Mass tourism in Portugal is threatening the identity of local cuisine and accelerating the consumption of ultra -processed foods, a study conducted by ambassadors of the European Climate Pact revealed.
“Tourism should be a motor of valorization of regional gastronomy, but is reinforcing homogenized and less healthy eating patterns, endangering the gastronomic identity and food security of the regions,” warned the ambassador of the European climate pact, Amelia Delgado, who coordinated the study.
The Food and Tourism Nexus Study, Challenges and Opportunities` indicated that increasing food prices, especially in times of great tourist affluence, has led to replacement of local and seasonal products with standardized alternatives, aligned with visitors’ habits.
According to the ambassadors of the European climate pact, the Portuguese dietary identity may be at risk, “if no urgent measures are adopted.”
The European Climate Pact appealed to the National Association of Portuguese Municipalities (ANMP) to “assume a central role in the promotion of policies that integrate food sustainability in municipal planning”.
“A has the responsibility to mobilize municipalities to protect food culture and ensure the appreciation of regional products.”
According to the researcher specializing in food science, tourism can and should be an ally of sustainable traditional cuisine.
However, “without a clear strategy, it will continue to accelerate the replacement of local products, which monetizes natural heritage.”
The replacement of local products is done by ultra -processed, “harmful to public health and resilience in the face of ruptures in supply chains, making it difficult to adapt strategies to climate change”.
According to Amelia Delgado, many tourists are looking for a globalized diet based on industrial or exotic products that are not adapted to the local climate or a balanced diet, relegating traditional in the background.
“As a result, large companies in the food sector, especially those that produce ultra-processed, have been dominating the market, providing frozen and pre-prepared products including traditional restoration, where it is believed to continue to satisfy the customer, with cost reduction,” he said.
The researcher also explained that the Mediterranean diet is often associated with poverty, “when, in fact, it represents a balanced model, where meat and fish complement the dishes instead of being protagonists.”
“It is an almost vegetarian food culture, where seasonality and the absence of waste predominates,” he said, also recalling that in the past, products sold by small producers were more nutritious, “but today they face increasing difficulties to compete with multinationals that provide non -healthy, unhealthy but cheap food products.”
The price, he said, cannot be the main determinant in the purchase of food.
“Food is a basic right and current food systems have high costs, for health systems, local economies and the planet, which is our home,” he concluded.
The `Food and Tourism Nexus study, Challenges and Opportunities` integrates the` Global Nutrition Dialogues Synthesis Report`, a 4SD NGO project, presented in March in Paris.
In addition to Amelia Delgado, the ambassadors of the European Climate Pact Luísa Barateiro, Rosmel Rodriguez and Anna Staszewska, based on surveys to various experts, including an expert in obesity, an olive oil producer, a chef, urbanism and tourism researchers and an economist.
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