Vocational catering schools are now increasingly trying to offer various specializing addresses. In particular, the growing request for catering linked to wellness and healthy diet guidelines, requires specific training in this sector. Metabolic diseases, intolerance and allergies are currently relevant public health issues, due to the high incidence on the population. The Position Statement on Allergies, food intolerance and nutritional therapy of obesity and metabolic diseases of 2016, declares that the treatment of these pathologies is effective if it’s aimed at changing the lifestyle and, in particular, through the adoption of a healthy dietary regime not drastically restricted, but rather using food models having a cultural and traditional background, such as the Mediterranean one, and which do not differ much from what patients' preferences are.

In this sense, IO2 expects the development of a specialized Pilot Training Course for students attending the last three years of their school path (16-18 year old). Students will have the opportunity to acquire knowledge related to the culinary culture of the participating countries, enhance transversal skills, develop theoretical technical skills and deepen them through practical activity. In particular, they will have the opportunity to increase and deepen their theoretical knowledge on metabolic diseases, allergies and intolerance, to apply techniques and procedures for the production and processing of foods, to study their risks and benefits and to acquire technical and professional skills. Through theoretical and practical lessons, students will have the opportunity to interchange with their teachers and students from other countries, promoting the cultural "melting" of knowledge and practices. During the practical lessons, observing and reproducing the recipes, the real protagonists of the various meetings, the students will develop the aptitude to cooperate in the kitchen labs, even in a new different context.

Besides, the course will provide students with specific skills that will allow them to improve their job opportunities.
The Pilot Course lays the foundation for the development of a new school vocational curricolo in healthy cooking.