Foie gras, one of the best-known and most prized products of French cuisine, is obtained through a disturbing practice known as "gavage" — that is, the force-feeding of geese and ducks. The birds are subjected to the forced administration of food through a tube inserted into the mouth and fed all the way down into the animal's stomach, so that the liver, used in the production of foie gras, grows to an enormous size.

In Italy the production of this food is prohibited, though the sale of French products is permitted. The animal rights organisation Essere Animali, after some activists had gained access to several farms in the Pyrenees to expose the horrors taking place there, launched the campaign #ViaDagliScaffali, calling on Italian supermarkets to withdraw these products from their shelves.

"In our country, supermarket chains such as Esselunga, Conad, Carrefour, Bennet, Auchan and Pam sell this product," reads the organisation's statement. "Even Eataly, which professes 'eating Italian, living Italian', distributes it in its stores. With a petition, we are issuing an appeal to these companies: stop selling foie gras — the suffering inflicted on these animals is indescribable."

The petition promoted by Essere Animali gathered almost sixty thousand signatures in one week, triggering the first significant change in the choices of a major supermarket. The Pam Panorama supermarket chain was indeed the first to join the initiative, halting the sale of this product across its 153 stores.

"We are very proud of our decision," declared Michela Airoldi, marketing director of Pam Panorama. "We reviewed the material shown to us by the Essere Animali organisation and we made the decision to stop distributing this product in our stores. We are certain that our customers will appreciate this choice too."

The reaction of the other supermarket chains is now awaited, yet it is becoming ever clearer just how important consumers are, whose purchasing power can influence the policies of companies.