Frozen at the table for 9 out of 10 Italians, we eat 16 kg

(ANSA) - ROME, FEBRUARY 28 - Frozen foods arrived on our tables 60 years ago, to the point of becoming an integral part of the daily diet: today 9 out of 10 Italians eat them, who consume the record figure of 16 kg per year per capita, against 3 kg in 1980, for a continuously rising market value, which in 2021 is estimated at 4.8 billion euros.

The stages of this diet revolution are recalled by the IIAS - IstitutoItaliano Alimenti Surgelati, on the occasion of Frozen Food Day (March 6).

Since 1963, the perception of frozen food by consumers has radically changed: from an "emergency" resource and a "dinner-saving" solution to its widespread use as a utility for the whole family.

Allies also in times of pandemic and in the post-lockdown period, given that between 2019 and 2021 the increase in the purchase of freezers in Italy was +21%. And in recent years the total amount of frozen foods consumed in Italy has reached an all-time record of over 940 thousand tons.

"That of frozen products is the story of a food 'revolution', which has forever changed the way we eat and preserve food, allowing us to enjoy out-of-season vegetables and fruit, fish species from the most pristine seas or elaborate gastronomic preparations ready in just a few minutes Giorgio Donegani, president of IIAS, emphasized in a meeting in Milan, remarking how much innovation has characterized the path of frozen products, developing products that have become the emblem of the modern diet.

(HANDLE).