From 11 to 14 May 2026, on the occasion of Tuttofood, the international food & beverage trade fair held every two years, the Fiera di Milano was transformed into a showcase of the global food industry. From the durum wheat supply chain to spelt pasta, compostable packaging, a collection of designer jars, caciotte cheeses produced in prison, and mussel shells repurposed into Olympic running tracks.

We met entrepreneurs, marketing directors and sales managers, and listened first-hand to accounts of what is happening in terms of change within the food industry. What is clear is that, drawing on longstanding family traditions (such as preserving fresh vegetables in oil and water) and a more careful analysis of the consumer, food companies are building new production models centred on territory, respect for resources, people's needs and nutritional balance.

Organic and gluten-free

Among the Tuttofood pavilions, there is a company that leads Italy in the number of products reimbursable by the National Health Service (those available free of charge to people with coeliac disease). Healthion, as CEO Renato Calabrese explains, is a new food group and leader in the healthy food sector, with a strong focus on organic food, plant-based, clean label products (products made with natural ingredients and no additives) and gluten-free. "Healthion – Calabrese explains – is already distinguishing itself through a widespread presence in the pharmaceutical and parapharmaceutical channel, thanks to reimbursable gluten-free products, in a context where consumers are no longer looking for abundance, but for quality and wellbeing."

For Cerreto Bio, a leading company in the production of 100 per cent organic products, sustainability also involves other factors. "The company – Italy sales manager Claudio Ferrari tells us – has installed photovoltaic panels on the roofs of its facilities, capable of covering 100 per cent of its internal energy needs, and has introduced long-term electric rental cars for all commercial and managerial staff, while it offsets the emissions from air freight of products (especially spices) imported from abroad by funding certified projects (such as a wind energy project in India). The process is also monitored by the ClimatePartner certification, which requires measurable and progressive improvement in environmental performance year after year."

Pasta, wheat and packaging

In a stand conceived as an urban garden we find La Molisana, which is presenting at Tuttofood the new compostable pack for short pasta as well (the one for long pasta is already on the market). The material used is raw kraft paper, free of chemical treatments, with a front window made from 100 per cent regenerated cellulose, compostable and biodegradable, capable of breaking down into compost in under 90 days. Plastic has been completely eliminated. All this at a time when the company is decisively moving towards waste reduction and valorisation, the protection of biodiversity along agricultural supply chains, and the offsetting of residual emissions with LifeGate through "calculation, reduction and compensation" according to verifiable and ongoing criteria.

That pasta represents Italian identity is plain. So too is the challenge it must face today. "While our grandparents ate a lot of pasta – Sgambaro's general manager Claudio Costantini and president Pierantonio Sgambaro tell us – now it's eaten less and less. And the point is to make pasta a digestible and balanced dish once again. To do that, it needs to transform somewhat." The pasta maker Sgambaro was founded in 1947 in Cittadella, near Padova, with a clear purpose: to work with locally sourced wheat, reducing exposure to contaminants (the wheat does not pass through external silos), the carbon footprint and dependence on international markets. The most original wager concerns ancient grains: varieties that have remained largely excluded from modern selection processes, characterised by a lower glycaemic index, greater digestibility and a lower incidence of gluten intolerance.

Pasta remains appealing, even today. This is what Alessandro Borghese, celebrated chef and brand ambassador of Pasta Armando, confirms – a collaboration through which he helps create special bronze-drawn formats made from 100 per cent Italian wheat. "Pasta is Italian identity, expressed from north to south. Pasta Armando knows that Italian durum wheat is not in endless supply, but the supply chain must be sustainable for farmers, which is why a fixed price for the wheat is established. This gives those who work the land a sense of security and gives us the quality of the raw material."

Also speaking about pasta is the Consorzio Pasta di Gragnano Igp, together with the Consorzio di Tutela della mozzarella di bufala campana Dop, with a view to jointly telling the story of southern Italian excellence. "Pasta is among the food products intended for human consumption with the lowest ecological footprint, both in terms of gas emissions and water consumption – begins the Consorzio's promotion manager Giovanni Cafiero – but that is not enough. Indeed, the pasta makers of Gragnano are adopting photovoltaic systems and trigeneration plants (capable of recovering heat, cold and electricity from a single energy source) to make production more efficient. The raw material is a durum wheat semolina with at least 13 per cent protein, compared to the 10.5 per cent required by regulations. But we must be clear-eyed: the Igp designation does not impose any requirement on the origin of the raw material, so some large producers also source semolina from North America."

