Quanta carne si mangia in Italia? Stima del consumo pro capite reale con il metodo innovativo della detrazione preventiva delle perdite

How much meat do you eat in Italy? Estimated real per capita consumption with the innovative method of the prior deduction of losses. Using the same procedures for calculating Food Balance Sheets (FBS), a method of estimating the actual consumption of meat in Italy was developed, which was named the method of prior loss deduction. The method is based on the prior deduction of all losses (processing losses, scraps and wastes), which occur between the production of carcasses and consumption, from the national availability of carcasses and meat products imported and exported. The estimate envisages two phases: the first consists in the transformation of the availability of carcasses and meat products of the various animal species in consumable meat by means of conversion coefficients; the second provides for the subtraction by the latter of the waste at distribution and of the scraps and wastes at consumption. With regard to the first phase, the conversion coefficients of carcasses of domestic production and of the various categories of meat products imported and exported in consumable meat were determined. By means of these coefficients, it is possible to obtain the fresh meat actually available for consumption, regardless of how (raw, cooked, transformed into salami, present in mixed food preparations, canned food etc.) and where (home, restaurants, fast food, canteens, communities, street foods etc.) it will be consumed. Regarding the second phase, fixed percentages of deduction for retail waste and for consumer scraps and waste have been defined. Compared to the classic method of FBS, which expresses an apparent consumption in equivalent carcass weight, the method of the prior deduction of losses provides the real consumption of fresh meat. 24 The new method exploits all the advantages of FBS for the calculation of apparent meat consumption, but eliminates the great disadvantage of the enormous overestimation of consumption compared to actually ingested meat. The actual consumption is a more suitable index to monitor the nutritional status of the population, to study the relationship between meat consumption and human diseases and for implementing nutrition education programs. The method of prior loss deduction allows obtaining an estimate of the actual per capita consumption of meat similar to that obtained with Individual Dietary Surveys (IDS), but without having to resort to complex organization and the high costs of the latter. The method was used to calculate the actual consumption of meat in Italy in the six-year period 2010-2015. The results obtained indicate that a resident in Italy currently consumes on average 104 g per day of meat, equal to 728 g per week and 38 kg per year. The real per capita consumption of so-called red meat amounts to 75 g or 69 g per day depending on whether or not it includes milk-fed calf, lamb and kid. These amounts do not exceed the recommended threshold of the most important international research organizations to prevent the risk of contracting cancer. Real consumption data reduces the alarm on excessive consumption of meat in Italy triggered by sensationalist advertising campaigns based on apparent consumptions, which overestimate the amount of meat actually ingested by more than twice as much.