Food for Thought: a waste food project, named “A good opportunity” (Una Buona Occasione), implemented by the Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta Regions (North-West Italy)

The Piedmont and Valle d’Aosta Regions (North West Italy) have been involved in the set-up of the project, “A GOOD OPPORTUNITY (“Una buona occasione”)”, coordinated by the Department of Management, Commodity Science Area, University of Torino ( Erica Varese coordinator of the scientific content). The scope of this initiative is the promotion of consumer awareness through a variety of tools i.e. a new design for rural economy to eliminate surplus production and, when necessary, the reuse of this surplus. Hopefully, all these activities will lead to a better management of the critical relationship between production and distribution operators, which includes, education on food consumption to reduce food waste in food services. One of the underlying causes of surplus lies in the incorrect interpretation of expiry dates. A total of 1,200 Italian families were interviewed about their understanding of “use by” and “best before” and most people were rather confused about the meaning. The main objective was that of changing the idea that the expiry date is not literally as such and that it does not mean that something which could have been eaten before that date has necessarily gone bad. To this aim, four operative stages were set-up.