ROME – Members of Italian food industries are attempting to “#savethegrissino,” with news of dramatically reduced breadstick sales, finance sources said on breadstick day, Friday. It has been reported that large volume sales of breadsticks in Italy have fallen 50 percent since before the pandemic. The use of breadsticks in restaurants and catering, once quite commonplace in Italy, has almost completely disappeared from hospitality, it is claimed.

 On Friday, breadsticks made their way into the news because of breadstick day. There were financial reports warning of the extinction of the breadstick, detailing the increase in price of breadsticks in comparison to before the pandemic. Between 2021 and 2022, the average price of one kg of breadsticks raised 2,3 percent in Italy. 

 Vitavigor, an Italian producer of breadsticks and other baked goods, launched, in celebration of the holiday, the #savethegrissino campaign on social media. The business leaders said that breadsticks are “indispensable to Italian restaurants” and “the identity of the breadstick must be preserved as an age-old Italian tradition.” Vitavigor was confident in the fact that breadsticks will make a valiant return, although financial recovery from the pandemic has been slow to show. 

 The breadstick does in fact have a long history and tradition, dating back almost 400 years. A professor from the University of Bologna explained the culture of breadsticks, he said, “In the 1600s, the precarious state of health of the very young Duke Vittorio Amedeo II finds relief only in a bread made specifically to aid his digestion: elongated, crunchy and without crumbs. The invention was immediately successful, and from the king's bread the breadstick became everyone's bread.” From this, the breadstick became a symbol of the beginning of a meal, satiating some hunger before the first course as families dug into their basket of breadsticks.

 Despite the financial decline in the breadstick industry since the pandemic, Vitavigor sent the message that the food is integral to Italian cuisine because of its versatility and sustainability. They require very few ingredients to be made, and unused sticks can be recycled into breadcrumbs. They have a low waste environmental impact and a great impact on family dinners.

 A basket of breadsticks can be synonymous with sharing and family, and Vitvavigor is a believer that the basket should be present at every restaurant table and in every family’s kitchen.

 There is evidently hope that the breadstick will return to its original ubiquity, with the help of national breadstick day, and the campaign #savethegrissino.

 jp-gs