The most virtuous school canteens are located in Fano, Cremona and Parma, followed by Jesi, which came second in the ranking of the best and made official with the presentation today in Rome, at the Chamber of Deputies, of the 6th Rating of Foodinsider's school menus, created in collaboration with Slow Food Italy. The study, supported overall by a survey by the Foodinsider School Canteen Observatory, aimed to promote and make visible those canteen models that do not aim to satiate, but to nourish, educate, create economic development and social in respect of the environment. With the widespread classification, it emerges that Bologna enters the top ten but Macerata drops, which has begun to close some ("on an experimental basis") kitchens inside the schools, "arousing - the researchers report - great disappointment of the parents ", while Syracuse rose 12 positions, redeeming itself from last year's black jersey. Among the negative notes of the survey it emerges that" there are more and more menus that offer processed and ultra-processed foods , going from 75.5% last year to 81.5% this year. "A datum - is explained with the survey - that goes hand in hand with the increase in the frequency of red meats with Terni holding the record of 10 proposals over 20 days of canteen". The analysts also point out that "canteens are increasingly becoming a collection of quick dishes that aim to satiate, such as plain pasta, pizza, sticks, hamburgers, croquettes,spreadable cheese, yoghurt and pudding and are less and less the real school canteen that has inherent the burden of educating, as well as feeding ". Finally, there are few canteens that face" rampant food poverty ", which affects more than one child out of 10 , used the school catering service to deal structurally with the fragility of families.
With Covid, the level of quality drops
The quality level of school canteens takes a step backwards compared to the period before Covid-19. In fact, during the pandemic period the use of plastic increases, the weight and quality level of the food proposed is lowered, food waste increases, and the staff assigned to the service is reduced. This is what emerges with the summary framework and the results of the 6th Rating of the school menus of the Observatory of the Foodinsider school canteens, created in collaboration with Slow Food Italy. The survey, conducted with the aim of promoting and making visible those canteen models that do not aim to satiate, but to nourish, educate, create economic and social development while respecting the environment, highlights in particular that "the parents could not see and control the management of the canteens, "because the Covid alibi kept them out of inspections. Only 7.9% - it is specified - of the panel of parents declared that they were able to carry out inspections regularly , 17% only a few inspections, and 75.1% were not allowed to enter the school to carry out the inspection ". "Unfortunately - confirms Francesca Rocchi of Slow Food Italy in commenting on the state of things - the lowest level of quality in the Covid period is due to an arbitrary application of the rules laid down by the Technical Scientific Committee which resulted in a low quality of the food proposed, a greater use of plastic and a downsizing of staff and an increase in food waste ". L'The survey conducted rewarded the cities of Parma, Cremona and Fano for good quality management.