NUTRITIONAL VALUES
Italian PDO and PGI deli meats are outstanding Italian agriculture and food products, appreciated all over the world.
If taste, the link with the territory and the certified quality are inherent and recognised characteristics of protected deli meats, it is important to stress how much the Italian deli meat sector has been committed for many years to a process of improvement of the nutritional aspects that involve the whole production chain – from breeding to production technologies – in keeping with traditional recipes and processes.
Attention to issues of Nutrition and Health responds to the growing quest – by consumers – for quality and local specialities, together with the demand for products that fit in well with varied, healthy and balanced eating. Deli meats, and more specifically PDO and PGI productions, have unique qualities that fit in well with these trends.
Deli meats are an essential part of the Italian gastronomic tradition.
Combining taste, tradition, versatility, nutritional contribution and conviviality, deli meats are a suitable food, transversal to the whole population and different – always evolving – lifestyles and moments of consumption. The nutritional improvement of Italian deli meats – as proven by the first analysis in 2011 and confirmed by the 2017 update project carried out by the CREA (Research Center for Food and Nutrition, formerly INRAN) and SSICA (Experimental Station for the Canned Food Industry) – highlights a ‘renewed’ food category, increasingly aligned with the nutritional demands of the modern consumer and the dietary recommendations by the scientific community.
Italian deli meats can be considered as a category of food able to satisfy the taste and at the same time, they are compliant with the needs of a balanced diet. They also have some intrinsic characteristics that enhance consumption and make them suitable for all types of consumers and different moments of consumption: bond with the territory and tradition, versatility of use, ease of preparation and conservation and, last but not least, an innate conviviality.