The Generalitat (Catalan Government), through the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries, and Food, within the framework of the Food Strategy of Catalonia, has promoted the project “Elaborated products from the primary sector to increase their added value,” together with the Alícia Foundation. This project has resulted in five products made with lamb, legume spreads, pumpkin, fish, and stone fruit.
The project’s objective is to foster innovation in small and medium-sized businesses and producers in the primary sector and to support them in the conception and development of new products that offer added value due to their culinary and gastronomic potential.
Furthermore, the initial premise was that the products would be easy and simple to produce and understandable and identifiable by consumers; that they would be real products with real solutions, based on gastronomic knowledge, and that they could be priced ethically and consistently for both the producer and the end consumer. Furthermore, concepts such as flavor, versatility, market trends, and the fact that they encouraged healthier eating patterns were also important in the development of the product.
The transformation of fresh foods into processed products (also called fifth-range, cooked, or pre-cooked) allows for adding value to agricultural raw materials and avoiding waste. This not only helps improve the profit margins of local producers but also contributes to increasing the perception of quality of Catalan products.
The prepared dishes that have emerged are characterized by offering values of health, sustainability, and gastronomic pleasure, adapting to the specific needs that society requires. Among the dishes, lamb stands out:
-With lamb, lamb fricassee with mushrooms and lamb curry with lentils: the development of a lamb product is justified by the fact that it is a priority sector to impact, severely affected by a considerable drop in production and consumption.
In Catalonia, the sheep and goat sector is associated with livestock farming models with a lower environmental impact and also contributes to the revitalization of the most vulnerable rural areas.
Lamb is, therefore, a product with great added value that should be promoted in order to recover the strong connection with the country’s food and gastronomic culture, while also being well-received by many other cultures. It also makes it possible to work with native breeds, with the least valued parts, and with the strategy of deseasonalizing their consumption.
For more information, click here link (press release in catalan)
