Upgrading Traditional Food Processing Technology

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VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
Food Studies
An Interdisciplinary Journal
food-studies.com
Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary
Journal
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VOLUME 3 ISSUE 1
MARCH 2014
FOOD STUDIES: AN INTERDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL
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First published in 2014 in Champaign, Illinois, USA

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EDITOR(S)
…………………………………
Courtney Thomas, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA
EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
…………………………………
Claire Drummond, Social Health Science; Flinders Prevention, Promotion, & Primary Health Care,
School of Medicine, Flinders University, Sturt Campus, Australia
Janet A. Flammang, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, USA
Kristen Harrison, Department of Communication, Division of Nutritional Sciences, University of
Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA
Debra Stern, Health Professions Division, College of Allied Health and Nursing, Physical Therapy
Department, Nova Southeastern University, USA
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ASSOCIATE EDITORS
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Temple Northup
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Sushant Singh
Mireya Vilar-Compte
Scope and Concerns
FOOD SUSTAINABILITY
…………………………………
Access to affordable and quality food is one of the key challenges of our time - to feed a growing
world population, to feed it adequately and to feed it using sustainable production practices. Food
production entails intensive and extensive relationships with the natural environment. Many of
the world’s key environmental problems today are related to agricultural practices. Agriculture
and food industries are also uniquely positioned to make a constructive contribution towards
efforts designed to address these problems.
How sustainable is our current food system? It takes 160 liters of oil to create a tonne of corn
in the United States. One kilo of beef takes 8-15 kilos of grain in feedlot production, requires
10,000 liters of water, generates 35 kilos of greenhouse gasses, and creates feedlot pollutants
which need to be disposed of responsibly. There is growing public concern for the welfare of
feedlot animals and birds, the use of antibiotics in feed and the food values of meats grown under
these conditions. Agriculture is also the largest single user of fresh water, accounting for 75% of
current human water use. In many parts of the world we are on the verge of a water crisis,
exacerbated in places by climate change. Meanwhile, lengthening food supply chains extend the
carbon footprint, and centralized just-in-time production creates new food vulnerabilities.
Concern is also raised about the impacts of rising energy costs, the diversion of foods into
biofuel production, soil depletion and exhaustion, chemical fertilizers, encroachments of onto
farming land for residential and commercial uses, deforestation as more agricultural land is
sought, depletion of wild food sources such as fish, and fresh water crises … to mention just a
few critical issues raised by today’s food systems.
In the meantime, our food needs are not standing still. It is estimated that food production
will need to rise 50% in the next 20 years to cater for an increased global population and
changing habits of food consumption with more people are eating increased quantities of meat
and diary. This not only has environmental consequences; the resultant food price inflation also
has negative consequences measured in terms of its social sustainability.
In this context, some commentators have even started to speak of ‘peak food’ when the
earth’s food-producing capacities are stretched beyond their limits.
What might be done? How might a sector which has often become part of the problem,
become a pivotal player in finding solutions? How might we create sustainable food ecosystems?
How might we develop low-carbon agriculture? Indeed, how can food systems assist in carbon
sequestration? How can we use water less wastefully? How can we improve animal welfare?
How can we change eating habits so they are both more healthy and also use our natural
resources to best effect in a more equitable global food system?
We can only answer questions that are so large with a new green revolution, qualitatively
different from the green revolution of the twentieth century, and in its own way potentially just as
transformative.
FOOD IN HUMAN HEALTH AND WELLBEING
…………………………………
It is estimated that three quarters of health care spending in the developed world addresses
chronic diseases—including heart disease, stroke, cancer and diabetes—many of which are
preventable and linked to diet. Similar trends are in evidence in other developed countries, and
also developing countries as diets come to resemble more closely those of affluent countries.
Meanwhile, access to inadequate food is one of the key consequences of widening global
inequality, and translates into malnutrition, hunger, disease and shortened life expectancy for
billions amongst the world’s population.
This is the momentous background to the work of researchers, practitioners and teachers in
the wider range of disciplines that concern themselves with food and human nutrition, from the
agricultural to the health sciences, from economics to sociology, from studies of sustainable
human systems to the aesthetics and culinary arts of food. At root, the aim of all these endeavors
can simply be stated: the equitable availability of a nutritious and safe food supply.
Food and health sciences need to work together to address these issues. How do we ensure
food security, on a local and global scale? How do we build public trust in food safety, creating a
broader understanding of new technologies and addressing concerns that are frequently voiced
about microbiological safety, genetically modified crops, animal health and welfare and food
additives? How do we improve public understandings of nutrition and community eating
practices?
FOOD POLITICS, POLICIES, AND FUTURES
…………………………………
Governments have long intervened both in agriculture and public health. In the case of
agriculture, government intervention brings controversy, raising as it does questions about the
role of government in relation to the market, ‘protectionism’ versus ‘free markets’, ‘food
sovereignty’ or when some argue that agricultural policies should be allowed to be determined by
global markets, and the difficulties that poor countries have selling their products into protected,
developed-world markets.
In the area of public health, for some in the developing world, an improvement in health and
wellbeing may simply arise from having an opportunity to eat once a day. In both developing and
developed countries, however, government policies to improve health require integration of
nutrition and food needs with economic growth and development objectives. Included in this
agenda has to be the health care system, education addressing diet and nutritional needs, and
changing life styles and food choices. Political support is required to achieve national health
goals with emphasis on nutrition and food sciences. The medical community also has a role to
play as it considers the impact of diet and nutrition on health outcomes.
Members of food producing communities and enterprises have a role to play—ranging from
global agribusinesses that need to adapt to changing markets and social norms, to innovative
alternative organic or local foods enterprises, to organizations advocating farm and food
processing worker rights, to groups trying to address the needs and farming practices of the
world’s one billion agricultural workers, half of whom do not own land or equipment and who
effectively work in conditions of semi-serfdom.
Social movements and lobby groups will also have their roles to play. These may range from
groups representing agribusinesses, to organic and local farming groups, to alternative food
movements such as vegetarians and vegans, ‘slow food’ and healthy food movements, to efforts
to create gardens and teach cooking, health and nutrition in schools.
Finally, educators and researchers also have a role to play, studying problems, testing
solutions and communicating their findings to the public through the media, as well as in formal
education programs. Better education efforts are needed to inform the public of human
nutritional needs, and to encourage food producers and manufactures to produce healthier foods
using more sustainable systems. While health and wellness is a booming global industry, there
are still billions of world citizens that are malnourished or lacking sufficient food to meet their
basic nutritional and physiological needs.
If we are on the cusp of a new green revolution, the work we do in food and health focused
communities, needs to be holistic in its frame of reference. Our agenda must encompass
everything from individual health and nutrition to global food sustainability and equity. Even the
smallest initiative or incremental change can connect with a larger agenda for food system
development and reform.
A multitude of small green revolutions can create one global green revolution for the twenty
first century. These ideas and practices—from fastidiously focused and local to the global and
world-changing—are at the heart of the Food Studies knowledge community—its conference,
journal, book series and online community. Join us!
Table of Contents
Upgrading Traditional Food Processing Technologies: The Cassava Example in
Nigeria ......................................................................................................................... 1
Olayinka Ramota Karim, Samson Adeoye Oyeyinka, and Oluwasegun Adetokunbo
Adekunle
Truth, Lies, and Packaging: How Food Marketing Creates a False Sense of
Health .......................................................................................................................... 9
Temple Northup
Flash-frying vs. Deep-fat Frying: Fat Content and Sensory Evaluation of Fish
Fried Using Two Methods......................................................................................... 19
Sherri Stastny, Jill Keith, Clifford Hall III, and Julie Garden-Robinson
American Perceptions of Mediterranean Cuisine: Internet-based Research .......... 27
Philippos Papadopoulos, Rodica Arpasanu, and Aleksandra Pavlovska
Sources and Dietary Consumption of Fruits and Vegetables among Low Income
Latinos in South Texas.............................................................................................. 47
Catherine Faver and Tina Schiefelbein
Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Volume 3, 2014, www.food-studies.com, ISSN 2160-1933
© Common Ground, Author(s), All Rights Reserved,
Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com
Upgrading Traditional Food Processing
Technologies: The Cassava Example in Nigeria
Olayinka Ramota Karim, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Samson Adeoye Oyeyinka, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Oluwasegun Adetokunbo Adekunle, University of Ilorin, Nigeria
Abstract: Over seventy percent of food consumed in Nigeria is processed traditionally; however, the technologies
employed are characterized with loss of valuable nutrients during production, low yield, value addition, and many other
attributes. Regrettably, developments of food industries are hampered with inappropriate technologies for traditional
food production, inadequate working capital, poor management, low profit margin, and low acceptability of the product.
There is, therefore, a need for upgrading the widely accepted traditional technologies employed for food processing. This
paper reviews the various methods that have been proposed for upgrading traditional technologies for cassava (Manihot
escluenta crantz) processing. It is the one of the most important staple foods in Africa, and the processing for human
consumption has been estimated to be sixty-five percent of the total production. Among its major traditional products are
gari (fermented meal), lafun (cassava flour), and fufu (cassava gruel). The development and promotion of high-quality
and value-added cassava products are vital in response to the changing market and consumer preferences amid recent
trends in economic development and globalization, as well as the expanding population. Improved processing
technologies include the vibrating sieve, abrasive peeler, motorised grater, drum drier, and screw-jack. However,
significant relationships exist between the use of improved technologies for processing and age (X2 = 7.15, p= 0.05),
educational status (X2= 5.80, p= 0.05), sex (X2= 12.20, p= 0.05), and type of technology utilized. The conclusion is
drawn on the tremendous success and other advantages derived from the system on the flexibility of the technology and
the improvement in the yield.
Keywords: Nigeria, Traditional Technologies, Cassava
Introduction
T raditional technologies of food processing and preservation date back thousands of years,
and unlike the electronics and other modern high technology industries, they long
preceded any scientific understanding of their inherent nature and consequences (Hulse,
1983). Technologies are called “traditional” if unaffected by modernization they have been
commonly applied over a long period of time (Adeyemi, 2009). In general, traditional
technologies tend to be cheap, easy to produce, apply, maintain, and repair. They are generally
labor-intensive, which can be economically beneficial considering the cost incurred in the
process (Adeyemi, 2009). It forms part of the culture of the people and constitutes a vital body of
indigenous knowledge handed down from parent to child over several generations (Aworh,
2008).
It is amazing to know that more than 70% of the foods consumed in Nigeria are processed
traditionally: and, many of the methods employed are still rather crude, are not standardized, and
are not based on sound scientific principles making them, in their present form, unsuitable to
large-scale industrial production (Aworh, 2008).
Cassava is native to South America, but it was introduced to West Africa in the late 16th
century where it is now a staple in Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea,
Senegal, and Cameroon (Aworh, 2008). Nigeria is one of the leading producers of cassava with
more than 50% of the total world cassava (Adebayo et al., 2003a; Adebayo et al., 2003b) and an
annual production of 35-40 million metric tons (CBN, 2003). In Nigeria, cassava is the most
important dietary staple accounting for over 20% of all food crops consumed (Aworh, 2008). In
order to extend the shelf life of the roots, cassava is processed all over the world into different
products (gari, fufu, lafun, tapioca, flour ) in a variety of ways in order to meet the local needs,

