade and technical salts and their acoustic properties was examined by Broad Acoustic Resonance Dissolution Spectroscopy. In particular, the influence of the composition of the salts and the impact of the salts' particle size distributions on their acoustic profiles were examined. Sodium and potassium contents were measured by flame photometry and the salts' particle size distributions by laser light diffraction. Reference salts (NaCl, KCl, MgCl 2) and mixtures thereof were analysed for comparison, as well as intact and ground versions of the salt samples. The results show that both the composition and morphology of the salt crystals determine the down-slope of the resonance frequency, which is caused by the rate of release of entrained and dissolved gas. Coarse salts with high levels of non-NaCl constituents showed a rapid decline in sound frequency, which corresponds to a high gas release rate. On the other hand fine salts composed of pure NaCl revealed a slower change in sound frequency and thus lower gas release rates. The frequency minimums were however not affected by the salts' compositions nor particle size distributions. It is primarily the particle size distribution that affects the rate at which gas is released, and thus the change in sound frequency. Only when the particles are more similar in size, the composition also starts playing a role. Since both particle size distribution and composition is unique for each salt, the various salts show distinct acoustic profiles. Evidently, the current study shows that 'listening' to the sound of salts reveals interesting information about their identity and origin. Graphical abstract Unlabelled Image Highlights • The acoustic profiles of various food and technical grade salts were determined. • Salt composition and morphology affected the acoustic traits of the salts. • NaCl, KCl and non-NaCl components influenced the gas volumes released. • Coarse salts had a different sound frequency curve than fine salts. • BARDS is an effective tool for salt profiling and identification. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since Lévi-Strauss' declaration 'good to think, good to eat,' the social sciences have supported the idea that foods first have to be edible for our minds and only subsequently physically digested by our organism. If so, then it is culture that creates the categories that we use to classify foods. But, with the process of nutrionalization, food is understood as a collection of biochemical nutrients that are necessary in order to achieve the balance needed to live a long and healthy life. The categories scientists use to classify our foods have changed considerably. This fact implies an important qualitative change in our perception of food and our diet in its totality. With food technology, nutrition and genetics food identification (identity?) escapes the reach of today's citizens as members of each respective culture. In any case, even if our primary preoccupation seems to be exclusively nutrit ional, and today it is very easy to 'modify' the foods we eat and create new combinations to 'improve' our diet, we must not forget that those food habits that are damaging our health are also determined by sociocultural factors because when we 'modify' the original composition of a food, it seems that we are acknowledging the importance of such sociocultural factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research investigates the perceived images that “typical” Australian dishes evoke in the minds of consumers, including words they associate with descriptions of typical Australian dishes. A questionnaire designed and distributed among undergraduate students at various universities yielded 561 usable responses. Three predominant responses were associated with typical Australian dishes: grilled/barbequed meats, steaks, and meat pies. In addition, Australian dishes evoked four different images among respondents: positive (related to specific images e.g., barbequed foods), neutral, negative, and food related. Overall, the findings underline a limited knowledge. Consumer education could help broaden understanding and enhance images of the country’s culinary attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Celebrity chefs foster a relationship of intimacy with consumers, compounded by presenting styles, social media and the opening up of their personal lives. These intimacies are extended into domestic spaces through material objects such as kitchen equipment, specialist ingredients and cookbooks, which are brought into the home. This article interrogates the ways a group of UK consumers interact with this “stuff” of celebrity chefs and explores the ways these interactions (re)produce chefs and make them present in consumer homes. As such, it elucidates how focusing on the material objects that consumers personalize and associate with a celebrity chef can provide new insights into assessing the ways such chefs influence food and eating practices, as well as showing how these objects enable consumers to actively produce their food identities and social relations. As these relations are social and economic, attention is drawn to the manner in which the fostering of intimacies can obfuscate commercial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The diversity of species assemblages which occupy a basal position