culture, analysing how the law intervenes to protect, regulate and enhance this heritage”4. According to Fino, “gastronomy law” is therefore a discipline that stands at the crossroads of agri-food law, commercial law, intellectual property law, and cultural law5. Bringing these strands together, these are refined definitions from the European legal perspective: 1. Gastronomy Law (EU cultural heritage framing): “The legal recognition of gastronomy as the combination of knowledge, experience, art, and craft that delivers a healthy and pleasurable eating experience, integral to cultural heritage and identity, encompassing all culinary forms from traditional to haute cuisine.” 2. Gastronomy Law (Regulatory framing): “The body of European legal rules ensuring food safety, quality, traceability, and consumer protection through mechanisms like risk analysis, the precautionary principle, and scientific evaluation—foundational to reliable gastronomic practice and food systems.” 3. Gastronomy Law (Academic perspective): “An interdisciplinary legal field addressing the protection of culinary heritage (e.g., Mediterranean diet), recognition of culinary creations under intellectual property or art law, and the systemic harmonization of food-related regulations across Europe.” While “gastronomy law” may not yet be a single codified branch of law6, European jurists and policymakers approach it through the combined lenses of: • Cultural heritage protection (recognizing gastronomy as part of European identity), • Strict regulation of food safety and quality (essential for gastronomic trust and excellence), • Legal theory and academic frameworks for protecting unique culinary traditions and intellectual expressions. 4 Michele Antonio Fino, a professor at the Università di Scienze Gastronomiche in Pollenzo, alongside Ferdinando Albisinni of Università degli Studi della Tuscia in Viterbo, are widely regarded as the leading authority on this subject in Italy; see Michele Antonio Fino, Anna Claudia Cecconi, Andrea Bezzecchi, Gastronazionalismo, People, 2021; Ferdinando Albisinni, Strumentario di diritto alimentare europeo, UTET Giuridica, 2023. 5 For a more general overview, see Lucia Scaffardi, Vincenzo Zeno-Zencovich, Cibo e diritto. Una prospettiva comparata, Roma TrE-Press, 2020, Roma Tre Pressuniversitypressitaliane.it. 6 Cibo e società. Una relazione da esplorare (contains the chapter “Cibo e diritto privato: quale regime giuridico per i gruppi di acquisto solidale?” by Benedetta Agostinelli), Roma TrE-Press, 2018. 630 DUILIO CORTASSA
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