© Common Ground, Olayinka Ramota Karim, Samson Adeoye Oyeyinka,
Oluwasegun Adetokunbo Adekunle, All Rights Reserved
taste, and tradition for use and storage (Ingram and Humphries, 1972; Onwueme, 1978). Of all
these, the main form in which cassava is eaten in West Africa is gari, a roasted granular product
prepared from peeled, grated and fermented cassava roots. (Asiedu, 1989).
The crop gained national prominence as a potential foreign exchange earner for the nation
following the pronouncement of a Presidential Initiative on Cassava in 2002 (Adebayo, 2009).
One of the greatest challenges facing food scientists/technologists in West Africa today is the
upgrading of the traditional technologies of food processing and preservation (Aworh, 2008).
This paper therefore discusses the characteristics, challenges, methods, and adoption levels of
upgraded traditional food processing technologies in Nigeria using cassava as case study.
Traditional Methods of Cassava Processing

Gari is creamy-white, partially gelatinized, roasted, and free flowing, granular flour (Sanni et al.,
2008). Its wide consumption is attributed to its relatively long shelf life compared to other food
products from cassava, as well as its ease of preparation for eating (Sanni et al., 2008). FAO
(1991) reported that the conversion of cassava into gari is the most effective traditional means of
reducing the cyanide content to a safe level of 10 ppm and is more effective than heap
fermentation and sun drying, commonly used in eastern and southern Africa (Cardoso, et al.,
2005). Gari is a convenient food with a short preparation time. Its cheapness, ease of storage, and
preparation for consumption have made it extremely popular among the urban dwellers in
Nigeria and other West African countries (Irtwange and Achimba, 2009). It is further utilized in a
number of ways such as dispersing it in cold water and consuming it directly with sweeteners,
groundnut, and fish countries (Irtwange and Achimba, 2009). The most widespread method of
gari consumption is preparing it into a paste by pouring into a measured quantity of boiling
water. The paste, popularly called eba in Nigeria, is eaten by dipping small balls of it into soup or
stew (Irtwange and Achimba, 2009). Fufu is a fermented wet paste widely consumed in the
Western and Eastern part of Nigeria. It is commonly consumed with soups and constitutes one of
the major staples in these regions. The production of odorless fufu requires control of the
production processes with particular attention to the fermentation and drying operations.
Characteristics of Traditional Food Processing in Nigeria

The quality of processed foods is largely dependent on several factors, and the method employed
in handling and processing being one of the most significant. Traditional food processing in
Nigeria being an ancient practice has formed the bedrock of small-scale food processing
enterprises in West Africa, and their contributions to the economy are enormous (Aworh, 2008).
One of the major problems of traditionally processed foods is the poor quality associated with the
products due to poor handling, processing, packaging, and storage techniques. Traditional food
processing in Nigeria is characterized by rudimentary technologies, inconsistent quality and
quantity, lack of innovativeness and product diversification, inadequate use of appropriate
packaging, poor processing methods, poor market for processed foods, and access to appropriate
technologies and processing information. A number of other factors may exist but this paper
seeks to address the above listed attributes and suggests possible ways for upgrading these local
technologies. It is important to note that the sensory food qualities of many of the traditionally
processed foods are unique and characterize each one and therefore, care must be taken not to
affect these important food qualities that contribute largely to its acceptance by the consumers.
Upgrading traditional technologies for improved quality should therefore be addressed with
utmost caution.
2
KARIM ET AL.: UPGRADING TRADITIONAL FOOD PROCESSING TECHNOLOGIES
Rudimentary Technologies
The majority of small scale food enterprises in Nigeria operate with rudimentary technologies.
This is largely due to insufficient capacity to acquire or fabricate food processing equipment
locally. The majority of small scale food enterprises use poor processing methods, resulting in
food products of inferior quality. For example, hand peeling is still employed for cassava
processing (Figure 1), and this has been identified has the major bottleneck in traditional cassava
processing (Aworh 2008). It is slow and labour intensive with an output of 25-30 kg/man-hr. The
greater loss of edible tissue with the use of abrasive peelers and the need for further manual
trimming has limited its adoption and therefore, hand peeling is still largely employed in cassava
peeling. Adoption of mechanical peeling is not yet possible because of the irregular shape of
cassava tubers, hence manual peeling with stainless steel knives is still in use.
Figure 1: Peeling of cassava roots by traditional method
Figure 2: Gari frying over a wood fire by traditional method (Aworh, 2008)
3
Figure 3: Upgraded processing unit for gari processing
Inconsistent Quality and Quantity
The production and processing techniques required to produce gari of good quality are not
standardized in many developing countries. and they not subjected to any form of periodic
review, most especially on its effect on the nutritional quality of product. The crude methods
employed in processing cassava into gari and several other products have greatly influenced the
quality of these products. In several parts of West Africa, gari comes with different particle sizes,
some with stones and dirt. The quality of gari available in the local market varies from batch to
batch among the traders. Variations are observed in the colour, fiber content, moisture, particle
size, starch content, and residual cyanide. These variations are caused by cassava variety, age at
the time of harvest, processing methods and equipment, and duration of fermentation (Irtwange
and Achimba, 2009). These variations, if properly controlled, will yield gari of good and
marketable quality and will also increase the chances of market expansion for gari, to some
extent. During gari production, the fermentation period contributes largely to the quality of the
finished product. Fermentation is one method by which cyanogenic glucosides in gari can be
reduced. Fermentation also results in the production of volatile compounds that give gari its
unique flavour. Most of the juice from the cassava pulp is expressed during this period. The time
allowed for fermentation is critical; if it is too short, the detoxification process is incomplete,
resulting in a potentially toxic product, and if it is too long, the product will have a strong sour
taste and the texture will be poor (Azam-Ali et al., 2003). Hence, there is the need to standardize
the processing methods particularly in rural areas where bulk of the processing takes place.
Standardization of processing methods will ensure consistent use of raw materials in terms of
quantity, quality, variety, period of fermentation etc. with an improvement in quality and
ensuring uniformity in the product. Irtwange and Achimba (2009), in their study on the effect of
the duration of fermentation on the quality of gari, reported that gari of best quality was obtained
from the mash fermented for 3 days. This ‘gari’ was the best in terms of colour and aroma.
4
Lack of Innovativeness and Product Diversification
Traditional food processing is strongly characterized by a lack of product diversification with

