Background
“5 colori del benessere” (5 colors of well-being) is a collective brand, conceived and registered by UNAPROA.
UNAPROA groups the OPs (Producers’ Organizations) and their AOP (Association of Producers’ Organizations), recognised throughout Italy. UNAPROA works to improve integration of the sector and carries out activities which help to bring together and enhance the fruit and vegetable products on offer. It performs activities to help direct and coordinate its associated Producer Organizations, promotes and creates quality improvement services for fruit and vegetable products, as well as projects of common interest to the various OPs, with the aim of improving the functional success of their businesses.
Since 2003, alongside the birth and growth of the collective brand, UNAPROA has supported and spread the principle of basic nutritional education based on the concept of the “Five colors” for the “well-being”, promoting the consumption of fruit and vegetables in Italy.
“5 colori del benessere” is not a company trademark, but a further distinctive element that concerns and guarantees some quality standards of Italian fruit and vegetables, like the origin and traceability, in accordance with the requirements of its regulations and user specifications.
Recognised Producer Organizations or their Associations and all those with whom they have business relations may use the brand on their products. The “5 colori del benessere” brand incorporates all the quality characteristics that distinguish a product and that satisfy the need, increasingly felt by consumers, to feel safe of the food they buy.
The brand tells the story of the product, step by step, from cultivation to processing, from selection to packaging. These activities are carried out with great attention and professionalism by qualified technicians and operators. All the products of the “5 colori del benessere” are of the “Extra” or “prima”(first) category, cultivated in Italy with integrated production methods in compliance with specific production regulations.
The collective brand encourages the consumer towards a correct dietary practice, which provides, in a balanced diet, the daily consumption of at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables of 5 different colors
Description
UNAPROA has decided to transfer into a collective brand for fruit and vegetables two messages about health:
– “5-a-day” and
– “5 colors in a matched and varied consumption of F&V”.
“5 colori del benessere” represents a principle of good practice for health, scientifically accredited, based on the consumption of fruit and vegetables varied in five daily servings, each one with products of different colors.
The 5 colors are:
- RED (lycopene, anthocyanins): tomatoes, turnips, radishes, peppers, beets, watermelon and oranges.
- YELLOW / ORANGE (flavonoids, carotenoids, vitamin C): oranges, lemons, mandarins, grapefruit, melon, persimmons, apricots, peaches, loquats, carrots, peppers, pumpkins, nectarines and clementines.
- GREEN (chlorophyll, carotenoids, magnesium, vitamin C, folic acid and lutein): asparagus, agretti, basil, chard, broccoli, cabbage, artichokes, cucumbers, chicory, turnip greens, endive, lettuce, rocket , parsley, spinach, zucchini, white grapes and kiwis.
- WHITE (polyphenols, flavonoids, sulfur compounds in garlic and onion, potassium, vitamin C, selenium in mushrooms): garlic, cauliflower, onion, fennel, mushrooms, apples, pears, leeks, celery, walnuts, hazelnuts, almonds and chestnuts.
- BLUE / PURPLE (anthocyanins, carotenoids, vitamin C, potassium, and magnesium): eggplant, radicchio, figs, berries (raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, currants), plums and black grapes.
Indeed, the colors of fruit and vegetables help us to control our intake of valuable substances. Fruit and vegetables contain compounds which work together to provide protective effects. No single substance acts alone, but rather in combination with water, carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, minerals and phytocompounds, both coloured and not. All these substances work together in our bodies to keep us healthy.
Fruit and vegetables contain nutrients and essential substances which are often not present in other foods.
They are one of the main sources of the vitamins and minerals which the body requires to keep itself alive
and in good health. Fruit and vegetables contain a lot of water and fibers and have the added advantage of being low in calories: for this reason, science has recognized that fruit and vegetables form the basis of a proper diet. All over the world, guidelines for healthy eating advise the intake of at least 5 portions of fruit and vegetables per day. By seeking to vary the colors, we can more easily resolve the complex puzzle of nutrients and phytocompounds required every day to maintain good health.
