The right price of what we eat

Have you ever wondered if the price we pay for what we eat is what it should be to have a quality product with the expected characteristics?

This question obviously concerns everything we buy: from clothes to our smartphone. But in food the issue is more delicate since it directly affects our health .

The low cost of a food product is not always attributable to a greater production efficiency of a company or access to a lower labor cost (for example in Morocco the salary of a worker is five times lower than that of an Italian worker). But the reasons can be different:

• Use of low-cost illegal labor : There has been much discussion about the phenomenon of gangmastering in Italy, due to the illegal hiring of often clandestine labor, in practice a form of slavery.

• Poor quality or counterfeit products : the origin of the products may not be as indicated on the label (for example, tomato sauce produced in China instead of Italy) or the final product may have been obtained with chemical adulterations (e.g. oil sold as extra virgin olive oil when in reality it is refined oil).

• Agricultural production in countries with less stringent legislation on pesticides: in the European Union and even more so in Italy, there is very stringent legislation on the use of pesticides (hormones, insecticides, etc.), the use of which allows for greater production and a reduction in waste, but to the detriment of the healthiness and often also the quality of the products (this happens for example in fruit imported from developing countries).

Large-scale distribution plays a fundamental role in determining prices, being one of the main places where food products are sold, thus also influencing what is the perception of correct prices by customers. Unfortunately, it happens that they exert a lot of pressure to keep purchase prices low from their suppliers, sometimes indirectly forcing them to use practices that are quite questionable towards the environment or workers in order to remain on the market.

For example, years ago Wal Mart, the giant of large-scale retail trade in the United States, was accused of having polluted the ocean in Chile due to intensive salmon farming. In fact, judging the price of wild salmon from Northern Europe too high, Wal Mart had encouraged the creation of intensive farms in Chile. The result? A price of salmon four times lower, but to the detriment of the quality and healthiness of the final product: use of hormones, poor cleaning conditions in the farms (the fish swim in their own excrement), high pollution of the sea.

One of the products that has come under fire in this period is extra virgin olive oil . On average, consumers think that the price of a bottle of extra virgin olive oil is even less than 5 euros as we are used to from some brands that we see in supermarkets. But in reality that does not even constitute a part of the cost that an oil producer who uses Italian olives supports.

When you consume a product it is better to try to buy the one with the highest quality , perhaps of which you know the origin and the production method . This is for the benefit of both your health and your palate.