respect to food fortification and enrichment.
Methods
A well-structured questionnaire was used to interview five hundred and forty rural based cassava
processors selected through a multistage sampling procedure. This was to determine the type,
level of adoption and key factors influencing the use of upgraded traditional technologies for
processing of cassava roots in Nigeria. Data collected was subjected to statistical analysis using
established methods.
Results and Discussion

Tables1-4 show the level of adoption of upgraded cassava processing for different commodities.
The traditional technology employed includes the use of local knives made from bamboo flint or
metals. At rural levels, washing of the peeled cassava either takes place in flowing rivers or in
small sized calabashes, while grating is done on local rough stones. Fermentation processes are
usually carried out by placing cassava pup into jute bags which are weighted with heavy stones
to drain excess water (dewatering). For gari production, the fermented mash is then ‘garified’ in
clay pots over wood fire, and sieved using woven baskets. Drying of starches and fufu flour are
executed in the sun on very sunny days. This practice pre-disposes the food to several
contaminations from dust, animal dung, leaves stones etc. Figure 3 above shows a typical
example of an upgraded gari processing unit with low cost simple to use technology.
Table 1: Level of Adoption of Upgraded Cassava Processing; Gari

Traditional Level of Adoption of
Processing Stages Upgraded Technology
Technology Upgraded Technology
Mechanized peeler
Knife made of
Hand peeler, hand
Peeling bamboo, flint or 1%
rasper (IITA, FIIRO,
Metal
NCAM)
Calabash bowl and Plastic bowl,
Washing 60-78%
river side aluminium tank
Local Rough Stone,
prickly trunk of Mechanized Grater,
Grating palms sheet / tin iron Hammer mill, disk 89-95%
pierced with nail on grater, hand grater
one side
Heavy stone on
Batch fermentation in
Fermentation heavy weighed cloth 3-5%
aluminium tank
or nylon bag
Heavy stone on
Hydraulic jack press,
heavy weighed cloth
screw press, parallel
Dewatering/Pressing nylon bag (for several 50-88%
board press,
days)
Press for few minutes.
Woven baskets, Improved pulverizer
Sieving suspended cloth e.g. drum sieve, 2-5%
pieces holding mash rotating sieve
5
Clay or Cast Iron pan Upgraded roaster,

Frying over wood fire solar dryer, kiln type 2-5%
dryer
Woven basket Improved pulverizer
Sifting 2-5%
and sifter
Fortification with rich
proteneous plants like Soy-gari- 1-2%
soy-bean, amaranth Amarnth-gari-<1%
Frying with palm-oil
Value addition grain, melon seed, Okra-gari- <1%
okro. Recent Moringa-gari<1%
development: moringa
powder
Table 2: Level of Adoption of Upgraded Cassava Processing; Lafun

Processing Traditional Level of Adoption of
Upgraded Technology
Stages Technology Upgraded Technology
Mechanized peeler
Knife made of Hand peeler, hand
Peeling 2-5%
bamboo, flint or Metal rasper (IITA, FIIRO,
NCAM)
Pulverizing Woven Basket Improved pulverizer 5-10%
Heavy stone on heavy
Hydraulic or
Dewatering weighed cloth nylon 60-80%
mechanical press
bag
Cast iron pan over
Drying wood fire, open sun Drum or solar dryer 5-15%
drying
Table 3: Level of Adoption of Upgraded Cassava Processing; Starch

Upgraded Technology
Mechanical peeler,
Knife made of
Peeling Cassava filter, 40-57%
bamboo,
Motorised peeler
Washing Calabash bowl Aluminium/plastic tank 87-90%
Grating Sheet or tin
Grating iron pierced with nail Power grater 80-98%
on one side
Cast iron pan over
Engraved fryer, solar
Drying wood fire, open sun 60-85%
dryer
drying
Packaging Local jute bags Polythene bags 80-90%
6
Table 4: Level of Adoption of Upgraded Cassava Processing; Fufu

Upgraded Technology
Hand Peeler
Peeling Local Knife 2-10%
(Mechanized)
Washing Local Calabash bowl Aluminium/plastic tank 67-80%
Heavy stone on heavy
Mechanized or
Dewatering weighed cloth nylon 78-90%
hydraulic press
bag
Packaging Local jute bags Polythene bags 50-60%
Table 5: Chi-square test of relationship between Selected Personal Characteristics of Users of

Cassava Processing Technologies and their Use of Upgraded Cassava Processing Technologies
Variables Tabulated X2 Calculated X2 Difference p
Age 3.84 7.10 1 0.05
Educational
3.84 5.80 1 0.05
Status
Sex 3.84 12.20 1 0.05
p: Probability = 0.05
df: degree of freedom
Conclusion
The role of the government is essential in upgrading local technologies for an improved product
quality. The government should provide the needed policy, environment, improved competitive
technology and physical infrastructure. The provision of low-cost, simple to use equipment
should be readily accessible by the rural processors and such technologies and devices should be
as close as possible to the existing traditional ones. The government should also encourage
partnerships between private organizations and the processors through corporate social
responsibility.
7
REFERENCES
Adeyemi, I. A. 2009. “Frontiers of Technology for National Food Security-Challenges and
Possibilities.” Being Paper presented at the 6th Faculty of Agriculture Lecture,
University of Ilorin, 30th November.
Asiedu, J.J. 1989. Processing of Tropical Crops. Macmillan Publishers Ltd., London.
Aworh, O. C. 2008. “The Role of Traditional Food Processing Technologies in National
Development: the West African Experience.” In Using Food Science and Technology to
Improve Nutrition and Promote National Development, edited by G.L. Robertson and
J.R. Lupien, 1–18. International Union of Food Science & Technology.
Azam-Ali, S., E. Judge, P. Fellows and M. Battcock, 2003. Small-Scale Food Processing. A
Directory of Equipment and Methods. Second Edition. ITDG Publishing.
Cardoso, A. P.; Mirione, E.; Ernesto, M.; Massaza, F.; Cliff, J.; Haque, M. R.; Bradbury, J. H.
2005. “Processing of Cassava Roots to Remove Cyanogens.” Journal of Food
Composition and Analysis 18: 451–460.
Ingram, J.S. and J.R.V. Humphries, 1972. Food Crops of the Low Land Tropics. Oxford
University Press, Walton Street, Oxford London.
Onwueme, I.C. 1978. The Tropical Tuber Crops, Yam, Cassava, Sweet Potato and Cocoyam. 1st
Ed. John Wiley and Sons Publishers.
Irtwange, S. V. and Achimba, O. 2009. “Effect of the Duration of Fermentation on the Quality
of Gari.” Curr. Res. J. Biol. Sci. 1, no. 3: 150–154.
Hulse, J. H. 1983. “Food Science, for Richer or for Poorer for Sickness or for Health.”
Proceedings Inst. Food Sci. Technol. 16, no. 1: 2–15.
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Olayinka Ramota Karim: Head of Department of Home Economics and Food Science,
University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria
Samson Adeoye Oyeyinka: Assistant Lecturer, Department of Home Economics and Food
Science, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria
Prof. Oluwasegun Adetokunbo Adekunle: Head of Department of Agricultural Extension and