in the trophic pyramid (typically unicellular algae in aquatic environments) is known to influence the interaction with organisms of higher trophic levels. A laboratory feeding experiment was conducted with cultures of three benthic diatom species (Navicula phyllepta, Grammatophora marina and Cylindrotheca closterium) as primary producers and three harpacticoid copepod species (Harpacticus obscurus, Paramphiascella fulvofasciata and Tigriopus brevicornis) as grazers to evaluate the effects of food diversity (and concomitant food availability) on grazing selectivity. This kind of selectivity experiments is singular for benthic harpacticoid copepods as so far, information on food selection of harpacticoids is scarce. Uptake of a unispecific food source by a single copepod species decreased as food diversity (and concomitant overall food concentration) increased. All three consumers reacted similarly to changing food diversity, but exhibited strong species-specific responses to food identity i.e. which diatom was added was crucial. Irrespective of level of food diversity, H. obscurus took up high amounts of G. marina, whereas both P. fulvofasciata and T. brevicornis preferred C. closterium when given the choice between different diatoms. As for zooplanktonic taxa, this experiment showed that in lower benthic marine food webs both prey organisms (primary producers) and grazers play a very specific role. Diversity of food and its identity are of critical importance at the base of the trophic pyramid, influencing trophic transfer from primary producers over grazers to higher trophic levels. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Current generations have been strongly influenced by mass communication and massive immigration flows, which may change local lifestyles and perceptions of inhabitants towards traditional foods and beverages (TFBs). TFBs constitute a core element of the cultural identity of a country, although some of them are losing their appeal. In this study, the authors explored the TFBs perceptions of inhabitants in nine countries to determine if their food identity is changing by analysing the TFBs most frequently mentioned by different age cohorts within a country. Six countries were found to have a distinctive core of TFBs shared across age cohorts (homogenous), whereas the remaining showed a heterogeneous pattern. Correspondence and cluster analyses usually grouped younger generations together implying higher similarities among these cohorts. Furthermore, the binary logistic regression analyses performed identified significant differences in the probability of mentioning a specific TFBs across age cohorts per country. Data collected show younger cohorts focusing on TFBs categorised as snacks and foods on-the-go, whereas older cohorts more often refer to time-consuming savoury preparations. The results suggest that lifestyles and current societal trends in food consumption, for example, convenience and healthiness, are impacting the food culture and identity of countries, and therefore play an important role in the variation of TFBs perception and consumption between age cohorts within countries. The results obtained in this study could not only be used by food policymakers and nutritionists to distinguish the current trends that are reshaping the food identity and eating behaviours of the population but also to improve or develop new dietary strategies by age cohorts in the countries studied., Competing Interests: The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest., (Copyright © 2021 Frez-Muñoz, Kampen, Fogliano and Steenbekkers.)

Malaysian cuisine presents an array of local gastronomic inventions that represent the cultural diversity and uniqueness of the national cultural heritage. However, it is difficult to gauge Malaysian cuisine based on the country's multicultural and multiracial "highly diverse" landscape due to the perplexities of each culture. These complexities have influenced the modernisation movement to revolutionise traditional Malaysian cuisine into a new invention called "Modern Malaysian Cuisine". This review intends to reveal the ideology of modernisation in Modern Malaysian Cuisine, that is, to identify the part of the cuisine that has been "modernised" and to determine whether or not this newly invented cuisine portrays the national identity. Additionally, this review addressed the challenges of precisely defining "Modern Malaysian Cuisine". The findings of this review can help policymakers uphold the Malaysian food identity and minimise the encroachment of other non-Malaysian cuisines in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Open since 1938, La Binerie Mont-Royal is a tiny restaurant in Le Plateau Mont-Royal in Montréal. This ordinary and unpretentious establishment became famous in the 1980s with the novel and the movie Le Matou. Since then, the restaurant is a tourist destination that offers the experience of another time and authentic Quebecois food. This article proposes to analyze media discourses to explore the construction of the image of La Binerie as an attractive space of traditional and food identity. The emergence of this identity cannot, however, be understood without placing it in a general context of a quest for national identity, the repositioning of Quebec gastronomy and the rebirth of a popular district.