Mediterranean diet to traditional Mexican cuisine—to be inscribed as intangible cultural heritage, despite the absence of a unified conceptual or legal definition.45 This Convention has served as the legal foundation for the recognition of foodrelated traditions worldwide, including the Mediterranean Diet,46 Traditional Mexican Cuisine,47 and Washoku (Japanese food culture).48 These inscriptions show that food is more than a commodity or nutrition—it is a bearer of identity and historical continuity. Vanhonacker et al., for example, gave the following definition of traditional gastronomy: “A traditional food product is a product frequently consumed or associated to specific celebrations and/or seasons, transmitted from one generation to another, made in a specific way according to gastronomic heritage, naturally processed, and distinguished and known because of its sensory properties and associated to a certain local area, region or country.”49 This understanding reinforces the view that traditional gastronomy, while lacking a précised codified international definition, operates as a living expression of cultural identity, shaped by collective memory, geographical specificity, and intergenerational transmission. Following the ratification of the UNESCO Convention for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2006,50 Albania undertook a process of legal harmonisation, implementation and institutional development aimed at recognising and protecting its intangible cultural heritage (ICH). This process culminated in the adoption of Cultural Heritage Act,51 which establishes, among others, a dedicated normative framework for the identification, preservation, and promotion of intangible cultural expressions. 45 María de Miguel Molina and others, ‘Intangible Heritage and Gastronomy: The Impact of UNESCO Gastronomy Elements’ (2016) 14 Journal of Culinary Science & Technology 293. Available at <https://doi.org/10.10 80/15428052.2015.1129008> accessed 22 August 2025. 46 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Property, ‘Mediterranean diet’ <https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/mediterraneandiet-00884 accessed 22 August 2025. 47 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Property, ‘Traditional Mexican cuisine - ancestral, ongoing community culture, the Michoacán paradigm’ <https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/traditional-mexican-cuisine-ancestral-ongoingcommunity-culture-the-michoacan-paradigm-00400> accessed 22 August 2025. 48 UNESCO Intangible Cultural Property, ‘Washoku, traditional dietary cultures of the Japanese, notably for the celebration of New Year’ <https://ich.unesco.org/en/RL/washoku-traditional-dietary-cultures-of-thejapanese-notably-for-the-celebration-of-new-year-00869> accessed 22 August 2025. 49 Filiep Vanhonacker and others, ‘How European Consumers Define the Concept of Traditional Food: Evidence from a Survey in Six Countries’ (2010) 26 Agribusiness 453, at 472. Available at <https://doi.org/10.1002/agr.20241> accessed 22 August 2025. 50 Ratification Law no. 9490, dated 13.3.2006, OG 24/2006. 51 Law no 27/2018 “On Cultural heritage and Museums” OG 86/2018, amended OG 192/2024. 479 SUSTAINABLE GASTRONOMY IN ALBANIA
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