Food is no longer just a matter of agriculture or nutrition, it’s a question of urban policy, public space, social and spatial equity, and climate action. More and more cities, like Turin, are treating food as a key lens for shaping sustainable futures. What sets Turin apart is not a single strategy, but the way it connects places, actions, and policies through a mix of curiosity, commitment, and everyday practices shaped together by citizens and decision makers.
Turin is proving to be a fertile ground for testing new ideas that address some of today’s most pressing challenges, from mobility to digitalisation. This includes their work on food system transformation, understanding it as a matter of governance, public space, and collaborative and inclusive climate actions.
Without a structured plan or a dedicated municipal office, Turin has been able to develop a bottom-up approach to food policy: layered, experimental, and collaborative. By leveraging EU-funded projects like FUSILLI and SPOON, and international networks like Cleverfood, the municipality has brought together public entities, universities, NGOs, local businesses and citizens to rethink how food is produced, distributed and consumed in the city.
The Turin City Lab
Launched by the City of Turin as part of its European Funds and Innovation strategy, Torino City Lab began with a simple yet ambitious mission: to open the city as a testing ground for innovation. Initially operating without dedicated funding, the lab offered startups and enterprises a real-world environment to pilot new solutions to answer real local challenges, with the municipality acting as matchmaker, linking ideas to places, people, and services.
“At the beginning, we were open to everything,” says Laura Ribotta, Environmental Engineer and EU Project Manager in the City of Turin. “Any startup or company could test a new solution in the city, and we just found the right place and people for it.”
Any startup or company could test a new solution in the city, and we just found the right place and people for it.
Over time, this informal initiative grew into a robust platform. Today, the Torino City Lab boasts a network of around 90 public and private partners, and has attracted national-level funding through different projects. From autonomous mobility to digital twin infrastructure, the lab has become a reference point for smart city experimentation.
While its current priorities focus on emerging technologies and mobility, the lab’s adaptable model has also paved the way for thematic experimentation, including food systems, smart tourism and circular economy. By launching targeted calls for innovation and aligning with EU projects, Turin has successfully exploited this approach to stimulate solutions able to tackle urgent societal needs, making the city not just a site for innovation, but a co-creator of it.
The Food Atlas and Turin’s systemic approach
Turin’s work on food policy is rooted in a layered and evolving journey that blends institutional commitment, academic collaboration, and civic engagement. It began in 2015 when the city signed the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and later embedded the right to food in its municipal statute. This move signaled a long-term political intention to treat food as a basic, universal right.
Building on this foundation, the City of Turin launched a partnership with the University of Turin to develop the Food Atlas (Atlante del Cibo), a research-driven initiative that maps the local food system and provides a knowledge base for policy design. The partnership evolved into a proper network of key actors – for instance, the Piedmont Region, and the Chamber of Commerce. This platform helped define the city’s trajectory in the EU-funded FUSILLI project and beyond; again, a living lab model is used to experiment with innovative, sustainable food practices that are collaborative and grounded in real, local needs.
Rather than impose top-down solutions, Turin’s approach is based on nurturing rich networks of researchers, civil servants, NGOs, and entrepreneurs, each contributing to a broader governance ecosystem. This has enabled the city to test circular business models, influence public procurement practices, and engage residents in food-related experimentation. The outcome is not a single strategy, but a mosaic of interconnected actions that reflect the complexity of urban food systems.
From policy to plate
Turning policy into tangible outcomes is where Turin’s living lab approach truly shines. Drawing on the flexible infrastructure of Turin City Lab and funding from EU projects like FUSILLI and SME4GREEN, the city launched a dedicated call for food and circular economy experiments. While modest in financial scale, the initiative proved to be rich in innovation.
Seven pilot projects were selected to run throughout 2023, each aimed at rethinking food use and waste in creative ways. These ranged from producing beer brewed with surplus bread to testing restaurant business models grounded in circular economy principles. The pilots not only engaged local SMEs and associations but also generated data, experiences, and narratives that fed back into policy development.
One highlight was the city-wide event held during the European Week for Waste Reduction. The initiative involved colleagues from different city departments, featured a recipe contest using food leftovers, and organised public tastings. This resulted in the city of Turin receiving the European Week for Waste Reduction national award. Through these activities, the living lab moved beyond abstract policy into the everyday lives of citizens. It offered concrete, replicable examples of how urban food systems can become more sustainable and inclusive.
