A study visit from Friuli-Venezia Giulia to learn our regional good practices
A delegation from Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region was hosted in Emilia-Romagna on April 8 and 9 2024 as part of Foodis project (funded by Interreg Italy-Austria 2021-2027 programme) and in collaboration with Lowinfood project (funded by Horizon 2020 programme), of which Emilia-Romagna Region is a partner.
Emilia-Romagna Region has been promoting for many years measures to prevent food waste, for environmental protection and food recovery through different actions throughout its territory, thanks to the initiatives carried out by the Third Sector with the support of public institutions and the business world.
Among the regional good practices, there is the extensive experience with the S.I.R. (Sistema Informativo dei Ritiri), introduced over 12 years ago: this IT platform manages the distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables surplus and is considered as an innovation in the Italian and European scenario, as demonstrated by Lowinfood project.
Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region aims to create and implement, through the actions of Foodis project, a similar digital platform in the sector of solidarity food donations. Charitable organizations shall be provided with an effective digital tool, allowing a qualitative-quantitative monitoring of the redistributed products, thus improving volunteers’ workflow. The overall goal is the achievement of a balanced eating pattern (i.e. the set of foods that define the diet) for the final beneficiaries, on the one hand promoting health and well-being safety, on the other hand reinforcing food safety, environmental and social sustainability as recommended by FAO and WHO guidelines.
The study visit involved two sectors: General Directorate for Agriculture, Hunting and Fishing and the General Directorate for Personal Care, Health and Welfare. Each department shared with the guests the measures that were implemented for a sustainable and circular management of the food surpluses: in all cases they resulted in the creation of “solidarity supply chains”. On this topic, our Region published in 2022 the "Guidelines for the recovery, distribution and use of food products for social solidarity purposes" to provide standardized and clear rules to food companies, charitable organizations and local public officers in the field of Food Hygiene, Nutrition and Veterinary public health.
The second day was dedicated to a field demonstration of how the S.I.R. platform works during the weekly collection and distribution of fresh fruit and vegetables in Parma. Thanks to the collaboration of agri-food centres (CAL Parma in this case), the Region and the charities (CentoxUno – solidarity Emporium in this case), the logistic operations became much more efficient and the volumes of fresh products donated have been constantly increasing over time.
The participants in the study visit from Friuli Venezia Giulia were: Fondazione Agrifood & Bioeconomy FVG (FAB FVG); ASUGI (Giuliano Isontina Health Care Authority); Insiel S.p.A. (regional in-house ICT company); Paris Lodron University of Salzburg.