How set up a Slow Food Presidium

Here are the steps to establishing a Slow Food Presidium:

• Completion of the application form
• Meetings with the producers and visits to the potential Presidium
• Creation of a Slow Food Presidium Community
• Drafting and sharing of the production protocol
• Production of a narrative label
• The signing of the code of use for the Slow Food Presidium logo*
  *NOTE: Make sure the logo is authorized for use in your country! Contact your local coordinator or write to international@slowfood.it

1. Completion of the application form

Click here and fill the application form

2. Meetings with the producers and visits to the potential Presidium

Once the application form has been approved, the next step is a visit by Slow Food Foundation staff or consultants and the organization of a meeting with local coordinators and the producers interested in joining. The aim is to get a precise overview of the situation, identifying its potential and the problems that will need to be overcome. Together with the producers, it will be necessary to define the Presidium’s name (of great importance, as it represents its historic identity) and the production area. 

3. Creation of a Slow Food Presidium Community

A Presidium strengthens relationships between producers and acts to reinforce the local economic and social system. The creation of a Slow Food Community, with a specific objective, is essential to underpin the project. 

To become a Slow Food Community, all the Presidium members must sign the Community Founding Declaration, available here.

4. Drafting and sharing of the production protocol 

Once the project has been approved, the producers must work to draft a production protocol, following the guidelines and questionnaires that the Slow Food Foundation has prepared for different product categories.

5. Production of a narrative label

Slow Food’s narrative label is an important transparency and promotional tool for producers. It does not replace the legally required label, but supports it, allowing consumers to find out all about how the product was made: its place of origin, the type of farming used, production techniques, and so on. They can be individual, unique to each producer, or collective, describing the general context of the Presidium. They are a form of self-certification that directly involves the producer. For more details, click here.

6. The signing of the code of use for the Slow Food Presidium logo

At this point, the producers can request authorization to use the Slow Food Presidium logo on their products. 

So far only producers from Presidia in Italy, Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, and a few other European countries, such as Denmark and the Netherlands, can use the Slow Food Presidium logo on their labels. 

Contact your local coordinator or write to international@slowfood.it if you are interested in using the logo in your country too!

The Presidia are the only Slow Food projects allowed to use the snail logo on their product labels.

For more information, write to: international@slowfood.it