The Mediterranean diet refers to a set of food, agricultural, festive and social practices shared by the societies of the Mediterranean basin. In Morocco, it was the community of Chefchaouen that was chosen as the representative case study: a rural-urban Rif medina, founded in 1471 by the Moriscos expelled from Andalusia, which preserves a food culture of rare coherence.
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to be replacedi. The Chefchaouen case
Chefchaouen, perched at 600 metres in the western Rif, shows several traits proper to the Mediterranean diet: olive oil as the main fat, soft wheat grown dry, legumes (broad beans, chickpeas, lentils), seasonal vegetables from the al-jnan garden, fresh goat cheese jben, meat consumed moderately, fish absent (an inland town), wine absent (Muslim), water and mint tea omnipresent.
ii. Components
The 2013 UNESCO inscription emphasises less the foods themselves than the practices that accompany them: agricultural practices (terrace cultivation, polyculture), fishing practices (artisanal, seasonal), social practices (meals taken together, the hospitality of the diafa), festive rituals (weddings, births, religious feasts), know-how (bread-making, meat-drying, jben-making, gathering of wild plants).
iii. Health and heritage
The diet's health virtues — recognised by Ancel Keys in the 1960s — contributed to its inscription as intangible heritage to be safeguarded. Once again, it is less the nutritional prescription that is protected than the practices that make it possible: local markets, local crops, family transmission.
iv. Today
The Ministry of Culture, in partnership with the municipality of Chefchaouen and INRA, has since 2014 undertaken an ethnographic food inventory of the town. Several women's cooperatives produce honey, cheese and jams there under the "Moroccan Mediterranean cuisine" label. A food museum is planned for 2026.