We don’t want to rush into building a formal Food Council. Sometimes bureaucracy kills energy.
Building governance from within
One of Turin’s most innovative achievements is the way it has reimagined food governance from within. Rather than immediately establishing a formal Food Council, the city chose a more organic route: analysing itself and the state of the local food system. “We thought: before we create a Food Council, we need to talk inside the municipal services first. What are other departments doing? We didn’t know,” says Ribotta.
Through the FUSILLI project, an interdepartmental working group was created, bringing together staff from across various city departments, including education, environment, commerce, and international cooperation.
This group met monthly in its early phase, supported by external facilitators with experience from Milan’s food policy. The goal was simple: to break down institutional silos and build a shared understanding of how different parts of the administration relate to food. What emerged was not only a stronger internal network, but also a new sense of ownership over the city’s food policy direction.
The result was the co-creation of Turin’s first food policy guidelines, officially approved in late 2023. These guidelines serve as a strategic compass for the city’s ongoing work and are reviewed collectively to ensure alignment and progress. While the idea of a formal Food Council remains under consideration, the city is cautious: “We don’t want to rush into building a formal Food Council. Sometimes bureaucracy kills energy,” explains Ribotta. Instead, Turin is proving that internal governance, when built on trust, transparency, and collaboration, can be a powerful driver of systemic change.
Tuesdays for Food
While internal coordination has proven vital, Turin is also investing in wider public dialogue. One standout initiative is ‘Tuesdays for Food’ (Martedì del Cibo), a series of thematic monthly meetings hosted by the University of Turin as part of the Food Atlas initiative. “Every month, we meet in a different place, with a different topic. It’s open, informal, and public,” explains Ribotta.
Held in different locations across the city, these informal gatherings invite NGOs, researchers, associations, and citizens to discuss specific food-related themes, including urban agriculture and food education. The meetings are open to everyone and tailored to different audiences, aiming to foster inclusivity and generate grassroots input for the city’s food agenda. In doing so, they are quietly building the foundations of a food governance model that is participatory without being bureaucratic. It is a flexible, evolving alternative to the formalised Food Council model seen in other cities. Such an approach also ensures that pressing matters can be addressed and discussed as the need arises.
Expanding the conversation
Turin’s governance model and partnerships were explored in depth during a recent Cleverfood study visit in May 2025, where the participating cities of Limerick, Sarajevo and Osmangazi, as fellow entities of the project’s peer-learning programme, observed first-hand how food policy is grounded in institutional collaboration, research, and civic networks. “We experienced the power of collaboration, of being part of a European family and the benefit it brings,” said Catherine Caball, Coordinator of Limerick Food Partnership.
We experienced the power of collaboration, of being part of a European family and the benefit it brings.
During the study visit, participants visited three urban gardens of Turin with a strong social purpose. A hands-on cooking session using produce from the gardens underscored the city’s philosophy of making policy edible, creating opportunities for engaging citizens and decision makers through food.
Limerick reflected on the contrast between its health-led food agenda and Turin’s environment-driven approach, and noted how Turin’s urban gardens serve as platforms for multi-stakeholder engagement and climate awareness, whereas in Limerick, they are more focused on mental health. Both cities identified community ownership and the limited involvement of large food retailers as shared challenges.
Both Sarajevo and Osmangazi expressed interest in forming a food council or working groups. The Bosnian capital is currently prioritising the rollout of free school meals, starting from the city and aiming to expand nationally. For Osmangazi, Turin’s use of public space, food and citizens’ engagement was truly inspiring. City representatives highlighted the importance of cultural change and community-building.
All Cleverfood delegates particularly valued the way Turin’s Food Atlas serves both as a mapping tool and a platform for long-term strategy development, connecting municipal action with local stakeholders and communities.
The Cleverfood exchange confirmed that Turin’s strategic use of EU projects is more than just a way to secure funds; it’s about innovating governance, shaping food culture, and creating networks for peer exchange with other cities that navigate similar challenges. “Although this time we were the guiding entity, we also have things to learn from the fellow cities and agreed that the exchange should continue and evolve,” reflects Mariangela Pastorello, EU Environmental Project Manager in the City of Turin. “Last but not least, organising field visits helps us shape a structured narrative, systematise data and better understand the value of our activities.”
