Bella Dentro: in Milan, in the Caiazzo area, has opened the first fruit shop that fights food waste by challenging the logic of the market
A project against food waste can it be "sexy" as well as useful? The boys of Beautiful Inside they succeeded. And they did so, thanks to an evident urgency and passion, a couple of years ago, traveling with their apecar covered with grass the streets of Milan and today opening, in the Caiazzo area, the first store with the Bella Dentro brand. Here you can buy them "ugly" but good fruit and vegetables, fresh ed dried, and also some excellent ones jams. All while saving – for now – 46762 kg of fruit and vegetables, as we read – green on white – in the LED sign that stands out on a wall of the shop. Food that otherwise would have been thrown away, just for not respecting those aesthetic standards that the market imposes, but what create enormous damage to farmers, the environment and the economy.
Bella Inside, this is how the idea was born
That Camilla is Luca they had courage, you can guess from their personal stories. Both are just over thirty. A few years ago they decided to leave a promising career in the advertising and business sectors respectively for throw themselves into an enterprise that not even they know where it will lead them. The only thing they are convinced of is that it is the right thing to do. They understand this by reading an article on food waste in the world: according to the FAO, 1.3 billion tons of food are thrown away every year, equal to one third of the total production destined for human consumption. The only waste of food in Italy has a economic value that wanders around 13 billion euros per year.
Bella Dentro, “in the field” against food waste
Thus was born the idea of Bella Dentro. Although before embarking on the enterprise, the two boys moved to Emilia Romagna where, for a while, they conducted investigations, also being laborers. "Going" to the field "was the only way to touch the dynamics that govern the agricultural supply chain. Over time we have managed to get in touch with almost all the players in the agri-food chain and even talk to some buyers from the large-scale distribution , explains Camilla, still almost incredulous that she had succeeded.
The two winning cards of the project
Bella Dentro's idea works because it absorbs a slice of the market that would otherwise be in total loss. In fact, they buy at a fair price directly from farmers or cooperatives that part of fruit and vegetable production that is good, but which is rejected by cooperatives and large retailers for aesthetic reasons. The fruit comes mainly from Emilia Romagna, apart from citrus fruits that come from Sicily and apples from Trentino Alto Adige. Vegetables, on the other hand, come from all over Italy, with Lazio in the lead. Another winning aspect of the project is the communication, captivating and ironic, which aims to deconstruct a rhetoric of the product (which must be aesthetically perfect to be also good) to which we are all a bit addicted now.
Shop and transformation workshop, now we think big
At the end of last year, Camilla and Luca started the second phase of the project, with the entry into society of the Social Veture Giordano dell’Amore Foundation, which made it possible to start thinking big. Not only for having taken root with a shop window in front of which the patrons and the inhabitants of the neighborhood stop curious, but also for another reason. With the shop – and the inclusion in the group of a new travel companion, Giuditta – the transformation laboratory, the real strength of their architecture, because it will allow them to collect ever-increasing quantities of fruit and vegetables without having to worry about them rotting in warehouses. "To save the product you have to free yourself from perishable: transforming it is the best way to keep it longer. This is how the line of jams was born, but above all of dried products .
Camilla and Luca, faithful to the line from start to finish
A curious choice is that of drying courgettes, aubergines and cucumbers, but which perfectly reflects the philosophy behind Bella Dentro. «While defects are hidden with jams, those imperfections remain visible in dried products, as if to remind us once again that to be good, vegetables or fruit don't have to be beautiful. In addition, no other ingredients are consumed and the nutritional values are maintained unaltered . Even that of the transformation laboratory was not a random choice. This is located in Codogno and is managed by The Workshop, a social cooperative that for various reasons is also… beautiful inside. “It was theirs that convinced us inclusive approach: in the laboratory they work approx a dozen boys and girls with disabilities. They do with people what we try to do with fruit and vegetables .
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