True Italian Taste

What is the “True Italian Taste”?

The China-Italy Chamber of Commerce engages in the promotion of the authentic Italian agricultural food products through the project “True Italian Taste”. This project is promoted and funded by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and carried out by Assocamerestero (the Association of the Italian Chambers of Commerce Worldwide) in cooperation with the Italian Chambers of Commerce abroad. “True Italian Taste” is part of the program "The Extraordinary Italian Taste".

The “Italian Sounding” phenomenon: why is important to promote the “True Italian Taste”?

The project aims at promoting authentic Italian products to hinder the issue of the “Italian sounding”. The Italian sounding phenomenon includes products with an Italian appearance, but not attributable to an authentic Made in Italy production chain. Consumers are misled into buying products that are not authentic Italian which damage the image of those authentically Made in Italy.

The CICC aims at protecting authentic Italian products through promotional actions raising awareness of the genuine Italian Food & Wine productions among Chinese consumers.

Through the planned activities, the CICC focuses on:

• Enhancing the authentic Made in Italy products and highlighting genuine Italian products and the link between agri-food excellence and its territory of origin;
• Help local consumers to recognize authentic Italian products compared to the Italian sounding ones;
• Supporting Italian SMEs in increasing their presence in the Chinese market through B2B meetings with local companies in the food&wine sector;
• Maximize the visibility of Italian companies already active in the local market.

How to recognize the products bearing the “True Italian Taste”?

The European Union set up some labels to identify and safeguard those agricultural food products which result from a unique combination of specific environmental conditions and human factors of a certain geographic area. Behind these labels there are specific quality norms that protect consumers, certifying the quality and uniqueness of the products.

With 293 agricultural food products recognized, Italy is by far the leading country in the EU in terms of production of quality food.

PDO – Protected Designation of Origin

This is highest level of certified and protected quality assigned by the EU to food products.
The PDO label is given to a product coming from a specific geographic area, certifying that it has been manufactured AND processed in that particular territory. There are currently 167 Italian PDO products recognized by the EU.

PGI – Protected Geographical Indication

This label is conferred to a product having some peculiar features related to a specific geographic area, where the product has been manufactured OR processed. The EU assigned the PGI label to 126 Italian products.

How do we promote the ‘True Italian Taste”?

2019 ACTIVITIES

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• The CICC also shared six videos to promote and enhance authentic Italian Food & Wine products among Chinese consumers. Such videos represent some recipes (oil and garlic pasta, bruschetta and frittata) and authentic Italian products (cheese, fresh and dry pasta, and Italian gelato):

                                          Aglio&Olio Pasta                                                             Mozzarella

                                             Bruschetta                                                                         Gelato

                                                 Frittata                                                                            Pasta

2020 ACTIVITIES

2021 ACTIVITIES

2022 ACTIVITIES

The CICC is planning new activities for 2022. The main target remains raising awareness on the genuine Italian Food & Wine productions among Chinese industry experts. 

To access our mini-program on WeChat, scan the QR code below: