Tra stratificazione sociale e razzializzazione: l’uso politico del cibo “perfetto”

Nowadays the quality of food is considered a regulatory tool operating as a particular concept of safety, the food safety. Law uses patterns as the typical tools of regulatory systems that match the “quality” with production or territorial origin standards, even if these ones are the outcomes of the functioning of power and lobbying dynamics, typically operating inside the European institutions, as evidenced by the decision-making relating to the recognition of some certifications (PDO, PGI, ecc.). The origin of the outline of “perfect” food, that is a standard which can act to include social classes, as it shows for example the relevance of nutrition in educational processes, or, vice versa, to exclude someone, due to the price dynamics, dates back to Victorian England, when the regulatory framework of food quality and safety, identified as suitable for resolving many issues related to food insecurity and the need to protect consumers, were mostly inherited from the previous century, is placed against the background of important socio-political issues. Starting from the vagueness of the relationship between administrative sanctions and private control apparatus into the regulative contemporary framework, and assuming this background, the essay aims to investigate the “political” use of food as a normative system which, however, calls into question both the social stratification system, typical of Victorian society, as shown by the case of the Nowadays the quality of food is considered a regulatory tool operating as a particular concept of safety, i.e. food safety. The law uses patterns as typical tools of regulatory systems that link “quality” to standards of production or territorial origin, even if these are the outcomes of the functioning of power and lobbying dynamics that typically operates within the European institutions, as demonstrated by the decision-making with regard to the recognition of certain types of certification (PDO, PGI, etc.). The origin of the concept of “perfect” food, i.e. a standard that can act to include or exclude social classes, for example by showing the relevance of nutrition in educational processes, or, vice versa, to exclude someone, dates back to Victorian England. At that time, the regulatory framework of food quality and safety, which was seen as suitable for solving many issues related to food insecurity and the need to protect consumers, was mostly inherited from the previous century, against the background of important socio-political issues. Starting from the ambiguity of the relationship between administrative sanctions and private control apparatuses in the contemporary regulative framework, the essay aims to investigate the “political” use of food as a normative system, which, however, calls into question both the social stratification system typical of Victorian society – as shown by the case of the spread of exotic foods in the English diet –, and the mainstream theme of the relationships between poverty and poor food quality, as shown by the debate on food adulteration. Spread of exotic foods in the English diet, and the mainstream theme of the relationships between poverty and poor food quality, as the debate on food adulteration has been showing.

La qualità del cibo è oggi considerata un dispositivo normativo funzionale alla declinazione di un particolare concetto di sicurezza, quella alimentare. Lo strumento utilizzato, tipico dei modelli regolativi, è l’adesione ai disciplinari, che fa corrispondere la “qualità” ad uno standard di produzione o di provenienza territoriale che è, a sua volta, esito del funzionamento di dinamiche di potere e di lobbying tipicamente operanti nelle sedi delle istituzioni europee, come testimoniano le vicende relative al riconoscimento delle certificazioni (DOP, IGP, ecc.). L’origine dell’idea del cibo “perfetto”, corrispondente ad uno standard, che svolge al contempo una funzione che può risultare inclusiva delle classi sociali, come mostra per esempio la rilevanza dell’alimentazione nei processi educativi, o, viceversa, escludente, perché legata alle dinamiche dei prezzi, risale all’Inghilterra vittoriana: un’epoca in cui la costruzione dell’impianto normativo della qualità degli alimenti, strumento individuato come idoneo a risolvere le numerose questioni legate all’insicurezza alimentare, per lo più ereditate dal secolo precedente, si colloca sullo sfondo di importanti questioni sociopolitiche. Il saggio prende le mosse dall’ambiguità del rapporto tra sanzioni amministrative e apparati di controllo di carattere “privato” nel contesto del modello regolativo contemporaneo per giungere ad indagare, a partire dalle sue origini, un uso “politico” del cibo inteso come dispositivo normativo, che mette in discussione sia il sistema di stratificazione sociale tipico della società vittoriana, come mostra il caso della diffusione dei cibi esotici nell’alimentazione inglese, sia il tema mainstream del rapporto tra povertà e cattiva qualità degli alimenti, come mostra il dibattito sulla sofisticazione dei prodotti alimentari.