About

The general concept of the project is to study dietary habits and adherence to MD in the targeted Mediterranean population (project partner countries) considering age, socio-economic status, gender, educational level, occupation, country, attitudes, and beliefs. The attention will be focused on people's nutritional and health status, food habits and possible nutritional inadequacies, MD adherence, and factors able to have an impact on the adoption of healthy nutritional practices. In addition, frequencies of food consumption will be deeply analyzed and knowledge regarding foods, nutrient content and their relationship with health conditions will be considered, making particular reference to dairy products and olive oil. Increasing consumers’ awareness of the nutritional properties of foods, the environmental impact of food choices, how to consume a balanced meal and cover nutrients needs is of fundamental importance. For this reason, new and healthy foods from EVOO and dairy products with enhanced sustainability, nutritional quality, acceptability, accessibility and attractiveness will be studied and designed to sustain people in covering nutritional needs promoting physical and mental wellness and to enable the placing on the market of new food products beneficial to health, easily marketable and therefore of interest to stakeholders. Particular attention will be directed to the circular economy and on reducing food waste. Indeed, beneficial food ingredients will be extracted through the use of green methodologies from organic waste (i.e. by using organic olive leaves, organic vegetables waste products, waste from cheese processing). Furthermore, flavor enhancement and taste correction will be achieved during food production thanks to microencapsulation procedures. Particular attention will also be paid to the shelf life of the products. In line with the Farm-to-Fork strategy and consumers’ expectations, the new foods will be produced using milk and oil produced by local farms that do not use pesticides during the production processes in order to support the transition to a more sustainable food system and improve food quality. Finally, whey from cheese processing will be used in the production of fermented beverages, in line with the concept of reducing food waste and using by‐products, in order to meet the circular economy's general idea.
In parallel, tailored and inclusive educational strategies will be developed to improve MD adherence and awareness toward healthy dietary behaviors, and to influence people on the beneficial impact of a healthy diet in agreement with the MD lifestyle, promoting physical and mental wellness, and decreasing obesity and diet-related non-communicable disease risk. An additional task of educational toolkits will be related to the new and healthy foods developed to favor their knowledge and use in the context of a healthy and sustainable MD.
Thus, specific toolkits will be designed from both a nutritional and social point of view by taking into account non-formal and innovative education methods. Different socio-economic groups will be targeted (by age, socio-economic status, gender, educational level, occupation, attitudes and belief). Schools, communities, small-medium enterprises (SME), and smallholders will be involved thus promoting diet and good nutritional practices at different levels from producers to consumers. In particular, it is important to underline that the existing network of stakeholders (including local farmers, smallholders, primary and secondary schools, universities, no-profit organizations, and retirement homes) will be involved during the project.