HOST: Italian Bread Consumption Is Adapting to New Trends

People have cut down their consumption of bakery products, but now care more about the quality and variety of what they eat. According to Nielsen the market share reaches 87.9%.

The Italian producer Coldiretti tells, according to Host Milano, that per capita consumption is in free fall: amounts consumed have apparently halved over the last ten years and in 2015 alone purchases fell by 3%, with a consumption of 85g per person per day. Boutique bakeries and designer bread shops are popping up the length and breadth of the country, many of them now with tables to let people enjoy what they have bought there and then on the premises, with coffee on offer and a range of products to satisfy the most demanding palate. There is growing interest in organic bread, and the rise in dietary disorders has resulted in the appearance of many new gluten-free products, involving the use of alternatives to wheat (kamut, teff, quinoa) as the basic cereal used to make the flour.

Italians are simply not willing to forgo their baked food items. According to Secondo AIDEPI, the Italian Association of Pasta and Confectionery Industries, Italy turned out no less than 1,123,000 tonnes of sweet and savor bakery products in 2014, worth a total of EUR 5.42 billion. Exports make up a sizeable proportion of sales, accounting for 31% of the total, or 41% of the total by volume. Here too, though, the focus is on the use of alternative, healthier cereals with lower levels of fats and salts.

Pizzas never go out of fashion, especially the traditional Neapolitan version, which the Italian commission has put forward for inclusion in UNESCO’s prestigious cultural heritage list. The aim, ultimately, is to save it from the poor imitations found abroad, and prevent a “dumbing-down” of a product that was born of the expertise and imaginative creativity of the first piazz aioli in Naples. 

There is now also a gourmet version, which is growing in popularity: it is healthier than the original version since it is made using wholemeal flour and mother yeasts, as well as featuring toppings borrowed from high-end catering. According to FIPE – the Italian Federation of Public Establishments – the pizza business generates annual sales totaling EUR 5.3 billion, through the country’s 25,000 pizzerias, establishments that give employment to 150,000 people and turn out some 900 million pizzas every year.