Rural Development, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Kwara, Nigeria
8
Truth, Lies, and Packaging: How Food Marketing
Creates a False Sense of Health
Temple Northup, The University of Houston, USA
Abstract: The United States is facing a serious problem: over the past generation, there has been a steady increase in the
size of the average American and the rate of obesity is at an all-time high. Although there are a number of causes that
can be attributed to this increase, one is a poor overall diet. Because many consumers are beginning to change to a more
nutritious diet, food corporations have begun marketing unhealthy foods as healthy by labeling them as “organic,”
“whole grain,” or any combination of other health-related buzzwords. Using manipulated food packaging, this article
presents the results of a study examining the degree to which consumers link those marketing terms with health. Results
suggest that consumers have a heavy association between those marketing terms and health and tend to think the
products containing those words are healthier than those products without them. Furthermore, consumers perform
poorly when asked to distinguish between healthy and unhealthy nutritional labels. The implications of this are profound:
while many individuals may be trying to increase the health of their diets, food marketers are taking advantage of them
by misleading those consumers with deceptive labeling.
Keywords: Food Marketing, Food Labeling
Introduction
O
n an episode of the syndicated talk show Dr. Oz, an obese male, Paul, came on the show
in an effort to lose weight. One of the first things Dr. Oz did for Paul was send a
nutritionist to his house in order to see what Paul was eating. The reason for this is
simple: the overconsumption of unhealthy foods is a leading contributor to obesity. When the
nutritionist got to Paul’s house, it was quickly established that his refrigerator was filled with
unhealthy food. Although this may not have been surprising to the audience, it was to Paul who
thought he had filled his home with foods that were good for him. He explained that all of the
food in his kitchen was organic, or natural, or whole grain, or any of the many other buzzwords
that the food industry is using these days to signify healthy. Dr. Oz had to explain to Paul, and
perhaps most of America, that in reality, carrying labels like “organic” does not automatically
make a food item healthy.
The importance of understanding food nutrition is clear by looking around the United States.
Compared to one generation ago, the percent of overweight and obese individuals has
skyrocketed, with an estimated 17% of the population being obese in 2008 (Ogden et al. 2010;
Ogden, Carroll and Flegal 2008). This change is most troubling among children: for kids
between the ages of 6 and 11 years old, obesity has increased from 6.5% of the population in
1998 to 19.6% in 2008. For those children who are obese, they are more likely to have high
blood pressure, high cholesterol, and develop Type 2 diabetes (Freedman et al. 2007).
Furthermore, obese children are unlikely to rid themselves of these health problems as they age,
meaning that obese children are likely to become obese adults (Whitaker et al. 1997). It is
evident that the U.S. and many other nations around the world have a serious problem with one
important piece of that problem being unhealthy food consumption.
Because the outcomes of being overweight are potentially so extreme, it is important to
examine how food manufactures communicate nutrition and health information about food to the
consumers. The purpose of this paper, then, is to examine the extent to which food labeling and
marketing—both by the inclusion of certain buzzwords on the front of packaging as well as
through nutritional labels—is causing consumers to develop a lack of understanding about

© Common Ground, Temple Northup, All Rights Reserved
whether what they are eating is healthy or unhealthy. Specifically, this paper will argue that
major food corporations exploit the public’s desire for healthy foods by presenting foods as being
healthier than they actually are.
Food Marketing: Case in Point

Because many individuals have realized that not all foods are healthy, they have begun to look
for cues to help them determine whether a food product is good for them. Within the United
States, a number of buzzwords have come along—including organic, all natural, and whole grain,
among others—that signify to some degree that the product is better for you than one that does
not carry that term. Although many food manufacturers are using those terms in their marketing
campaigns, one major food producer, Chef Boyardee, will be examined to illustrate both how
those terms are being used and that their inclusion does not actually mean a product is any
healthier than the nearly exact same product without the term.
Chef Boyardee, maker of many canned pastas and a subsidiary of the food giant ConAgra,
began in 2011 touting the health benefits of its products in a series of commercials that show
parents going to extreme lengths to hide the healthful ingredients from their unsuspecting
children. For instance, in one commercial, a mother is put in “timeout” by other mothers for
almost telling her son that there is a full serving of vegetables in Chef Boyardee products. The
other mothers were worried that telling the children about the vegetables would ruin their
“favorite after school snack.” Another commercial shows a father pleasantly surprised when he
sees that Chef Boyardee has whole grain pasta. His wife tells him to not say anything because
their daughter and friend would not eat it if they knew it was healthy.
The commercials are an example of unjustified health halos for highly processed and
unhealthy food products. To go with the commercials, the company’s website and print campaign
has images of children hugging bunches of broccoli and carrots with the slogan, “Until they love
veggies this much, use Chef Boyardee as your secret weapon.” Beneath the tagline reads, “while
there’s not broccoli in each delicious bowl, some have a full serving of veggies.” In reality, there
are not many vegetables in their products and to call them nutritious is a stretch by any
definition.
One product purported to have a full serving of vegetables is their Beef Ravioli. A close
inspection of the food label reveals only two ingredients in the entire product that could even be
considered vegetables: tomatoes and carrots. The tomatoes are, in reality, tomato puree and not
whole tomatoes, and the carrots are toward the bottom of the list of ingredients, after such items
as salt. Clearly, there are almost no carrots present in the pasta meaning the entire nutritional
claim of containing a full serving of vegetables rests with tomato puree. This is, presumably, not
what consumers have in mind when they pick up a product boasting of its vegetable contents and
nutritional value.
Chef Boyardee’s Beefaroni is one of the pastas that are available in both a whole grain and
non-whole grain version. According to the Mayo Clinic (2009), whole grains are healthier than
refined grains because they are better sources of fiber and other important nutrients. Because of
this, whole grain products carry an association with health. However, both the whole grain and
regular Beefaronis have the same amount of fiber: three grams each. The only explanation for the
whole grain Beefaroni not having more fiber is that product is not actually 100% whole grain.
Indeed, inspecting the ingredients, this is the case as even the “whole grain” pasta still uses the
same semolina wheat flour as the refined pasta, which is mixed together with the whole wheat
flour. Aside from the different flour, the “whole grain” and “regular” Beefaroni are identical in
nutritional value, which is to say they have very little. In fact, one of the few differences is that
the whole grain version actually contains slightly more sodium—an astounding 31% of the daily
maximum in one serving (half a can).
10
NORTHUP: TRUTH, LIES, AND PACKAGING
Chef Boyardee appears to be exploiting consumer desires to be healthy by marketing its

