Italy hosts sensory blind tasting events to promote biodiversity

Sensory evaluation and blind tasting events are being utilized to promote agricultural biodiversity and product quality in Italy. At the Terra Madre event during Salone del Gusto, Bioland hosted a blind tasting experience titled ‘The Invisible Taste: Can We Taste Biodiversity?’. Participants, blindfolded and without product labels, tasted samples categorized as ‘Earth’, ‘Fruit’, and ‘Seed’ to identify agricultural diversity through taste alone.

This initiative was part of the European Union co-funded project ‘Choose European Organic’. Similarly, Società Toscana Orticultura is organizing educational sessions in Florence focused on the chemical and physical characteristics of virgin olive oils. These sessions include blind tasting contests designed to consolidate professional sensory evaluation skills and foster collective reflection on production quality.