An Italian Food Week was launched in Changning District on Friday as one of the warm-up events for the 3rd China International Import Expo in November. More than 300 Italian food products, including pasta, olive oil, wine and snacks, are sold both online and offline at Alibaba's fresh food and grocery market Freshippo through August 12. An opening ceremony for the biweekly event was held at the market's Star Live mall branch in Changning over the weekend, where customers tasted various cuisines from Italy. "Encouraged by Shanghai's Double Five Shopping Festival, we are glad to cooperate with local retailers to share very fine Italian products," said Massimiliano Tremiterra, trade commissioner of the Italian Trade Commission's Shanghai office, the organizer of the event. It is the first offline event of the commission in Shanghai in 2020 due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic. Tremiterra said the Italian government strictly checked products exported to China, which is its most important market. Chinese Customs also has very detailed checking of all the imported products, so the products are quite safe. "And I recognize that shoppers coming to the store need to have temperature check, which is a good prevention measure," he added. For the CIIE this year, 146 Italian companies have registered in all sectors. The commission will organize the National Pavilion and two commercial pavilions — Jewelry and Health Care, Tremiterra said. The Italian fair is one of a series of foreign food weeks arranged by the Changning District Commission of Commerce. A Korean Food Week was launched in early July. An online promotion event in cooperation with Osaka has attracted over 150 Japanese companies to learn about the opportunities of the CIIE and Changning. These events aim to attract more quality foreign companies to the Chinese market and allow more customers to become familiar with products from overseas, according to the commission.