Italian Minister of Agriculture's proposal to name 'Mediterranean diet' as a World Heritage may sound a bit surreal but the underlying forces may be a contest between bodies such as FAO (based in Italy) UNESCO (based in France) the EU and the World Trade Organisation. A lot of money to be made in the protected 'appelation d'origine' industry...

There is also a danger that if we are to recklessly expand the definition of world heritage beyond natural areas and cultural relics to include commercial products, the whole concept may become discredited. Meanwhile it is already hard to manage and protect existing world heritage sites with 30 such sites being officially in danger

However, traditional food making facilities can indeed be recognised as part of a country's heritage, but they have to be something truly spectacular to acquire world heritage status.