"Smart Bio Wine", a Project for Consumer Information, Business Competitiveness and Environmental Sustainability

The food label is the first means of communication with which the consumer comes in contact with the product. The same is not limited to hygiene and nutritional value of food, but also extends to environmental, social and ethical. Italian legislation guiding the labelling was founded in 1974 and aims to ensure on one hand the free circulation of goods in a spirit of fair competition, on the other hand the health protection and the right information for consumers. Even a well-structured label neglects some important information regarding the consumer's health, such as the presence of harmful elements, making it incomplete for the end user. The "SBW" project aims to develop a monitoring protocol for the detection of heavy elements (metals) and harmful substances, based on a "voluntary" labelling of food products. Companies that decide to adopt the control protocol may obtain, in the only case in which the requirements are met, a "certificate of quality", which will be summarized and made evident on the labels through the inclusion of a trademark (easily recognizable logo), connected to remote or in label information. The aim is twofold: to protect consumers from the point of view of food safety and increase the competitiveness of companies adopting such a system of voluntary labelling. At the same time companies will be stimulated to reduce chemical inputs during the production cycle. The project, although adaptable to all food products, is tested on a product with a low content of harmful elements: the wine. It has been chosen this product in view of the increasing demand for enhancement of "made in Italy" foodstuffs: in fact, the wine is one of the products that can be sold with a label that is easily reproducible by the market of counterfeit food. For this purpose a series of tests was carried out on organic wine in two cellars located in central Italy. Results show an average concentration of copper of 39.3 mu g/dm(3) (white wine) and 79.9 mu g/dm(3) (red wine) in the first winery, and, in the second winery, 5.4 mu g/dm(3) (white wine) and 12.3 mu g/dm(3) - 482 mu g/dm(3) (red wines). The copper concentrations were under the limit of 1000 mu g/dm(3): however sensible differences were detected among different wines and this information could be useful for the consumers.