International
Grocery Store Project: Foreign Food Mart
(identifying 5 import items and giving a historical
background in addition to dietary needs/interests, religious interests, import/export
standards, etc)
Foreign
Food Mart in Itaewon, the area in Seoul historically known for foreign housing
and foreign food restaurants catering to the foreign residences, is my favorite
place to shop. For my interests, it offers a wide variety of beans, legumes,
spices, as well as a few fresh vegetables and fresh herbs that just can’t be
found on the Korean market. As a gluten-free near vegan, here I can find quite
the food variety to extend my diet, but even if I’m not extending the diet, I’m
very curious to know what’s new on the shelf, especially as the shop, which
opened in 2006, has expanded several times. The store most recently expanded
around New Year’s, at which time they added another 30-40% floor space, and the
imports now appearing on the shelves are getting even more interesting.
One of my old
standby purchases is Rotary® Onion Crackers, a product of Indonesia. Its four
ingredients are incredibly simple—tapioca flour, garlic, salt and coconut oil. The
product carries the seal of Majelis Ulama Indonesia which has halal in both English and Arabic at its
center. Majelis Ulama Indonesia was established in 1975 and is Indonesia’s top
Muslim clerical body for producing fatwā,
the giving of legal judgment according to Islamic law, and for advising the
Muslim community on contemporary issues. With the Indonesian Ulema Council’s
seal, this product is approved for religious dietary consumption by the 1.62
billion global Muslims, that is, 23% of the world’s population and with the
largest population living in the country of the products manufacture. As the
entire simple packaging is written in English with the exception of the
dual-lingual ingredients and the seal itself, this product targets English
speaking countries. It also meets USA market standards with a clearly labeled
product, the ingredients easy to read, the manufacturer’s name, address and
contact provided, and the nutrition facts label present. Although this product
will attract the eyes of Muslims in foreign countries, it by its simplicity and
a cracker with a flavor, onion, well-liked by Americans, will be well received
in the US or by people with savory proclivities, and particularly so by the
more health conscience label readers and those wishing to be gluten-free, not
an issue in a country where gluten crops aren’t grown and so the need for
gluten-free labeling isn’t regarded as necessary or economically gainful yet.
Crown Farms Vegetable Samosa is a
product I’ve tried in the past, and is indeed very tasty and very spicy, as are
most foods associated with Bangladesh, where it is manufactured. Eurasia Food
Processing in Bangladesh manufactures the product but Euro Foods Group of England
imports and distributes it, by all accounts for reasons of providing exotic
food items to the more northern United Kingdom and also for boosting the
growing Bangladeshi economy. This is definitely an export item, and not for
sale in Bangladesh as the only Arabic word on the box is halal. The product is marketed toward Muslims or, more
specifically, people in English, French or Italian speaking countries, as the
ingredient list and preparation instructions are in those languages. The
ingredients are whole foods with the filling containing mixed vegetables, salt,
sugar, spices (onion, garlic, ginger, cumin powder, coriander powder, turmeric
powder), vegetable oil and water, and the pastry is a composition of wheat
flour, water, vegetable oil and salt. I couldn’t find evidence of this product
being sold in the US which makes sense as, according to the FDA, all ingredients
must be labeled in their descending order as based on weight, and this product
doesn’t seem in compliance with that regulation, e.g. salt couldn’t possibly be
the ingredient second in weight; the product would be sodium saturated and would
far exceed the labeled sodium amount of less than 2,600 mg per serving, the
single samosa. As for what the Food
Standards Agency (FSA) of the UK requires on their labels, I wasn’t able to
locate specifics but a FSA website did state that Scotland, Wales and Northern
Ireland had different standards than England. In any regard, samosas, a name of Persian origin, have
become widespread across the southern regions of Asia, the Arabian Peninsula,
the Mediterranean, and in various parts of Africa, not to mention the large
ethnic groups who have migrated from these countries or the many people
previously exposed to these countries. Samosas
have great global popularity and their popularity is further growing, putting
this product as high on the well-to-be-received list in a number of countries.