Activities
The first public use of the collective brand dates back to March 2003 and, since then, the principle of the “Five a day” together with that of the “Five different colors” has been shared by the Ministry of Health in numerous recommendation documents and by other prestigious Institutes, such as the National Institute of Nutrition, the Umberto Veronesi Foundation, the IEO Foundation (European Institute of Oncology), etc. Joining the brand involves the observance of a series of conditions explicitly provided for in the Technical Regulations of Use (which enclose the conformity requirements that producers must comply with from the point of view of product, environment, traceability, ethics and organization) and in a special user manual that, instead, regulates the reproduction of the graphic sign of the logo “5 colori del benessere”, an important sign of recognition and visual identity in the market.
The diffusion of healthy messages about 5 colors has been co-financed by the European Union with three Programmes from 2004 to 2006, from 2012 to 2014 and from 2015 to 2017 aims to everyone.
The claim of the campaigns was: “Nutritevi dei colori della vita” (Nourish yourself with the colors of life).
These 3-years campaigns, intended to supply information about the qualities and organoleptic properties of fruit and vegetables, as well as offering advice about a healthy diet based on the different colors of these products.
Taking inspiration from the values of the Mediterranean diet and the excellent flavours of Italian produce, UNAPROA has been inviting everybody, especially the children, to follow the scheme of 5 colors of well-being, and to adopt the suggestions for applying it in a simple and tasty way.
For more information visit www.nutritevideicoloridellavita.com
Results
The campaigns about 5 colors of well-being are probably the best-known nutritional campaigns implemented in Italy for the improvement in the consumption of fruit and vegetables.
Although the brand “5 colori del benessere” has a good level of knowledge and credibility, enough to include many attempts at imitation, the data also show that vegetable consumption still must be improved as well as the quality level of products.
The WHO recommend to consume 400 g of fruit and vegetables per day. In more than half of the countries of the European Region, the consumption of fruit and vegetables is less than 400 g per day, and in one third of the countries, the average consumption is less than 300 g per day.
The factors influencing fruit and vegetable consumption are numerous and are complexly linked. Consequently, changing consumption patterns remains a challenge, particularly at population level. Different intervention programmes to increase the consumption of fruit and vegetables have adopted different strategies, with varying success.
In particular, UNAPROA improved the consumers’ level of knowledge of European and Italian fruit and vegetables in relation to the following aspects:
- the various possibilities for using products of European excellence, given their special characteristics;
- the ability to assess quality:
- organoleptic (tastings, “fusion” experiences with local cuisine, approaching the culinary tradition of the production areas). It’s important that the product is not only seen as a “health cure”, but also as a pleasant element at a gastronomic level;
- related to safety: regulations, traceability, controls. It’s important to put consumer confidence on a firm footing, as a strong point of the European product and as a defence of the product’s image against the periodic scandals that hit the global food market;
- the nutritional and health properties, including knowledge of healthy and correct eating habits following the golden rules of “5 a day” and of “5 colori del benessere “.
UNAPROA has been able to increase the diffusion of the brand “5 colori del benessere” and its educational messages with the partnership of some distribution companies. This favored the commercial exchange relationship.
UNAPROA has been able also to involve experts, opinion leaders and stakeholders, as the spokesman and important disseminators of knowledge on the quality characteristics of European and Italian fruit and vegetable production, creating a direct flow of information towards the consumers and creating the opportunities to optimize the fruit and vegetable assortments in the GDO, ,
The challenge was that of overcoming the limits set by traditionalism, by focusing on young people, on the most dynamic distribution segments of retail and in places of sport and leisure, also through more direct and collaborative relationships.
More information
Contacts
UNAPROA
Via Ventiquattro Maggio n. 43
I-00187 ROMA
T + 39 06 424521
5coloridelbenessere@unaproa.com