« From Farm to Factory ». Interdependence between Agribusiness and Industrial Catering in Italy, 1960-1980

Due to the country's impressive economic and industrial development, during 1960s and 1970s Italians experienced a momentous shift in consumption patterns and dietary regimes. In this phase, the rise of industrial catering business was driven by social and technological changes, and especially by the increasing demand of consumers, i.e. unionized factory workers. Providing a full meal to industrial workforce – coping with production processes’ temporal and organizational constraints – represented a major chance for catering enterprises, but it would been infeasible without a simultaneous development of agribusiness in food production, processing and distribution. Connecting production’s sphere to the arenas of consumption, the aim of the paper is to investigate the specific relations and interdependencies established between industrial catering and agribusiness during these decades. Using various sources hitherto little examined by scholars – especially mass catering handbooks and magazines – we will describe actors’ strategies and innovations to supply factory canteens with targeted foodstuff (like pre-cooked and frozen foods), analyzing the appeal and reception of these products, and presenting some case studies.