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ETHNIC FOODS IN PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT AND PROMOTI"ON to Top

The Ethnic Food Category is growing at about 6-7% a year to about 5% of the total growth (Brandt, 1999). The category was 7% or worth $705 billion last year.

The increased popularity may be partly a result in changes in social values, increased ethnic pride, desire for improved nutrition. Several major ethnic trends that permeate the whole consumption market are:

  • increasing heat levels
  • greater authenticity
  • increased flavor impact
  • background spice notes
  • fusion flavors
  • greater interest in fresh fruit flavors
  • seasonings for health

    • Certainly one can focus on a trend or specific ethnic market and, though the appropriate understanding of the market, sell products. However, it is of much greater use if one can develop ingredients or products across several ethnic categories. The increasing heat or spice levels is such an example. The USDA (Brandt, 1999) indicates that Americans have doubled their use of chili peppers to six pounds per capita. This is used in a variety of ethnic categories. such as the Latinos, Thais, and Indian food. Uhl, S. (1996) discussed the fact that ingredients are the building blocks for developing "new" ethnic foods.

    Toop and Kevin, 1997, indicates that ethnic foods will increase at the annual rate of 5.3 percent to $10.17 billion dollars. Hispanics, African-Americans, Asians and Native Americans made up approximately 28 percent of the U.S. population (U.S. Bureau of the Census 1994 data), representing 73 million people with a combined purchasing power of $746 billion.


    Toop and Kevin, 1997
    What are "new" ethnic foods? Uhl (1996) indicates these are regional ethnic foods, fusion foods, traditional American foods with ethnic flair, and mainstreamed ethnic foods. They meet the flavor and nutritional desires of the population. Uhl discusses the various ethnic groups that come together to give the consumer these "new" ethnic foods. If one is a food product developer they must understand not only the ethnic cultures and regions but also how to blend and balance ingredients that may be "usual" or not. This category necessitates an "authentic" taste. This means using spices, herbs, chili peppers, seeds, nuts, fruits, and flavors that are not the "classic" traditional American food. Uhl (1996) discusses this in detail in the 1996 article.

    There is another aspect of ethnic foods. That is how and in what way do different ethnic groups shop for foods. Brunso and Grunert (1998) discussed the difficulty and potential of measuring food-related lifestyle and how it can be compared across nations or cultures. If you understand this aspect one can focus food-product development, marketing and promotion to ones lifestyle. The article does indicate that there will always be problems with looking at such items as importance of product information, attitudes to advertising, enjoyment from shopping, specialty shops, price criteria, and shopping lists across cultures as their may be some basic underlying cultural difference.

    The development of commercial food products that are based on particular ethnic groups is an expanding market. This will explore changes and reasons for the changes in the market. Additionally, the probable past, current and future market will be discussed in selected ethnic foods.

    Introduction

  • Statement of the problem
  • Definition of ethnic foods
  • the consumer for the ethnic food market

    • The Ethnic Revival

  • neo-ethnic movement
  • major factors challenging the food market

    • The food manufacturers' perspective

  • factors in favor of ethnic food promotion
  • the characteristics of an ethnic food

    • Current trends in the ethnic food market in America

  • regional influences
  • the case of Italian food in America
    • This is all well and fine but how does one get information on Oregon. There are two projects which may furnish information that allows you to use demographics to understand the population in Oregon. There is the 1996 Oregon Population Survey and the Government Information Sharing Project.

    REFERENCESAlso, see specific countries to Top

    Updated: Saturday, August 16, 2008.

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