I. FOOD AS A HERITAGE OF HUMANITY Food is a heritage of humanity. No one can think of building exclusive rights or monopolies on food. The names of foods and their components cannot even be subject to a trademark and therefore be protected as a distinctive sign. Bread, flour, wheat, rice, butter, oil, and so on constitute common names that cannot form any distinctive sign. Similarly, the composition of the ingredients of a dish designed to form a course is not, equally, protectable as such. If the ingredients compose a recipe (that is, the method of preparing and cooking them), they can constitute a heritage of family tradition. They are passed down from grandmother to mother and from mother to daughter, for generations. If a recipe is used industrially for mass production, the recipe as such cannot be patented and thus constitutes the object of an industrial invention and as such be protected. If the food industry wants to protect a particular way of composing the dish from competitors, the only way is to keep it a secret. The rules on industrial secrecy and know-how (articles 98 and 99 of the Industrial Property Code) can be used by the agri-food company to protect a (secret) recipe used industrially. Until some time ago, industrial secrecy, which could constitute the method of producing a food or drink, could be protected through secrecy. Today, secrecy has a limit in the obligation to indicate to the consumer the individual ingredients that make up the food or drink. The only thing that remains secret is, therefore, the gradation of these components and the order of their mixing. II. FOOD AND CONSUMER PROTECTION Thus, food and its ingredients, as seen, if not falling within the scope of industrial property rights, find regulation in consumer protection norms, leading eventually to the valorization of the typical product. The consumer’s right not to be deceived about the methods of preparation of a specific food or dish, or about the way it is cooked, evolves. For consumer protection (in relation to ingredients), consider, for example, European legislation and therefore the general principles and requirements of food law, the establishment of the European Food Safety Authority, and procedures in the field of food safety (Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002); the rules on nutritional and 34 VINCENZO FRANCESCHELLI | SARA D´URSO | ALESSANDRA CORRADO
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