Quanta carne si mangia in Italia? Stima del consumo pro capite reale con il metodo innovativo della detrazione preventiva delle perdite

How much meat do you eat in Italy? Estimated real
per capita consumption with the innovative method of the prior
deduction of losses.
Using the same procedures for calculating Food Balance Sheets (FBS), a method
of estimating the actual consumption of meat in Italy was developed, which
was named the method of prior loss deduction. The method is based on the prior
deduction of all losses (processing losses, scraps and wastes), which occur between
the production of carcasses and consumption, from the national availability of carcasses
and meat products imported and exported.
The estimate envisages two phases: the first consists in the transformation of
the availability of carcasses and meat products of the various animal species in
consumable meat by means of conversion coefficients; the second provides for the
subtraction by the latter of the waste at distribution and of the scraps and wastes at
consumption. With regard to the first phase, the conversion coefficients of carcasses
of domestic production and of the various categories of meat products imported
and exported in consumable meat were determined. By means of these coefficients,
it is possible to obtain the fresh meat actually available for consumption,
regardless of how (raw, cooked, transformed into salami, present in mixed food
preparations, canned food etc.) and where (home, restaurants, fast food, canteens,
communities, street foods etc.) it will be consumed. Regarding the second phase,
fixed percentages of deduction for retail waste and for consumer scraps and waste
have been defined.
Compared to the classic method of FBS, which expresses an apparent consumption
in equivalent carcass weight, the method of the prior deduction of losses
provides the real consumption of fresh meat.
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The new method exploits all the advantages of FBS for the calculation of apparent
meat consumption, but eliminates the great disadvantage of the enormous
overestimation of consumption compared to actually ingested meat. The actual
consumption is a more suitable index to monitor the nutritional status of the population,
to study the relationship between meat consumption and human diseases
and for implementing nutrition education programs. The method of prior loss deduction
allows obtaining an estimate of the actual per capita consumption of meat
similar to that obtained with Individual Dietary Surveys (IDS), but without having
to resort to complex organization and the high costs of the latter. The method was
used to calculate the actual consumption of meat in Italy in the six-year period
2010-2015. The results obtained indicate that a resident in Italy currently consumes
on average 104 g per day of meat, equal to 728 g per week and 38 kg per year. The
real per capita consumption of so-called red meat amounts to 75 g or 69 g per day
depending on whether or not it includes milk-fed calf, lamb and kid. These
amounts do not exceed the recommended threshold of the most important international
research organizations to prevent the risk of contracting cancer. Real consumption
data reduces the alarm on excessive consumption of meat in Italy triggered
by sensationalist advertising campaigns based on apparent consumptions,
which overestimate the amount of meat actually ingested by more than twice as
much.