Italian cuisine as UNESCO heritage: what benefits for Sardinia in 2025

On 10 December 2025, Italy will celebrate the recognition of Italian cuisine as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage, a unique achievement that highlights the cultural, social and community value of food. But what does this mean for Sardinia, one of the Italian regions with the most distinctive and ancient gastronomic heritage in the Mediterranean?

The inclusion in the UNESCO list does not refer to a specific dish, but to the entire cultural model that characterises Italian cuisine: conviviality, artisanal production, seasonality, biodiversity and the transmission of knowledge.
A framework into which Sardinia fits perfectly.

1. An international showcase for Sardinian products and traditions

The UNESCO brand increases curiosity about regional and local cuisines, especially the most authentic ones. For Sardinia, it represents a powerful lever for promoting:

• Carasau bread, civraxiu and ritual breads
• fregula, malloreddus, culurgiones IGP
• pecorino and raw milk cheeses
• bottarga, saffron, extra virgin olive oil
• traditional desserts: pardulas, papassini, gueffus
• the great wines that define the region: Cannonau, Carignano del Sulcis, Vernaccia di Oristano, Malvasia di Bosa

UNESCO recognition reinforces the idea that all this is not just 'food', but living cultural heritage.

2. Growth in food and wine tourism and rural tourism

Tourism in 2025 follows a clear trend: seeking authentic, sustainable experiences linked to the identity of the local area.

Thanks to UNESCO, Sardinia can benefit from:

• new requests for traditional cooking courses (bread, pasta, desserts)
• itineraries and wine tours in the most renowned areas (Mandrolisai, Marmilla, Bosa, Sulcis)
• greater interest in farmhouses, wineries, farms
• promotion of villages linked to gastronomic knowledge (Oliena, Ovodda, Sadali, Seneghe, Bosa, Baunei)

An opportunity to deseasonalise flows, distribute tourism inland and boost the local economy.

3. Benefits for production and craft supply chains

The UNESCO label helps to:

• promote and defend PDO, PGI and Slow Food Presidia
• protect traditional products from imitations and misuse of names
• easier access to protection funds and safeguard programmes
• supporting young entrepreneurs in the agri-food sector

For Sardinia, where the productive fabric is made up of small businesses, shepherds and family workshops, this is a strategic lever.

4. Strengthening Sardinia's image abroad

In international tourism, Sardinia is often associated only with the sea.
UNESCO recognition allows us to tell a more complete story:

• an island with a strong gastronomic identity
• a region with unique native grape varieties
• a thousand-year-old agricultural and pastoral heritage
• a food culture with prehistoric roots

It is an opportunity to position Sardinia as a Mediterranean food and wine destination of excellence.

5. Safeguarding traditional knowledge

The value of UNESCO concerns above all cultural transmission.
For Sardinia, this means paying more attention to:

• educational workshops in schools
• digital archives of historical recipes
• preservation of traditional bread-making and cheese-making techniques
• role of women as guardians of knowledge
• revival of recipes and gastronomic rituals that are disappearing

A way to keep alive a heritage that is in danger of being lost.