The agrifood sector is experiencing profound transformation driven by scientific breakthroughs, technological advancements, and the intensifying imperative to develop sustainable and resilient food systems. While longstanding legal concerns—such as the right to food, food security, policies to address food loss and waste, intellectual property protection, and food safety regulations—remain central to legal and policy discussions, emerging regulatory challenges are also arising from rapid innovations in food production, processing, and distribution. Cutting-edge developments in biotechnology, precision agriculture, alternative proteins, and digital farming technologies necessitate a reassessment of existing regulatory frameworks, which often struggle to keep pace with scientific progress and its social implications.
These advancements raise fundamental questions: how can legal systems balance the competing interests of innovation, consumer protection, environmental sustainability, and food security? To what extent should regulatory frameworks be harmonised internationally, and where should national and regional legislators retain autonomy? Which legal instruments best ensure that innovation in the agrifood sector is consistent with basic values, such as public health, ethics, and socio-economic justice? Answering these questions requires a multidimensional and interdisciplinary approach that extends beyond standard doctrinal legal analysis to encompass socio-economic, ethical, and political considerations.
This volume contributes to this discourse by offering a systematic and interdisciplinary analysis of the evolving legal framework on food innovation. It stems from the OnFoods project, a collaborative initiative bringing together legal scholars, economists, and policy experts from diverse backgrounds. The research team encompasses both academics with extensive expertise in agrifood law and early-career scholars whose work reflects the latest methodological and thematic advancements in the field. As the project nears completion, we are committed to disseminating its findings broadly, through an open-access publication, to maximise its impact within academic, professional, and policymaking communities.
The volume is structured into three main parts, each addressing distinct yet interconnected aspects of food innovation and their legal implications.
The first part, ‘Innovation in the Agrifood Sector’, opens with a chapter by Lorenza Violini, who outlines a theoretical framework by exploring the intersection of law, science, and technological progress in the agrifood domain. Specific attention is devoted to the issue of sustainability, which emerges as a crucial element for the protection of fundamental rights. Given its economic, environmental, and social implications, sustainability calls for a strategic regulatory approach rather than a merely static planning model.
From the second chapter onwards, the focus shifts to selected aspects of the international legal framework and the regulatory approach adopted by the European Union. In particular, the chapter by Ludovica Di Lullo examines various instruments of international law—such as the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS), the International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (ITPGRFA), and the recent World Intellectual Property Organisation Treaty on Intellectual Property, Genetic Resources and Associated Traditional Knowledge (WIPO Treaty)—highlighting how international law fosters food innovation and ensures food security through the regime of intellectual property rights. In this context, the analysis seeks to assess whether the rules on the protection of patents and plant varieties facilitate or hinder access to agricultural technologies, and whether this, in turn, may affect the enjoyment of certain human rights.
From the perspective of European Union (EU) law, Nicola Bergamaschi’s contribution focuses on the EU’s efforts to support research and innovation in the agrifood sector. It draws attention to the role played by EU funding mechanisms, notably, the ‘Horizon Europe’ research programme and the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP), in assessing the centrality of food innovation and sustainable development in EU policymaking.
A further central theme concerns the regulation of so-called Novel Foods within the EU, with specific reference to the legal and economic challenges associated with edible insects and lab-grown meat. This topic is addressed in the chapters authored, respectively, by Maria Laura Grilli and Giulia Formici, Giacomo Degli Antoni, and Marco Faillo. Maria Laura Grilli highlights the potential of Novel Foods as sustainable protein sources with high nutritional value and reflects on regulatory challenges, consumer scepticism, and fragmented national policies—factors that frequently hinder the commercialisation of such products.
The chapter by Giulia Formici, Giacomo Degli Antoni, and Marco Faillo, on the other hand, focuses on the results of a survey conducted on a diverse sample of the Italian population and investigates public awareness of the existing regulatory framework concerning cultivated meat and consumer preferences regarding how such regulations ought to be structured.
The second part, ‘New Methods of Agricultural Production’, examines the transformation of agricultural production systems, with a focus on innovative techniques that may challenge traditional regulatory paradigms.
The opening chapter, by Maria Giulia Corazza, explores the concept of ‘Agriculture 4.0’, which encompasses the digital transformation of agriculture through big data analytics, artificial intelligence, and precision farming. The adoption of such technologies raises significant legal and regulatory issues concerning data ownership, cybersecurity, liability, and competition law. Against the backdrop of the EU’s broader digital strategy, the chapter investigates how regulatory frameworks can support the development of a fair and transparent digital agrifood economy, while simultaneously safeguarding the rights of farmers and the interests of consumers.
