L'industria delle conserve vegetali in Italia nella prima metà del '900

Although Italy’s food preserve industry began with the disadvantages of a small internal market and a limited supply of tinplate, the fundamental raw material for the manufacture of cans, by the early decades of the twentieth century it had become one of the main international exporters of preserved tomatoes. Various factors had contributed to this achievement, including a substantial demand from Italian emigrants in the Americas, the high quality of raw materials and, most of all, the concerted self-discipline practised by business leaders as well as the creation of specific regulations that allowed the food preserve industry to raise its standards of quality, becoming more competitive and consolidating its position in international markets. The aim of this paper is both to describe the early stages of the evolution in regulations for the vegetable preserve industry and to provide a comprehensive picture of the growth of the industry as well as its characteristics and the dynamics at play in the sector during the early decades of the twentieth century. Decades in which the food preserve industry became more defined and distinguished itself from the vast area of traditional food conservation, acquiring a discipline and organisational structure which made it stronger and allowed it to overcome the limits represented by initial deregulation.