One item in the mart that reminds me
somewhat of baklava is Mo’pleez Soan
Papdi, a product of India where it is a traditional dessert. Unlike Greek and
Turkish baklava with the main
ingredients being honey and/or sugar, wheat flour, cloves, cinnamon, frequently
walnuts and typically phyllo, soan papdi typically
contains sugar, gram flour, perhaps wheat flour, ghee, cardamom and often pistachios. Influences between the
desserts may exist, but obvious regionalism from accessible ingredients
influence the overall products. Although soan
papdi also is a dessert, it is more savory than baklava. This particular soan
papdi is packaged in three languages (English, Arabic and French) and is
apparently for export. The packaging cites the ingredients sugar, refined
peanut oil, chick pea flour, wheat flour, cardamom, almonds, pistachios and
gluten. No preservatives or additives are included in this label, and by
including the batch number, manufacturing date and expiration date, there seems
careful concern in ensuring a quality product to a discriminating market.
Though India homes the third largest population of Muslims in the world, no halal label is present on the packaging
which perhaps unwittingly marginalizes the 177,291 Indian Muslims, or perhaps
the target group, if the product is to be sold within country, is the
vegetarian, the group (actually the majority of India) which traces its history
back to 500 BC when India saw a rise in Buddhism and Jainism, the religions
that practices ahimsa or
“non-violence”. This product bears the symbol for “vegetarian”, a word only in
existence since about 1847 and which was derived from the Latin vegetari, meaning “to enliven”; it was
coined by Brits in reference to Britain’s colonial Indian vassals. Two other
symbols include a recycling awareness, a larger concern in Western societies
than in India, and a European Snack Association symbol, which is an organization
that promotes savory snacks to the UK. Commerce between the England and India,
England’s former colony, is expected to double by 2015, and this product will
likely be included in promoting the trade connection.
Lemnos Mediterranean Lifestyle Sun-dried
Tomatoes were in refrigeration and were a product of, surprisingly, Australia. The
concept of the Lemnos brand was conceived on an island in the Aegean Sea and
now manufactures “premium quality Mediterranean style cheeses and dairy
products” to about 40 countries. It even declares itself the number one dairy
company in the world, and holds certifications for halal, Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point (HACCP), Safe
Quality Food (SQF), Dairy Safe, and organic. This particular product has no
dairy which seems to be the focus of the brand, but the two kilogram pail is
marketed towards the Muslim community within Australia and worldwide by its
English and Arabic label of halal. No
claims to this product being organic exist, nor does it seem to be aimed for
the US market as measurements are limited to kilograms, unlike the onion
crackers, samosas, and soan papdi already discussed. However,
there is awareness of a growing population with gluten allergies, and included
in the nutrition facts label is a label for gluten, a listing that is not
typically seen and certainly not required on such labels. Certainly the FDA
does not require it.
The item at the Foreign Food Mart which most surprised me was the Tropiway™ Plantain Fufu Flour. Fufu flour is an African food, and yes, of late there is a very mixed African population in Korea, so there is a market here. Yet, this product is out of place. First of all, this mart seems to cater to Indians, Middle-Easterners of which the owner is one being from Bangladesh, to Thai, Filipinos, Vietnamese, among others, which include the very large and diverse English speaking expats in education and business. This item is the only identifiable African food in the mart; however, it’s only African by name when, in fact, it is an American manufacture. As Sudanese political refugees relocating to the US stated concerning the American packaged and processed food they encountered on the flight, “American food is not food”. They were used to whole and unprocessed foods, not highly processed pseudo-foods with flavor enhancers and chemical attributes. This fufu flour lists on its ingredients—plaintain, granular potato, cassava, mono and diglycerides, BHT (to protect flavor), sulphites (as preservatives), FD&C yellow #5. This list of non-food items might be accepted by Americans used to such ingredients, but why would this item be in this store? And, it must be asked, who would the market even be back in South Carolina where the 28.1% black population seems to be black Americans, not African Americans craving food memories from their mother country?
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