products as being nutritious when in fact they are not. Not only is this done directly by
suggesting vegetables that are not really there, but they do this indirectly by creating whole grain
products that are no better for the consumer than the regular versions of the pasta. Although Chef
Boyardee was highlighted here, they are not alone in this behavior and are part of a movement
among food manufacturers to label their products to imply that they are healthy. Even products
like candy—for instance, Sharkies Kids Sports Chews—market themselves as being organic in
an effort to somehow lure customers into purchasing their foods.
Study Rationale
Although it is easy to argue that food companies use terms like “organic” and “whole grain” to
imply that their foods are nutritional, this implication leaves one with at least two important
questions that need to be answered. First, does the inclusion of words like “organic” actually
make people believe the product is healthier? And second, to what extent are consumers able to
read and understand nutritional labels to help them differentiate when a product is not actually
healthy?
To consider the first question, it is an important step to empirically demonstrate that using
certain expressions like “natural” make consumers believe a product is healthier than when the
phrase is not included. After all, if consumers do not make that association, it cannot be said that
including those phrases is deceptive on the food manufacturers’ part as it is not having any effect
on consumers. However, if consumers are believing products to be healthier, then it could prove
to be a deceptive practice aimed at getting consumers to buy products that are unhealthy all-the-
while thinking the product is good for them.
The psychological explanation of why the inclusion of certain words might make consumers
believe the product is healthy can be found in the priming literature. Priming is the triggering or
activation of a concept (e.g., “organic”). This triggered concept is then available to influence later
thoughts and behaviors, often without explicit awareness of this influence – the so-called priming
effect. In a classic example of priming, Srull and Wyer (1979) gave participants four words (e.g.,
Sally, He, Hit, Kicked) and they were asked to use three of the words to complete a sentence
(e.g., He Kicked Sally). Only violent sentences could be created from the words given. That act
of creating violent sentences was sufficient to trigger the concept of violence in the participants’
minds. Later, participants were asked to evaluate an ambiguously described person or event. The
participants who had created the violent sentences interpreted the target with increased hostility.
This, and many other studies (see Roskos-Ewoldsen, Roskos-Ewoldsen, and Carpentier 2007 for
meta-analysis), shows that primes can bias evaluations of objects.
Underlying this priming effect is the idea of network models of semantic memory (Collins
and Loftus 1975; see also Higgins 1996; Meyer and Schvaneveldt 1971). According to this
model, concepts are stored in memory as nodes, which can be activated by a stimulus, making
the concept ready for use by the individual. These nodes are connected to other nodes in
memory, with concepts that are highly related (e.g., Doctor and Nurse) having stronger
connections than concepts that are only loosely related (e.g., Doctor and Elephant). If a stimulus
effectively triggers a node (e.g., Doctor), the node activates and is now easily accessible in
memory. Furthermore, if that trigger is strong enough, the activation the first node experiences
can be spread to other closely connected nodes (e.g., Nurse), making those closely connected
nodes also easily accessible in memory.
In the present research, it is argued that food corporations have successfully linked words
like “organic” with “healthy.” In this way, when consumers see something that contains one of
those trigger words, the concept of healthy is activated from within their memories. Once that has
been activated, it will then change how they evaluate the food product, leading them to believe
that it is healthier than it might otherwise be. To investigate the extent to which this is true,
11
participants in this research will be randomly shown products that either contain one of the
healthy buzzwords or do not. They will then evaluate each product on how healthy they believe it
to be. If those trigger words are associated implicitly with health, then the products that contain
those words should be rated as healthier.
The second question mentioned above, regarding the extent that participants can effectively
evaluate nutritional labels, stems from a common objection raised by the food industry.
Whenever there is a critique of food advertising or marketing, someone from the food industry
will typically respond that even if the health marketing is not wholly accurate, there still exists
food labels that the consumer can read to determine the actual health of the product. However,
nutritional labels are actually very difficult to read for those who do not understand nutrition. For
instance, few people probably could, if questioned, explain what a calorie actually is. Therefore,
it is believed that most people will perform poorly in understanding nutritional content.
In the second part of this study, participants will be presented with two nutritional labels
from two food products—one healthy, one not—and asked to pick the healthier option. If
participants are unable to correctly choose the healthier option, it would suggest that they are not
proficient at reading the nutritional facts. If this is the case, then it throws into question the food
industry’s argument that it does not necessarily matter if their claims are accurate because food
labels exist. That is, their argument would be rooted in a statement that is false.
Methodology
Participants
A total of 318 undergraduate students at a large, public university located in the southwestern
United States participated in exchange for course extra credit. The average age was 22.46, SD =
5.13 and there were more women (68.8%) than men. Although using a college sample limits the
generalizability of the research, this sample should—if anything—be more educated than the
general public and, therefore, more able to make informed decisions about nutrition.
Procedure
Students who signed up to participate in the study were sent a link that would take them to the
online survey that contained this study. Once they clicked on the link, they would be taken to the
opening page, which would explain their rights as participants as well as give a general overview
of the research project. The students would then click “next,” which would take them to the first
of 8 pages that contained images of products (discussed below). At the bottom of each page, they
were asked to rate how “healthy” the products were that they were seeing.
After completing the product evaluations, participants were told they were going to see
nutritional labels from a variety of products. These labels would be presented two at a time, with
the participants having to choose which is the healthier food or drink option from the two labels
being presented. Each of the paired labels would be from similar products, only with one of the
products being healthy and the other being unhealthy. Upon completion of the food label
comparisons, participants completed demographic information before being thanked and told
they could close the survey.
Stimulus Materials
The first set of stimulus materials related to the product images that were going to be rated in
terms of their health (see Figure 1 for an example of the “healthy” and “unhealthy” versions of
the same product). For each product, a version of the image would be created that included one
of the buzzwords (e.g., All Natural) and a version would be created without the buzzwords.
Products that covered a number of different categories were chosen, as well as the words that
12
would be included (or not) on them. Products used, as well as their included trigger words, were:
Annie’s Bunny Fruit Snacks (Organic), Apple Sauce (Organic), Chef Boyardee Beefaroni
(Whole Grain), Chef Boyardee Lasagna (Whole Grain), Chocolate Cheerios (Heart Healthy),
Cherry 7-Up (Antioxidant), Smuckers Peanut Butter (All Natural), and Tostitos (All Natural).
For all products, images were found that included their actual marketing words. Photoshop
was then used to remove any traces of those specific words, thereby creating two different
images of the same product. The products were randomly presented to participants, such that
each participant would have an equal chance of getting either version of the product. Although
the specific product presentation was random, the software did ensure that each participant would
receive 4 “healthy” and 4 “unhealthy” products in each session.
Figure 1: Example of “Healthy” and “Unhealthy” Product Images
The second set of stimulus materials related to food labels for a number of products (see
Figure 2 for an example). In order for these labels to be created, a search was conducted on each
product’s website to determine the exact nutrition of each product. With that information, food
labels were created in Photoshop based upon the look of actual food labels. All food labels were
identical in size and shape.
Food labels were paired so that participants had to choose between two labels. The two
labels that were paired were related in that they could be considered as coming from a similar
product category (e.g., “snack foods”). The specific pairings used that participants had to choose
between, along with the category of food that participants were told the products could be
considered from, were: Cereal: Rice Krispies (unhealthy) and Cracklin’ Oat Bran (healthy);
Cereal: Frosted Flakes (unhealthy) and Raisin Bran (healthy); Entrée Proteins: Spam
(unhealthy) and Salmon (healthy); Drinks: Coke (unhealthy) and Orange Juice (healthy); Side
Dishes: French Fries (unhealthy) and Baked Potato (healthy); Snacks: Potato Chips (unhealthy)
and Carrots (healthy); and, Snacks: Cookies (unhealthy) and Granola Bar (healthy).
13
Figure 2: Example of Food Labels Participants had to Choose Between
Dependent Variables
For the food images, participants were asked: “Overall, how healthy do you think the product
pictured above is?” They were then presented with a slider, with the 0-end point representing
unhealthy and the 100-end point representing healthy. Higher scores, therefore, represent a view
that the product is healthier. For the food labels, participants were simply asked to choose which
of the two nutritional labels was for the healthier option. The percent choosing one option over
the other will serve as the outcome variable.
Results
Food Images
In order to determine the effects of the marketing words, an independent t test was conducted to
compare the mean “healthiness” of each product. If, as expected, inclusion of those words would
prime participants to view the product as healthier, then there should be a significant difference
between the two versions of each product. Table 1 presents the results of this analysis.
Table 1: Comparing the Means and Standard Deviations of “Healthy” and “Non-Healthy”
Versions of Food Products
Healthy Unhealthy t test
Annie’s Bunny Fruit 51.7 (26.9) 30.4(24.5) t (315) = -7.36, p <
Snacks .001
Apple Sauce 72.5 (19.2) 59.9 (20.4) t (309) = -5.62, p <
.001
Chef Boyardee 34.7 (22.0) 28.4 (21.2) t (311) = -2.51, p < .05
Beefaroni
Chef Boyardee Lasagna 41.2 (23.9) 21.9 (17.9) t (306) = -8.30, p <
.001
Chocolate Cheerios 52.7 (19.2) 47.4 (24.5) t (300) = -1.91, p = .05
Cherry 7-Up 21.9 (18.8) 11.2 (14.0) t (317) = -5.73, p <
.001
Smuckers Peanut Butter 57.7 (23.1) 48.1 (22.9) t (301) = -3.63, p <
.001
Tostitos 32.2 (20.1) 26.4 (17.2) t (304) = -2.71, p < .01
14
As can be seen, every single product that was labeled with one of the marketing “buzzwords”
was rated significantly healthier than the exact same product that had the one word or image
removed. This supports the assertion stated above as the results suggest there is an implicit link
between those trigger words and health.
Food Labels
Table 2 presents the results of the nutritional label choice test. As can be seen, across a range of
products, participants had varying levels of success at identifying the healthier option when just
looking at the nutritional label. The fact that there was such a variation points to a general
ignorance in understanding nutrition.
Table 2: Percent of participants choosing the healthy or unhealthy food choice based solely on
their nutritional labels
% Choosing Healthy % Choosing Unhealthy
Cereal 1: 21 79
Cracklin’ Oat Bran or Rice Krispies
Cereal 2: 48 52
Raisin Bran or Frosted Flakes
Entrée Protein: 67 33
Salmon or Spam
Drinks: 92 8
Orange Juice or Coke
Side Dish: 78 22
Potatoes or French Fries
Snacks 1: 89 11
Carrots or Potato Chips
Snacks 2: 66 34
Granola Bar or Cookie
Discussion
The purpose of this paper is to further discussion about the way food is marketed to consumers
and how this may be contributing to their consumption of unhealthy foods. In the United States,
foods are often touted as being organic, all natural, whole grain, or any combination of other
labels that would seem to imply that they are healthy. However, those terms are technical in
nature and the average consumer does not, in reality, understand what it takes for a product to be
called “whole grain.” Instead, those who work in food marketing abuse their knowledge that
those terms can be used for their products to imply that their foods are healthy when, in fact, they
may not be.
In order to further this argument, a couple of different tactics were used. First, participants
were asked to rate how healthy different products were that were being presented to them.
Unbeknownst to them, the images of the products had been digitally altered to either include a
marketing buzzword or not. Remarkably, every single product used in this research study that
included one of the health-related trigger words was rated as being significantly healthier than
the exact same product that did not include those words. Importantly, these changes to the
packaging and product were not large and usually quite subtle. For instance, with the Tostitos
chips, the words “All Natural” were very small and just on the side of the bag. It is important that
even such a small cue is clearly affecting how people see the products.
Approached from the theoretical perspective of priming, this is exactly what would be
expected. For a variety of reasons, words such as “organic” have become strongly associated
with the concept of “healthy.” Although this link was probably originally because the majority of
15
early foods labeled with such terms as organic were fresh fruits and vegetables, major food
corporations have abused it over time by including those words on packaging of processed foods
that are not healthy. When those words are put onto products, the idea of “healthy” is primed and
activated, which in turn biases evaluations of the product itself.
Participants also had to choose between two food nutritional labels to determine which label
was the healthier option. The results demonstrated that a large number of participants were
generally unable to distinguish between the “healthy” option and the “unhealthy” option, even
when choosing between such items as Spam and salmon. The pairings chosen were deliberately
picked to pair two things that are considerably different in nutritional content, and yet people
were, for many products, really bad at knowing which to choose.
Such failure to distinguish healthy from unhealthy foods helps to blow holes in the food
industry’s argument that consumers have nutritional labels to help guide their decisions.
Although it is true that the labels exist and, when read properly, can provide a great deal of
information, the reality is that most people do not know how to read the labels. Relying on this
argument, then, seems suspect at best.
Taken together, a picture emerges wherein the food corporations, recognizing both that the
public has a desire to generally eat more nutritiously and that there are certain words that are
associated with health, deliberately market their products as being healthy even when they are
not. The product images used in this study that included the marketing buzzwords were the actual
images of the products. In other words, things like “antioxidant” really do appear on the Cherry
7-Up bottle. From a nutritional standpoint, it would be hard to ever argue that individuals should
and even could get a significant portion of their antioxidants from soda, and yet this is exactly
what is being implied by labeling the drink as such. The motive of the food manufacturer, then,
must be to imply that the drink is healthier than it is. Indeed, that is exactly what the results from
this research suggest. Simply including the word “antioxidant” was enough to make participants
view the drink as being healthier than when the word was not included. These results are
particularly troubling in light of previous research suggesting that labeling foods as “low fat” led
consumers to overeat (Wansink and Chandon 2006). A similar effect could occur with these
“new” marketing terms.
The implications of this research are numerous. First, it is perhaps time that the food
industry take responsibility for how they market their foods and acknowledge the role they play
in keeping consumers in the United States misinformed about what is healthy to eat. Healthy
foods exist, many of which are organic, whole grain, natural and all of those other things that
many foods today are being labeled. However, using those labels on foods such as soda only
serve to sell a drink rather than inform consumers about the actual health content of the product.
By taking on some of the responsibility, the food manufacturers could at least demonstrate that
they are concerned enough with the health of the country that they will no longer deceptively
market their products.
Next, this research adds to the literature suggesting it is time to redesign and simplify how
nutritional labels are presented. After all, the reason to include these labels is to provide a
mechanism for consumers to understand what they are eating. This is clearly not the case, at least
in the United States, as the labels currently being used are not helpful for many consumers
looking to choose the healthier option. Other options do exist, though. For instance, research in
Germany suggests the simplified “traffic light” approach to nutritional labels is the most effective
at conveying nutritional information (Borgmeier and Westenhoefer 2009). With this approach, a
more intuitive red, yellow, and green coloring system is employed to illustrate to consumers
when foods can be eaten without concern or moderation.
Finally, this research suggests that there needs to be greater efforts made to educate
consumers. This education should include both programs aimed at understanding how food is
marketed to help arm consumers with an ability to understand the techniques food manufacturers
use as well as programs aimed to further basic nutritional knowledge so that consumers can
16
better understand nutritional labels however they are presented. It is evident from this research
that very small cues are enough to influence consumer perceptions of a product. If consumers are
more knowledgeable of how food manufacturers use those cues, it is possible they would be
more perceptive of them and would put less weight in those when making decisions. Similarly, if
consumers are better informed about proper nutrition, it would be possible that regardless of how
the food is marketed, they could read the accompanying labels to get a more complete picture of
how healthy a product truly is.
17
REFERENCES
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Ogden, Cynthia L., Carroll, Margaret D., Curtin, Lester R., Lamb, Molly M., and Flegal,
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Ogden, Cynthia L., Carroll, Margaret D., and Flegal, Katherine M. 2008. “High Body Mass
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Roskos-Ewoldsen, David R., Roskos-Ewoldsen, Beverly, and Carpentier, Francesca D. 2009.
“Media priming: An Updated Synthesis.” In Media Effects: Advances in Theory and
Research, edited by Jennings Bryant and Mary B. Oliver, 74-93. New York: Routledge.
Srull, Thomas K., and Wyer, Robert S. 1979. “The Role of Category Accessibility in the
Interpretation of Information About Persons: Some Determinants and Implications.”
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Wansink, Brian, and Chandon, Pierre. 2006. “Can ‘Low-Fat’ Nutrition Labels Lead to Obesity?”
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Temple Northup: Assistant Professor, Jack J. Valenti School of Communication, University
of Houston, Houston, TX, USA
18
Flash-frying vs. Deep-fat Frying: Fat Content and
Sensory Evaluation of Fish Fried Using Two
Methods
Sherri Stastny, North Dakota State University, USA
Jill Keith, North Dakota State University, USA
Clifford Hall III, North Dakota State University, USA
Julie Garden-Robinson, North Dakota State University, USA
Abstract: Deep-fat frying is a common preparation method for fish in the foodservice industry as well as the home
kitchen. Flash-frying has been promoted as a healthier method of preparing fish. The differences in fat absorption of cod
prepared by deep-fat frying (350°F for 4 minutes) and flash-frying (400°F for 1.5 minutes) as well as sensory qualities
were evaluated for this study. Results showed that both deep-fat frying and flash-frying significantly increased the fat
content of cod. Contrary to the promotion of flash-frying as a healthier method of preparation, the flash-fried cod had a
non-significantly higher amount of total fat compared to the deep-fried cod. Sensory analysis indicated consumers did not
show a clear preference for deep-fried or flash-fried cod and rated both favorably.
Keywords: Deep-fat Frying, Flash-frying, Fat Content, Fried Fish
Introduction and Background
A mericans spend almost half of their food dollars eating away from home (USDA, 2013).
Foods eaten away from home tend to be higher in energy and fat (Bezerra, Curoni, and
Sichieri 2012, 65). Foods breaded, battered, and fried (such as fish, seafood, poultry,
cheese, and vegetables) have increased in popularity (Nasiri et al. 2012, 1238). Although fish is a
good source of nutrients and a healthful choice for obtaining protein in the diet, breading and
deep-frying increase the fat content of foods (USDA, 2009). The Dietary Guidelines for
Americans (2010) recommend moderating intake of fat and calories to reduce the risk for obesity
and other chronic diseases (USDA, 2013). High intake of fried foods thus increases the risk
factors for obesity and chronic diseases (Myers and Brannan 2012, 239).
Deep-fat frying is used commonly in restaurants and fast food outlets as a preparation
method for fish. It is a cooking method that includes immersing the food product in oil at a
temperature usually between 320° and 374° F (160 and 190°C) (Gazmuri and Bouchon 2009,
999). Foodservice industry standards for deep-fat frying include oil temperatures typically
between 350-375°F (Molt 2011, 148). Deep-fat frying, a dry-heat method of food preparation,
causes heat transfer as well as fat transfer, which contribute to changes in texture, taste, color,
and fat content of the food (Gazmuri and Bouchon 2009, 999). Oil migration into the food
product occurs as water is lost from food during frying (Tavera-Quiroz et al. 2011, 1346).
Moisture content in food products and loss during frying can affect fat uptake (Nasiri et al. 2012,
1243).
Deep-fat frying requires the use of oils with a high smoke point, which is the temperature at
which fat begins to smoke and break down into glycerol and individual fatty acids (Brown 2011,
467). Frying in fats beyond their smoke point may negatively affect food flavor, potentially
imparting a “burned” flavor to the food. If fat begins to smoke before achieving adequate frying
temperature, texture also may be negatively affected (i.e. uncooked gelatinized starch). Refined
oils with a low degree of unsaturation will have less degeneration with the high temperatures

