Food made with upcycled ingredients has received considerable attention in very recent years as a result of the need to both reduce waste and increase food nutritional properties. However, consumer acceptance of these novel foods is fundamental to their market uptake. This paper aims to assess the likelihood of the acceptance of food obtained from upcycled ingredients of olive oil productions and its association with some relevant recent consumption trends, such as organic food consumption and attention to food origin. In addition, particular attention is given to age group behaviors to appraise the differences between generations. Results suggest that, despite the negative influence of food technophobia, a core of sustainability-minded consumers seems to emerge that is interested in organic or local products, that could also favor the uptake of these novel food made with upcycled ingredients in the market. Results suggest that developing organic or “local” food products with upcycled ingredients can increase the probability of consumer acceptance.

(1) Background: Spain, Italy, and Greece are the world’s top olive oil producers. In recent decades, these countries have gradually diversified their farming system in the olive groves. The element of innovation with respect to the state of the art is that this paper aims to compare the environmental performance of different farming systems in a European context by performing a simplified Life Cycle Assessment; (2) Methods: Environmental performance was calculated according to the methodology of Life Cycle Assessment and the “Guidance for the implementation of the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF)”. Average data were considered in order to describe a system with a great degree of complexity and high spatial heterogeneity; (3) Results: The study highlights the difficulty of identifying the farming method that presents the best environmental performance in each of the impact categories considered. In Greece, the lowest use of diesel, electricity, and water brings about advantages for many impact categories, albeit with low yields. While the highest olive yield obtained in Italy has positive consequences in terms of global warming, the highest use of fertilisers, in many cases, entails higher environmental impacts. On the other hand, in Spain the highest use of organo-phosphorous pesticides entails the highest impacts of eco-toxicity; (4) Conclusion: the reduction of the use of fertilizers and pesticides, as well as water conservation, are important issues which require the optimization of timing and techniques in order to achieve environmental advantages.

Purpose: The paper explores whether consumers' environmentally sustainable attitudes and behaviors (e.g. saving water, energy, etc.) are associated with high frequency of local food purchases. The study uses a large sample of individual data collected across all Italian regions as well as accounts for the respondents' socioeconomic characteristics.Design/methodology/approach: The analysis uses a large sample of individual-level data (n = 21,081) collected by the Italian National Bureau of Statistics in the annual Italian Multipurpose Households Survey (MHS). Data contain individual information on the frequency of local food purchases as well as socioeconomic characteristics and environmentally friendly attitudes and behaviors. Data were analyzed using a multivariate ordered log_it regression.Findings: Results indicate that individuals sensitive to environmental issues and adopting sustainable behaviors are more likely to purchase local food products than others. Also, age, education and occupational status positively are associated with a high frequency of local food purchases. Reading food nutrition labels, living in small communities as well as buying organic products are strong predictors of a higher frequency of local food choices.Originality/value: The role of individual sustainable attitudes and behaviors in local food purchases has been marginally investigated in the literature. We addressed the issue by jointly accounting for several individual-related characteristics potentially shaping such relation. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the authors use the largest sample ever used to explore the individual's local food purchases in Italy.

The scope of this chapter is to calculate the net energy of the production chain for virgin olive oil. Therefore, the determination was carried out for the direct and indirect energy inputs and the energy present as feedstock in the outputs (products and by-products). To perform this analysis, all of the production processes for olives and for oil extraction were studied. For the agricultural phase, three systems of cultivation were taken into consideration: the centenary olive grove (COO), the “intensive” olive grove (HDO) and, the more recently introduced, “super-intensive” olive grove (HSDO). The last two models are distinguished by the high number of trees per hectare and by an intense mechanization of agricultural practices. Regarding the oil extraction phase, four different technologies were compared: the pressure system (PS), the two-phase system (2PS), the three-phase (3PS), and the system, called “de-pitted”, which provides for the separation of the pits before the oil is extracted (DPS). The analysis showed that the production of olives needs more than 90% of energy requirements, much of which is met by non-renewable sources of energy. The production of fertilizers, and also irrigation, are the production factors that require a considerable amount of energy. Among the three agricultural systems analyzed, the COO system of cultivation is the one that requires less energy as compared to the other systems. The scenario that enables the most energy return, however, is the SHDO system of cultivation, due to the greater amount of pruning residues that can be obtained.