Mussel shells at the Olympics and designer jars

An interesting chapter concerns seafood products. The Sardinian company Cozze Nieddittas. Italy's first reality in mussel farming certified by the ASC (Aquaculture Stewardship Council) for responsible aquaculture, it farms mussels in the Gulf of Oristano in a cycle that begins at nurseries in the Sardinian sea and ends with distribution through large-scale retail and home delivery service.
But a significant role is played by waste and its recovery. "The shells of mussels that are broken, too small and unsellable – as Alessia Rosas of Cozze Nieddittas explains – are used to build an artificial islet in the Gulf, transformed into a refuge and nesting site for local wildlife. The most ambitious project, however, is the collaboration with Mondo for the athletics track at the Paris 2024 Olympics: the compound that makes up the purple surface incorporates mussel shells and was developed through three years of research into material composition and final performance. The result makes it possible to offset, in CO₂ terms, the equivalent produced by a car travelling 6,000 kilometres." A final portion went into a project with Laboratorio Eco Lab to create urban furnishing objects made from production waste materials.

A project similar in originality and visual impact is that of the designer jars, created by the company D'Amico, founded in 1968 in Pontecagnano, in the province of Salerno, and grown from generation to generation, consolidating its bond with the territory. "Each year – marketing & sustainability manager Maria D'Amico explains to us – some of the glass jars used to preserve the products are entrusted to a contemporary artist, Italian or international, who transforms them into design objects narratively linked to the company's history. For the fiftieth anniversary, the concentric circles created by a Campanian artist became a metaphor for the milestone achieved."

Sustainable fishing meets longevity-oriented nutrition in the case of Delicius, which is bringing the new cuor di sgombro (mackerel heart) to Tuttofood. Compared to the tuna supply chain — extremely long, global and energy-intensive — mackerel's is far shorter and more local, while combining key nutritional benefits such as omega-3s, vitamin D and protein.

"But sustainability goes beyond solar panels and recyclable packaging," says Federica Siri, marketing & trade marketing manager at Rizzoli Emanuelli. "That's why I like to talk about anchovy fishing and how it has remained essentially unchanged for 120 years: it is practised with lampara lights on moonless nights, using purse-seine nets that damage neither the fish nor the seabed. It's a choice that imposes strict production limits, but one the company considers non-negotiable.

On the question of oil, too, the company has taken a contrarian approach. Faced with the surge in olive oil prices, it neither reduced quality nor raised prices; instead, it commissioned a blind panel of gastronomers and university professors from the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche di Pollenzo. The study found that a blend composed of 90 per cent Italian seed oil and 10 per cent extra-virgin olive oil delivered a better balance than using olive oil exclusively in the preserve."

Ricotta by-products and the prison dairy

Zero waste. That is the mantra of Nonno Nanni, the long-established dairy company based in Giavera del Montello, where it has built a multi-layered system over the years. "We do use solar power, of course," says Luca Galuppo, marketing director, "but the most significant innovation is the biogas plant fed by scotta — the residual whey from ricotta production — which would otherwise be a waste product. The scotta is converted into energy, closing a cycle that starts with milk and ends with electricity generation. On top of that, there is a purification system for equipment-washing water, which is then reused in agriculture instead of being disposed of. CO₂ offsetting has been in place since 2004, when the issue was still largely overlooked, and today it covers the entire production of stracchino cheeses."

Also present at Tuttofood is Granarolo, Italy's largest and most important milk supply chain, with nearly 500 farmers spread across 11 Italian regions. Among its most notable recent initiatives is the dairy inside the Casa Circondariale Dozza in Bologna, where caciotte cheeses have been produced with the involvement of inmates. The choice of caciotta (distributed through Coop Alleanza 3.0 and Camst, in shops and catering services across the Bologna area) over mozzarella was deliberate: the cheese has a longer shelf life, requires ongoing care and, above all, allows participants to develop rare, market-relevant professional skills. Training a skilled cheesemaker takes years, which is why participants were selected from among inmates serving medium-to-long sentences, with a view towards vocational reintegration after release.