Volume 3, 2014, food-studies.com, ISSN: 2160-1933
© Common Ground, Sherri Stastny, Jill Keith, Clifford Hall III, Julie Garden-Robinson
All Rights Reserved, Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com
associated with deep-fat frying (Choe and Min 2007, R82). Commercial refined oils designed for
deep-fat frying have a higher smoke point. Typically, oils used repeatedly for frying foods will
deteriorate and have a decreased smoke point, especially if the oil is cooled and reheated (Choe
and Min 2007, R82).
Food scientists have attempted to reduce the fat content in deep-fried foods in a variety of
ways. Some researchers have added fiber to deep-fried bread products to reduce fat uptake
(Yadav and Rajan 2012, 767). Others have coated food pieces with hydrocolloids, which are
starchy gum coatings (Tavera-Quiroz et al. 2011, 1347). Deep-fried potatoes have been dipped in
sugar or salt solutions, coated with cellulose derivatives, or vacuum fried in an attempt to lower
the fat and energy contribution (Bingol et al. 2012, 686). Components of breading on shrimp and
chicken products as well as post-breading dips have been manipulated to facilitate changes in fat
uptake (Nasiri et al. 2012, 1239; Mah and Brannan 2008, S9).
Preparing foods by “flash-frying” has been promoted by popular chefs in the media as a
“low fat” method of cooking or a way to decrease the uptake of cooking oil (DiSpirito, 2012). In
general, flash-frying is defined as frying foods at high temperatures for a short period
(Anonymous, 2012). More specific definitions of flash-frying could not be identified from
academic sources but were available from popular media sources. Celebrity chef Rocco
DiSpirito, popular in American media, defined flash-frying as a high-heat deep-frying technique
used to rapidly brown small pieces of quick-cooking food that requires oil with a high smoke
point (DiSpirito, 2012). Another chef provided specific temperature recommendations (400°F or
higher) for flash-fried cooking (Vires, 2011). Several videos (Anonymous, 2013a, 2013b;
DiSpirito, 2013) showed the preparation of flash-fried fish using a large pan with high sides so
the fish was submerged in hot oil (similar to deep-frying). Other sources include flash-frying as a
secondary cooking method, which follows partial cooking (e.g., microwaving, boiling) of food
such as meat, poultry, or fish (Anonymous, 2013c; Stewart, 2001). Total cooking time varies
with the state of the food (e.g. frozen, thawed, fresh), total surface area, moisture content, and
number of items cooked together (Choe and Min 2007, R77).
The purpose of this study was to evaluate differences in fat absorption of cod prepared by
deep-fat frying (DF) and flash-frying (FF) and to evaluate the respective sensory qualities of each
method. The authors hypothesized that both DF and FF frying methods will increase fat content
of food by greater than 3 g of fat per serving and that flash-frying is not a method of “low fat”
cooking. Additionally, both DF and FF would be accepted by consumer tasting panelists.
Materials
Cod was selected for the study because the available foodservice-style “portions” often are used
to control cost and cooking consistency in both commercial and institutional foodservice. Each
purchased portion weighed approximately 120 g. Because of “weeping” of liquid, frozen portions
decreased from an average of 120 g to 106 g, thawed. Each portion was divided into four evenly
weighted samples to mimic a pre-breaded foodservice fish nugget.
A commercial “fryer” sunflower/canola oil blend was used as the frying oil because of the
high oil smoke point. Retail pre-packaged, plain breadcrumbs comprised the breading. Egg
whites were separated from whole, large eggs, whipped until frothy using a tabletop mixer.
Methods
Preparation and Frying of Samples
The researchers could find no other study that standardized the flash-frying technique, so our
pilot experiment was developed to define and establish parameters for recommended time and
temperature of FF compared to DF frying. The outcome of the pilot study indicated that frying
20
STASTNY ET AL.: FLASH-FRYING VS. DEEP-FAT FRYING
the breaded cod in 400°F oil for 1.5 min (FF) and 350°F oil for 4 min (DF) was optimal. The
method used to prepare cod is given below.
The oil for each treatment was preheated in separate frying pots for 1 hour or until 3 inches
of oil reached the desired temperatures of 350° and 400°F. Oil temperatures were measured
continuously with calibrated thermometers accurate to within 2°F. Thawed and drained samples
of cod were dipped in frothy egg whites, gently shaken to remove excess egg, and then coated in
plain breadcrumbs. Next, the cod samples were subjected to one of two different treatments: (1)
FF in 400°F oil for 1.5 min and (2) DF in 350°F oil for 4 min. Cod samples were lifted from the
oil and allowed to drain for 30 seconds. The internal temperatures of the initial samples were
measured with a calibrated thermometer to ensure they reached 145°F for safety and palatability
(FDA, 2009). Fried samples were placed on non-absorptive glass plates to slightly cool before
placement on labeled paper plates for the sensory panelists.
Cod was prepared by FF and DF on three different days for a total of 344 samples. During
frying, oil levels were evaluated to maintain initial volume. New oil and a clean fry pot were
used for each frying day.
Proximate and Quality Analysis of Cod
Chemical Analysis
Nine samples were used to determine fat and moisture content; four samples were used for the
raw result. Samples were freeze-dried and milled into a powder using a laboratory mill. Moisture
content among the three types of treatments was determined using freeze-drying and weight loss
difference. Following freeze-drying, three grams of each treatment sample were placed in
Soxhlet extraction overnight. The fat content was determined gravimetrically by weighing the oil
or fat obtained after evaporating the solvent (AOCS, 2009). The fat content was an average of
three subgroups of the nine initial cod samples.
Sensory Evaluation
Sensory analysis was performed with a protocol approved by the university’s Institutional
Review Board (IRB). Participants were recruited via e-mail and personal invitation. The
participants included staff, faculty, and students all 18 or older. Those with food allergies
including egg, fish, milk, or wheat were excluded from the study. Prior to sampling, participants
were given an overview of taste testing procedures and instructions including informed consent
before filling out the written sensory evaluation form. The panelists evaluated samples based on
appearance, flavor, texture, and acceptability of each preparation method for the FF and DF cod
using a survey with a 9-point hedonic scale. The scale ranged from “like extremely” (9) to
“dislike extremely” (1). In addition to scoring, panelists were also allowed to add comments on
the evaluation sheets. Two FF and two DF samples were served individually on plates labeled
with a random number, one sample at a time, for a total of 4 samples per participant.
Statistical Analysis
Paired differences for FF versus DF cod were compared using independent sample t-test analysis.
Sensory attribute mean response main effects were calculated using analysis of variance
(ANOVA, SAS Institute, Cary, NC, 2009). The differences at p < 0.05 were considered
significant.
21
Results and Discussion

