An app shows you the origin of that fish you ordered

Traceability and transparency are the names of the game for this Tuscan initiative

Imagine sitting at a restaurant and ordering a fish but wondering whether you should trust the waiter’s assurances on its freshness and origin. A restaurant chain in Italy has solved this dilemma thanks to a digital tracing app of the whole fishing supply chain from sea to plate.

The Vivo restaurants are owned by Gruppo Manno, a 4^th-generation company involved in fishing, auctioning and delivery of seafood. The company, based on the Maremma coast of Tuscany, has taken advantage of having its presence in each step of the chain to ensure the traceability of its catch.

Locally-sourced food is increasingly important

For this purpose, Gruppo Manno has developed the Origine mobile app, co-financed with European funds, as a way to let customers and market buyers know when and where their fish was caught.

First, each boat, before getting to the auction market, communicates to the employees the GPS coordinates where it had been operating. Each fish crate is then associated with the relative fishing area, after which it is weighed on scales managed by software, which activates cameras that automatically take a photo of the fish. 

Next, a label is assigned that shows the quality of the catch, the name of the fishing vessel and the fishing lot. All of this information is then recorded on the dedicated portal which stores it for the following 72 hours.

Finally, all that is needed is for the catch to be delivered to the Vivo restaurants, where the staff, through a special interface, acquire the information associated with the individual boxes and insert them into the digital menu. 

On it, next to every single dish, a red map pin icon appears. Thus, the customer can trace the origin of the ordered fish, know its origin and even the name of the fishing boat.

Leonardo Marras, the councillor for economy and tourism of the Tuscany Region, wrote on his Facebook page that this is “an initiative, supported by the Region, which can also be good for tourism because it fully embraces the values of the new ethical manifesto of the Tuscan Showcase: transparency and complete traceability from the moment of fishing to sale and consumption. And because it is part of the renewed regional commitment to promote Tuscany also through its agri-food sector.”