Ma-Vi Trade, with its twenty years of experience in the food export sector, has been promoting the culture of healthy food with passion and dedication for years and brings it to kitchens around the world. Each food item, from cheeses to cured meats, from traditional pantry products to vegan or plant-based ones, is carefully selected to be 100% Made in Italy and of high quality. Check out our product catalog.
What does "quality Italian food" mean?
Over time, the concept of quality has gradually transformed, influenced also by the evolution of consumer thinking and behavior. Nowadays, customers/consumers are much more informed: new means of communication have made necessary information accessible to everyone. Furthermore, consumers are savvy and autonomous individuals, no longer just passive recipients of companies' production and communication efforts. They are real interlocutors with whom businesses dialogue every day.
Specifically, food sector consumers are looking for healthy, nutritious, safe products whose ingredient origins they can know, and which are obtained through procedures respectful of the environment and animals. All these characteristics have led companies to make substantial changes to their production and distribution systems.
Food certifications for products
But that's not all. The quality of a product/service is created not only by the perceived quality by the customer, but also by the objective quality, determined by industries and large-scale retail distribution (GDO). The factors defining the \"total quality\" of a food product are countless, which is why it's possible to distinguish quality as:
- organoleptic
- hygienic/sanitary
- chemical/nutritional
- origin-based
- legal
In general, the quality pursued by industries is defined as objective precisely because it is precise, measurable, verifiable, and respects standard parameters. It is an element extremely linked to the concept of \"Food Safety\".
Quality, safety and taste of Italian food are the three characteristics mainly sought by consumers and are normally guaranteed by food certifications. A distinction must be made between regulated certifications and voluntary certifications. The former are all those certifications intended for products with specific characteristics, methods and places of production, which comply with rules established by the EEC. Producers are free to choose whether or not to adhere to such certifications, and if they do, they must comply with all the established rules. This type of certification includes Protected Designation of Origin (PDO) and Protected Geographical Indication (PGI). In this regard, two of the symbol products of Italian cuisine that Ma-Vi Trade exports worldwide are Grana Padano and Parmigiano Reggiano, both PDO cheeses.
Voluntary certifications, on the other hand, are issued to companies by nationally, community-wide or internationally recognized bodies based on technical standards.
Food safety certifications
There are also certifications that are not directly reported on the product, but are B2B (Business to Business) type. These, in addition to guaranteeing product compliance, protect customers and especially guarantee a safe and qualified service within the distribution chain. In this regard, Ma-Vi Trade has acquired two internationally recognized certifications: BRC Agent and Broker and IFS Broker.
BRC and IFS standards are international schemes promoted with the aim of harmonizing, based on common principles, the different standards adopted by European large-scale retail. The BRC standard – British Retailer Consortium – was born in England, where it is now institutionalized; IFS – International Featured Standard – is an equivalent tool issued by the most important names in German, French and Italian large-scale retail.
What are the main benefits of BRC/IFS Certification?
- Access to target markets in most European countries
- Stronger relationships with Suppliers
- Greater transparency and increased Consumer trust
- Production simplification
- Control of internal processes and risk minimization
- Demonstration of proactive approach to Food Safety
Source: https://www.bureauveritas.it/services+sheet/certificazione-brc-ifs
Eco-sustainable, compostable and biodegradable packaging.
In terms of future prospects, Ma-Vi Trade is committing to research new solutions to reduce packaging consumption and use eco-sustainable, compostable and biodegradable materials. In recent years, both consumers and companies have become increasingly aware of the impact that materials used so far in packaging, particularly plastic, are having on the environment.
Food packaging is not an element to be underestimated because, in addition to containing and supporting a product, it preserves it and isolates it from the external environment. It also helps protect it during transport and contains all information about the product itself.
Now more than ever, another characteristic that is impossible not to consider is the greater or lesser ease of disposal and recycling of the packaging material composition. For this very reason, the Ma-Vi Trade Group is paying particular attention to it and is determined to act for environmental protection.
The European Union towards a circular economy.
Europe is intent on laying the foundations to ensure that by 2030 all packaging is recyclable or reusable.
The plan is to implement a change that has as its final objectives both that of protecting the environment and increasingly directing member countries towards a circular economy, an economy in which products, at the end of their life cycle, are recycled in such a way as to be reused and thus create new value.
The European Parliament has recently definitively approved a provision in force from 2021 which imposes on Member States the ban on using some single-use plastic items. These include, for example: cutlery, plates, cups, cotton buds, straws, etc. The directive also provides that by 2025 plastic bottles must be composed of at least 25% recycled material, reaching 30% by 2030. In addition, by 2029 90% of plastic bottles must be collected separately by all Member States.