Following this line of inquiry, Simone Pitto focuses on the legal implications of vertical farming, an increasingly relevant model of urban and controlled-environment agriculture. This innovative method of production offers a response to the rising demand for food while also promoting sustainable models of food production and consumption. Additionally, the spread of vertical farming has a potentially positive environmental impact, due to its reduced use of water and pesticides. In this context, the chapter examines the current EU regulatory framework—which, however, does not explicitly include vertical farming within its main agricultural policies—and analyses a legislative proposal, developed by a group of young scholars, aimed at providing a subnational legal framework for vertical farming in Italy.
The following chapter, authored by Maria Chiara Errigo, turns to the legal regulation of biotechnologies in the agrifood sector, encompassing both Genetically Modified Organisms (GMO s) and New Genomic Techniques (NGT s). While such techniques and technologies may contribute to enhanced agricultural productivity and climate resilience, they remain highly controversial from a legal, ethical, and political perspective. The chapter evaluates the divergent regulatory approaches adopted in different jurisdictions and assesses the extent to which recent legislative developments within the EU facilitate—or hinder—the adoption of gene-editing techniques in agriculture.
The third and final part, ‘Innovation and the Fight Against Food Loss and Waste’, addresses one of the most pressing challenges facing contemporary food policy: food loss and waste (FLW). Given the scale of the phenomenon at both the production and consumption levels, reducing FLW is not only an environmental and economic imperative, but also a legal and governance challenge requiring a holistic approach. This part of the volume examines how international and national legal frameworks are evolving to address FLW; evaluates the effectiveness of existing rules and policies; and identifies areas in need of reform.
More specifically, the chapter by Luca Romano examines the role of technological innovation in reducing FLW from the perspective of international law, with a focus on the extent to which binding and non-binding legal instruments—adopted in the context of sustainable development and human rights protection—address this issue. The chapter pays special attention to soft law tools, including the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation’s Voluntary Code of Conduct for Reducing Food Loss and Waste, which, while not legally binding, represents a key instrument in promoting innovation in the agrifood sector and fostering international cooperation.
The following chapter, by Chiara Cerbone, provides a comparative legal analysis of the same issue, focusing on legislative and policy measures adopted at both the supranational and national levels to combat food waste and food poverty. The chapter compares the legislative approaches adopted by Italy and France, with particular attention to an experimental measure introduced in Italy—the reddito alimentare—which seeks to redistribute surplus food to vulnerable, urban communities.
In a similar vein, but from an agricultural law perspective, the chapter by Laura Costantino examines preventive legal instruments for the sustainable management of agricultural production. Starting from the framework of the CAP, this chapter analyses the Italian legal system, with a special focus on the role of key actors—legislators, policymakers, public administrations, and producers—in implementing policies capable of effectively balancing production and consumption to limit food waste.
Finally, Alessia Depietri’s chapter considers the ‘bioeconomy strategy’ as a crucial approach to addressing food waste and promoting circularity in the agrifood sector. By analysing legal instruments aimed at encouraging the use of agrifood by-products in biorefining, biomaterials, and energy production, the chapter highlights the role of law in fostering sustainable and resource-efficient food systems.
While many of the topics explored in this volume have been the subject of individual studies, its overall novelty lies in its integrated and systematic approach. By bridging multiple disciplines—including Constitutional Law, Agrifood Law, EU Law, International Law, Comparative Public Law, and Administrative Law—the volume offers a comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the complex legal issues arising from food innovation.
The interdisciplinary nature of this open-access publication is further strengthened by the diverse expertise developed within the broader OnFoods project, spanning different areas of law and economic policy. This volume also stands out for its strong commitment to early-career researchers, who play a central role in its development. Over the past year, PhD students, postdoctoral fellows, and assistant professors have actively contributed to this project through research networks, presentations at scientific conferences and workshops, and interdisciplinary training initiatives. By featuring their work alongside contributions from senior academic scholars, this volume provides a unique platform for emerging voices in the field.
In conclusion, ‘Food Innovation and Legal Challenges’ intends to make a groundbreaking contribution to the study of legal and regulatory issues in the agrifood sector. By combining theoretical analysis with case studies and policy-oriented recommendations, it seeks to inform the academic debate, have an impact on the legal process, and support stakeholders—including policymakers, industry leaders, and civil society organisations—in navigating the evolving landscape of food innovation.
Above all, this volume raises fundamental questions—many of which have been highlighted in this Introduction—concerning the capacity of legal systems to adapt to change, while simultaneously shaping it in accordance with the principles of human dignity and environmental protection.
Lucia Scaffardi
Chiara Cerbone
Parma, 30 July 2025