Standing out from the crowd and providing an efficient service is now more important than ever. Customers are overwhelmed by the culinary offer, both online and offline. In 2018 - the year Italy Bite was founded - we noticed that no-one was providing worldwide delivery service of Italian foodstuffs - even perishable ones - charging only one shipping fee.
Our job is rooted in our deep love for good and healthy Italian food. That’s why in our e-shop we only sell carefully selected and tested products that we have purchased ourselves. That’s right, Italy Bite does not sell by drop shipping; we purchase everything as a real delicatessen shop would, but we do it online. It’s hard work, but someone has to do it.
We wanted to recreate that magical atmosphere that we felt as kids, as we would walk into those delicatessens where everything was fresh and smelled good. We wanted to experience our products first-hand, and since setting up our shop, we have always bought foodstuffs according to one, very precise, criterion. We don’t care if the products are made by a famous brand: food must first and foremost be delicious and properly made. Only by complying with this criterion, can one product become part of Italy Bite’s family.
Our clients are well aware of that and love tasting our unique products. Our fight against “Italian sounding” Selling Italian foodstuffs abroad is a big undertaking since many Italian culinary goods are victims of counterfeit. There are far too many delights that are sold as “Italian” but have nothing to do with Italy.
That’s the infamous “Italian sounding”. This phenomenon is particularly common in Germany and in the USA and data concerning this issue show a sad reality: the trade of counterfeit Italian goods was worth over 10 billion dollars in 2019, growing by 70% over the last ten years. Two out of three products that are sold abroad as Italian products are fake Made in Italy; this market makes double the profit of the real Made in Italy market.
We at Italy Bite want to bring the real culinary culture into the homes of foodies all over the world. In order to understand why buying a Parmesan Cheese rather than PDO Parmigiano Reggiano cheese is a mistake with serious consequences, it is important to know the product itself, how to recognize it and which brands make it best.
Our purpose is fulfilled whenever Germans eat a real PDO Salame di Varzi without having to move an inch, or Americans have real PDO Parmigiano Reggiano cheese, aged between 14 and 60 months, delivered to their doorstep in isothermal packaging.
Italian food at an “Italian” price
With our project, we managed to overcome another obstacle. We at Italy Bite are not exporters: we are an actual shop and our selling prices reflect the prices of the Italian market, without any overcharge for export fees.
Our prices do not change according to the country of purchase. Buying a real Italian product and spending the same amount that an Italian would spend in a gourmet delicatessen, means advocating for fair and honest food, where price plays an important role, too. It is no coincidence that counterfeit products have markedly lower selling prices; that alone should set your alarm bells ringing.
In order to make artisan goods in compliance with the product specifications set by Consortia and protected designations of origin labels (PDO, PGI), a lot of hard work and a careful selection of ingredients are required. That should be taken into account when pricing products, as stated by Carlo Petrini, founder of Slow Food, who talked at length about the price in his philosophy of “good, clean and fair food”.
Italian food rich in history
You see, it’s very difficult to let our clients taste food behind a screen. That’s because we cannot use all of our senses in the digital world; we can only use what we see. Yes, it is true that we eat with our eyes too, but whenever we are buying gourmet products online, we need to know what we are buying, we need to know the history and manufacturing methods of the products we are interested in. That’s all the more true if we purchase a product that we do not know, something that captured our attention but doesn’t belong to our food heritage.
That’s exactly what we are doing at Italy Bite; we take care of everything, from selecting specialties to raising awareness about the culture of taste, by drafting original product descriptions, taking images of fresh products and writing weekly blog entries explaining the history and traditions behind our products.
We mentioned that nowadays, we can buy any type of food online: take-away, straight from the farmer or from a supermarket. Our e-commerce focuses on products belonging to the Italian culinary tradition and offers both famous and rare goods. It is a real treasure hunt that leaves gourmet lovers tingling with curiosity to try out new products, uncovering little gems that are sometimes hidden away.
The magic of food
People usually say that only Italians can talk about food as they are still eating. That’s 100% true, especially for us because we are surrounded by gourmet delights all day long! The thing is, Italian food is a kaleidoscope of flavors, shapes and scents that vary not only from North to South, but also from region to region and from city to city. And if a spark ignites between you and this rollercoaster of flavor, you’re bound to experience unconditional and all-invasive love.
Italian people understand this passion, but what about people abroad? Are they aware that the flavor of an ingredient for Italian people is like a treasure chest full of stories, memories and love? For instance, let’s use the example of a Tuscan salami that is only made in your village: for you that’s the real salami, everything else is just a copy because it is the only one that reminds you of home, of those afternoons spent with friends or with your grandma in front of the fireplace.
A little bit of magic is sprinkled on these goods; this was the kind of food that we were specifically looking for to make it available to everyone, Italian people and non-Italian people alike, everywhere in the world. We have shipped packages to the most remote places in the world: Singapore, Alaska (a supply of PDO Parmigiano Reggiano cheese that we will never forget), Israel, Japan, California and all-around Europe. Our Italian food lovers’ touch has reached many Italians all over the world, who want more than supermarket products that you can find everywhere. Our clients wanted to recreate the memory of a particular flavor that was savored during a trip, at a friend’s house or when visiting family.
We have sent packages on behalf of mothers wishing to bring a little bit of Italy to the pantries of their children that live abroad. We have sent packages to far-away friends, to shorten the distances between them and remind them of that one lunch when they had lots of fun together. We have sent packages for homesick people that want to eat well all the time, one fragrant slice of Mortadella at the time.