Consumers commonly purchase deep-fried foods due to the desirable crispy outside and moist
inside the finished product (Anonymous, 2013d). Some chefs well-known in the media have
claimed that flash-fried foods are “low fat” yet have the same desirable characteristics of deep-
fried foods (DiSpirito, 2012). Samples were prepared to compare fat content in FF and DF cod,
and to present to consumer panelists to test for sensory characteristics.
Flash-Frying and Deep-Fat Frying of Cod
Our first experiment was established to define parameters for recommended time and
temperature of flash-frying compared to deep-fat frying. The goal was to ensure food safety (i.e.
safe internal cooked temperature of 145°F) without overcooking the samples at the very high
temperature (400°F). We found that FF is: (1) deep-fat frying at very high temperatures (400°F)
and (2) “quickly” or “flash” cooked, so that less time compared to DF frying was necessary.
Others have demonstrated that thawed foods, given other same characteristics, cook more
quickly than frozen (Maity et al. 2012, 45). Samples with a greater surface area would cook in a
relatively short amount of time compared to larger portions with proportionately less surface
area. The samples in the current study were small “nugget shaped” pieces, which allowed quick
cooking using FF and DF. We compared FF to DF to determine differences in the mean weights
across stages (Table 1).
Table 1: Mean weights (g) of cod in various stages of preparation.

