Face to face with: TRESPALDUM | SANA Partner

February 2026

Trespaldum is a small family-run business founded in 2007 in Mafalda, a tiny town in the Molise region, near the border with Abruzzo, overlooking the sea on one side and the Majella mountains on the other. The family’s deep passion for olive oil and olive growing, along with the desire to create something that could highlight the value of our land, inspired us to produce an extraordinary extra virgin olive oil—rooted in tradition yet embracing the benefits of innovation: artisanal production focused on quality, authenticity, and sustainability.
From the very beginning, we committed to pursuing these goals with full respect for the environment, both in our cultivation methods and our production processes. For the latter, in fact, we have adopted renewable energy technologies, making our production facility entirely self- sufficient.

What inspired your participation in SANA Food 2026, and what goals or expectations are guiding you in this new edition?

We chose to take part in this fair because we feel the need to share beyond the borders of Molise what we experience every day in our olive groves: an authentic land, still little known, yet capable of producing an extra virgin olive oil with a truly unique character. But also to share our commitment to protecting a genuine and fragile territory, and to help it grow in a sustainable way. This fair is an opportunity to give people a close look at our way of working—based on respect for the land, careful harvesting, and production choices that safeguard the environment. For us, organic is not just a label: it is the most natural way to give back to the earth what it gives us.
We come to this new edition with the goal of creating genuine connections, of offering a taste of our identity, and of telling the story of Molise through an extra virgin olive oil that is clean, sustainable, and deeply rooted in its origins. We hope to return home with new relationships and with the feeling that we’ve brought a piece of our land to places it had never reached before.

Today’s consumers are increasingly conscious about health and well-being. How has this awareness influenced your production choices or inspired new product concepts?

Today, those who choose extra virgin olive oil are not simply looking for a condiment, but for an ingredient that supports their overall well-being. That’s why we’ve directed our efforts toward increasingly attentive production methods, focused on both quality parameters and nutritional benefits.At our mill, we employ extraction techniques designed to best preserve the phenolic compounds and the varietal aromas: thermal conditioning systems, controlled temperatures, reduced malaxation times, and fast processing immediately after harvest. At the same time, we have developed new offerings: high-polyphenol selections, identity-rich monovarietal oils, and products conceived for mindful everyday use. Undoubtedly, the most important and challenging achievement has been the official recognition of our “Gentile di Mafalda” as the 19th olive cultivar of Molise. Trespaldum took the lead in the field, carrying out all the procedures required to make this recognition possible. For us, this milestone represents a significant victory—not only on a personal level, but above all for our town, Mafalda. This recognition, in fact, has inspired other young people to return to the countryside, restoring and revitalizing abandoned olive groves. Our goal remains unchanged: to combine quality, well-being, and authenticity by bringing to the table an extra virgin olive oil that is both beneficial and tells the story of our land.

Tradition and innovation often go hand in hand in a company’s growth journey. How do you manage to honor your roots while giving them a contemporary interpretation?

For us, tradition lives in the fields: in the management of our olive groves and in agronomic practices that respect natural rhythms and safeguard the land. We believe this way of working protects the environment and preserves the balance of the ecosystem. Everything else is innovation. At the mill, in our control procedures, extraction technologies, and production choices, we adopt a modern approach—focused on quality, efficiency, and sustainability. Our mission is clear: to enhance what tradition holds dear, while transforming it through contemporary processes that ensure an excellent product—an extra virgin olive oil born from strong roots and an evolved method.

Transparency, sustainability, and traceability have become essential values in today’s market. How do you bring these principles to life in your distribution practices?

ENVIRONMENT, QUALITY, and UNIQUENESS are the ethical pillars on which our company is founded, and they also represent the foundation for our future. From the very beginning, we embraced a modern approach to olive growing, with the goal of minimizing our environmental impact. To meet the energy demands of our operations, we chose to adopt renewable energy technologies—such as photovoltaic panels and solar thermal systems—which have made our extra virgin olive oil production facility fully self- sufficient. As for the packaging materials used for shipping, the company strives, wherever possible, to reuse packaging derived from the purchase of raw materials (such as bottles and cans). The goal is to pursue a circular economy based on the 4R paradigm (reduce, reuse, recycle, recover), in order to extend product life cycles and contribute to minimizing waste, all within the framework of sustainable development.