Aesthetics of Nutrition, Ethics of Animality: The Packaging of Vegan and Vegetarian Products in the Italian Organised Distribution Market

Abstract

The topic of this paper concerns the packaging of vegan and vegetarian products in the Italian organised distribution market. Large-scale organised distribution and vegetarianism’s choice of packaging is related to current dietary trends which, as is often the case with eating choices and habits, intertwine as they massively spread. Which are the visual and verbal strategies that are adopted to give meaning, in the Italian culinary landscape, to vegan and vegetarian foods sold through large-scale distribution? The aim is to outline, through the methodology of semiotics, the sensorial mechanisms and cultural grids that shape this food universe and the way it interacts with other categories of foods: specifically, with the traditional omnivore diet, on the one hand, and with the so-called biological nutrition, on the other. Here we will investigate a specific area of veg food culture or rather the supermarket product, ranging from preserved foods to pre-cooked condiments, from frozen main courses to side dishes ready in 5 min.