Wild berry foods: the revolution that could come to Mallorca's supermarkets

PalmFoods made from sea snails, acorns, pine cones, and green pineapples could soon be on supermarket shelves. This is the proposal of the European project. Forgotten Plants, which investigates how to transform wild fruits into innovative products while promoting the rural bioeconomy and sustainable forest management. In this context, Palma will host the conference this Tuesday, September 16th. Forest foods and bioeconomy organized at the Professional School Mention with the collaboration of the Association of Local Varieties of Mallorca.

The initiative, launched in Catalonia by the Eixarcolant collective, the Sambucus cooperative, and the Emys Foundation, has developed around thirty pilot products, such as acorn-fed Bolognese, green pineapple oil, spicy strawberry tree sauce, sea buckthorn vinaigrette, and chips with grataculo. They can already be found in around twenty Catalan stores, and the challenge is to transfer this knowledge to other territories, including the Balearic Islands.

The promoters point out that the abandonment of agriculture and the expansion of Mediterranean forests opens up opportunities to redesign our relationship with the environment and turn it into a source of innovation, biodiversity, and resilience to climate change.

The event in Palma will explore the potential of these five forgotten plants at the Mención Escuela Profesional center in Palma, from 11 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., and is aimed at the food sector. During the session, the initiative's promoters will explain the specific characteristics of the five wild fruits mentioned, along with their potential and limitations. Participants will then be able to create and taste products made from these fruits.

Forgotten Plants It is supported by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (Miteco) within the framework of the PRTR, financed by the European Union-NextGenerationEU.