Ethnic Food Market increasing in the US

A new survey developed by a Chicago based market research firm Mintel, claims the US population is increasingly seeking ethnic food. They counted the number of novel food items launched over the past few years in the US and sorted them under various ‘ethnic’ cuisine categories. Based on this data, the most popular cuisines are those of Italian, Mexican and Asian origin. These cuisines have been around for very long and have to some extent, been ‘Americanized’ and mainstreamed and so it is difficult to classify a bowl of pasta with tomato sauce or a taco as ethnic. However, the Mintel report claims that less common cuisines, such as Caribbean, Japanese and Thai foods are rapidly increasing in popularity. As David Lockwoon, a senior analyst at Mintel claims “Thai, Caribbean and Japanese foods are seeing healthy growth, and consumers seem to be getting more comfortable with a wide variety of ethnic flavours.” According to the report, from 2009 to 2010, there has been a 230 percent increase in new ‘Japanese’ food items. ‘Caribbean’ food items increased about 150 percent and ‘Thai’ product launches increased by 68 percent.

The study suggests it is the broad variety of outlets that consumers have to ethnic food that contributes to the large increase of consumer interest in ethnic food. Twenty six percent of people surveyed claim their interest grew in ethnic food after being exposed to it via a popular media outlet, such as television, newspapers or magazines. The second most common response, with 25 percent, was that the diverse community in which they live is what introduced them to ethnic foods. Lockwood states, “Consumers are becoming more interested in trying out complicated ethnic dished at home that would usually be prepared by a chef in a restaurant.” The ECVOntario research study, including this article, creates an outlet for people in Ontario to learn more about the social, political and economical aspects of ethno-cultural vegetables. This will hopefully reduce the fear of introducing ethno-cultural vegetables into the local market and diminish myths that surround ‘ethnic’ food in Canada.

Since more and more people are interested in trying to cook ethnic food at home, they will inescapably be introduced to ethno-cultural vegetables. Large grocery stores currently carry very little ethno-cultural vegetables and if they do, they are of very poor quality. Studies like this confirm that people are becoming more interested in food and open to learning about various types of cultures via food. This demand and interest needs to be corresponded to and incorporated into local production. Many consumers will appreciate fresh and local compared to imported okra, bitter melon and callaloo.

Monika Korzun ( PhD Candidate)

Rural Studies

University of Guelph