Global Food Fare

A proliferation of ethnic cuisines are taking consumers’ taste buds on a culinary ride.

Check out any city’s restaurant scene. In addition to pizzerias, seafood, Chinese, French and Italian, there are bound to be Mexican, Colombian, Vietnamese, Thai and Filipino offerings too; even Denny’s has put a super spicy Sriracha chicken sandwich on its menu in a nod to changing taste buds.

That diversity is now carrying over to the supermarket grocery aisles, that are on the cusp of an explosion of flavor from scores of different authentic ethnic cuisines, say industry observers.

“In just the last few years there has been so much exploration in the restaurant scene that it has really led to a precursor of what the retail environment will transform into in the next three to five years,” says P.J. Quesada, vice president, Ramar Foods, a manufacturer of frozen Filipino appetizers, entrées and side dishes under the Kusina brand and Magnolia brand ice cream. Based in Pittsburg, Calif., its most famous dish is lumpia, a Filipino version of an egg roll.

“Our lumpia have more meat and are skinnier than a traditional egg roll,” Quesada says. “One of our top-selling products is a Shanghai-style lumpia that is long and skinny and is a really good finger food.”     

Most ethnic cuisines have some kind of restaurant base that sets up consumers to begin identifying these products on retail shelves, say observers.

That is definitely happening with Indian food.

“It seems American consumers are going out and trying curry in a restaurant and then want to make it at home,” says Adam Buckley, international sales director, Premiere Foods, based in the London suburb of St. Albans, U.K., and manufacturer of the Sharwood’s brand of authentic Indian sauces, chutney, dipping breads and related products. “We have made it simple and easy for them to take away the mystery of eating Indian and conveniently get that exotic flavor at home.”

Sharwood’s products are stocked in more than 5,000 U.S. stores, including Kroger, Publix, Safeway and Stop & Shop. “We find Americans are quite curious about curry,” Buckley says. “It is still a small segment if you benchmark it against pasta sauce, but it is growing very fast.”

The tide is also rising on Caribbean cuisine, particularly in the New York Tri-State area, where there is a large and growing number of Caribbean/Jamaican immigrants, say officials with Grace Foods, a brand know for its Caribbean fare.

“We have products similar to mainstream American items like our Grace 100% Natural Coconut Water and our Grace Organic line of coconut sugar, flour, coconut milk and coconut oil,” says Michael Ranglin, president and CEO, GraceKennedy Foods (USA), based in Medley, Fla. “Items unique to the Caribbean are our ‘famous’ exotic line of Scotch Bonnet Pepper Sauces and our Jerk Seasonings and Rubs.”

A leader in the Mexican segment—which is literally heating up—is Ruiz Foods.

“Many years ago Ruiz Foods introduced a burrito with more spice only to find the consumer was not ready to experiment with different levels of heat and spice,” says Rachel P. Cullen, president and CEO of Dinuba, Calif.-based Ruiz Foods. “Today, consumers can’t seem to get enough.”

She cites offerings like El Monterey Jalapeno, Bean and Three Cheese Burrito and Habanero Cream Cheese Tornados as examples of products with a higher heat level.

El Monterey is planning a big back-to-school push that includes traditional FSI coupons, coupons.com and retailer digital coupons. “We continue to target moms who are looking for great tasting, quality ingredients, value and variety in the foods they choose for their families and themselves,” Cullen says.

Goya continues to expand its offerings, introducing a line of seasonings, including fajita and Picadillo packets. The brand is so broad that many supermarkets devote an entire aisle to it.

“That provides synergies for multiple groups of shoppers,” says Joseph Perez, senior vice president, Goya Foods, based in Jersey City, N.J. “For Hispanics it is a ‘must stop’ and for the general market, which is becoming more curious and comfortable with ethnic foods, it becomes a destination stop as well.”

Hispanic consumers are a broad base, Perez notes, with different tastes and customs in each country, and even within geographic areas of the same country.

“The easiest way to understand how to market to the Hispanics shopping your store is to confer and discuss with a Goya sales broker who can supply all that information,” Perez says. “They can break it down by each group and detail the demographics and commonality.”

Buen Sabor is a relatively new upscale frozen brand centered on empanadas, carving out a healthy niche in the Hispanic foods market.

“We are really the only brand in the U.S. that is combining totally clean, traceable ingredients with traditionally inspired Latin American flavors,” says Sara Pike, CEO and founder of Buen Sabor, based in Newburyport, Mass.

The entire line is non-GMO Project Certified and consumers can do a “Taste Trace” at the brand’s website to see what farm the beef, turkey, chicken and other ingredients come from. 

Saffron Road also touts the cleanliness of its ingredient panel. The halal certified brand which started out in Indian cuisine, broadened into Thai and the Middle Eastern with products like frozen Moroccan Lamb Stew and shelf-stable sauce pouches.

“We have a new Mexican line and some more Indian items, a Thai vegetable pad Thai and Japanese Teriyaki Chicken that we just introduced,” says Jack Acree, executive vice president, of Saffron Road Foods, a division of American Halal, based in Stamford, Conn. 

Think Greek

Think of it as the original ethnic food.

The Greeks invented olive oil more than 4,500 years ago, yet today 85% of Greece’s annual harvest is exported to Italy and other countries for blending. Officials at Gaea—“Mother Earth” in Greek—are looking to change that by launching a line of authentically pressed olive oil in the U.S. under the Gaea Fresh brand name.

“The innovations that we are doing at Gaea are taking the foundation of the authentic harvest methods and authentic production of the oil and we’re upping the game to modernize to appeal to a more educated consumer,” says David Neuman, CEO of Gaea North America, based in Hollywood, Fla., a subsidiary of Gaea, based in Athens, Greece.

Gaea Fresh is the first production of the new harvest, Neuman says. The olives are handpicked and crushed within three hours of harvest. “This oil is the greenest and youngest, with the brightest taste and the most polyphenols, making it the most robust,” Neuman says. “The olives are picked and go right into the mill. That protects the freshness.”

It is then packaged in a 100% oxygen-free environment and put into “state-of-the-art” glass bottles coated in black to create a 100% UV block. The texture of the bottle also helps protect it against heat radiation, Neuman says.

“On the package we have the harvest month and year, which is not typical,” Neuman says. “Gaea Fresh has a three-year shelf life, whereas most olive oils are 18 months to two years.” There is also a “Spider Web Chart” detailing the oil’s profile. “We claim 2,350 olives were crushed to make that bottle and we claim three hours of time between harvest and crush.”