Written on 9 January 2023, updated on 24 December 2025 “Our food system is ‘broken’. But how did we get to this point? And how has our relationship with food changed over the last hundred years? In the first episode of the docuseries ‘What We Eat’, produced in collaboration with @foodunfolded with the support of EIT Food and co-funded by the European Union, we trace the evolution of our relationship with what we eat, which has been completely transformed in the space of a single century.” Video produced and published by Will Media – January 2023 Featuring Giuseppe Caprotti, Fabio Ciconte, Benjamin Lorr and Emanuela Scarpellini Conclusion: Unfortunately, however, we are witnessing a decline in food quality, partly due to the obsessive pursuit of ever ‘lower’ prices. To better understand the history of food, read also ‘Ultra-processed foods: if you know them, try to avoid them’: “Industrial sliced bread first appeared between 1928 and 1930 with the introduction of the first automatic slicers and the bread produced by the Wonder company. The turning point came in 1943, during the Second World War, when the army requested ‘enriched’ bread – fortified with vitamins and minerals – to feed American troops” ( The Wall Street Journal, below). The photographs taken in Greece and Switzerland are telling of the influence exerted by the USA. Below is also an old advert for Esselunga, which, for decades, stocked an ‘American-style bread’ produced at its factory near Florence.