Raw weight Egg-dipped weight Breaded weight Fried weight
Flash-fried
23.91 ± 5.06ᵃ 25.63 ± 4.84ᵃ 27.98 ± 4.79ᵃ 23.30 ± 5.04ᵃ
(FF)
Deep-fried
23.30 ± 3.99ᵃ 24.59 ± 4.01ᵃ 26.64 ± 4.31ᵃ 20.52 ± 3.85ᵇ
(DF)
ᵃᵇ Values with different letters within the columns are significantly different. p < 0.05
The mean weights for raw, egg-dipped and breaded DF and FF were statistically the same.
The p values suggest statistical evidence that the same treatment variances are not different (raw,
p=0.0832, egg, p=0.1883, breaded, p=0.2318). However, statistical evidence indicates the means
for the fried treatments DF and FF were different (p=0.0023).
Deep-fat frying is standardized at 340-375°F depending on type of food to be fried. The time
(minutes) required for the fish to achieve 145°F varied. By trial and error, times and temperatures
for FF and DF samples used for sensory and chemical analysis were determined to be 90 seconds
for FF and 4 minutes for DF. Visual golden brown color was achieved quickly in both the FF and
DF samples using the established time parameters.
It appears that the longer time for DF caused greater shrinkage of the DF samples. Although
not significant, the moisture and oil content of the DF samples were less than those of the FF
samples (Table 2). Therefore, the loss of mass (Table 1) may be because of a combined loss of
moisture and lower oil absorption (Table 2).
Table 2: Percentage of moisture and fat for three different treatments of cod.
Moisture content (%) Fat content (%)
Raw 83.3ᵃ 1.2ᵃ
Flash-fried (FF) 59.2ᵇ 21.8ᵇ
Deep-fried (DF) 58.6ᵇ 21.2ᵇ
ᵃᵇValues with different letters within the columns are significantly different. p < 0.05
22
The moisture content was higher in the raw sample compared with either FF or DF
(p<0.0001), however, no differences were found between FF and DF (p=0.7893). The results
were the same for fat content: Both FF and DF samples were higher in fat than the raw sample
(p<0.0001), but the FF and DF samples did not differ (p=0.0607).
Both moisture and fat content were notably similar comparing FF to DF in the present study.
Nasiri et al. (2012, 1243) tested deep-fat breaded shrimp nuggets at various times and
temperatures. As oil temperature increased, moisture and fat content decreased when the same
frying time was used. The authors concluded that the increased temperature seemed to form a
“crust barrier” to prevent some oil absorption. Kita and Lisinska (2005, 2602) also showed that
increasing frying temperatures (with a variety of different oils including sunflower oil) decreased
the absorption of fat. Others have found that increased time (1, 3, 5, and 7 min) in the fryer
generally increases total fat content (Bingol et al. 2012, 689), but that was not the case here.
When thin and thick samples were compared, thinner products absorbed proportionally more
oil when fried for 1, 2, or 3 min. (Gazmuri and Bouchon 2009, 1002).The samples in the present
study were smaller and thinner than a typical foodservice fish portion, but regardless, the FF and
DF samples had similar results,—21.8% fat for FF and 21.2% fat for DF,—an almost 19 fold
increase in fat for both FF and DF compared to the raw sample.
For the current study, despite the claims that FF is a “healthier” method of frying compared
to deep-fat frying, the fat content of FF samples was slightly higher than the DF, although not
significantly different. This is in contradiction to the promotion that flash-frying is a “low fat”
method of food preparation. The FDA definition of a “low fat” serving of food is “less than 3 g
of total fat per serving” (FDA, 2008). The samples of FF fish for this study contained an average
of 5.7 g fat per sample, or 17.3 g fat/serving, assuming three “nuggets” per serving.
Sensory Evaluation
Sixty student, faculty, and staff taste panelists evaluated the samples. The diverse group of
panelists, including both men and women of various ages from 18 to 65, showed no clear
preference for FF or DF and rated both treatments favorably (Table 3). Demographic information
was not collected to minimize panelist time commitment. In general, the distributions appear
similar across methods with some minor exceptions. For example, panelists slightly preferred the
appearance of FF (7.0 or =“like moderately”) compared to DF (6.9 or =between “like
moderately” and “like slightly”). However, no statistical differences were observed for any
sensory characteristics (Table 3).
Table 3: Sensory evaluation rating mean attributes and standard deviations, 9-point scale, n=60.
Appearance Flavor Texture Overall acceptability
Flash-fried (FF) 7.0 ± 1.4ᵃ 6.6 ± 1.3ᵃ 6.8 ± 1.5ᵃ 6.7 ± 1.3ᵃ
Deep-fried (DF) 6.9 ± 1.5ᵃ 6.6 ± 1.5ᵃ 6.9 ± 1.7ᵃ 6.7 ± 1.6ᵃ
ᵃValues within the columns are not significantly different. p < 0.05
Each panelist rated the FF and DF about the same. Panelists did not choose, “dislike
extremely” (1.0) for any attribute. Flavor was rated lower than other attributes. There was no
seasoning used on the samples, so that panelists were able to focus on differences that might be
caused by various cooking techniques. One panelist commented, “Like to eat fish of all kinds.
Cod is a type that needs seasoning. Know this is NOT a seasoning evaluation.” The initial
samples were tested informally for palatability before presentation to panelists. Using precise
time and temperature parameters ensured consistent samples for the panelists. However, each
panelist would have individual perceptions on the “ideal” attributes of fried fish. For example, in
their descriptions of FF samples, one panelist wrote, “nice and crunchy on the outside, but soft on
the inside” while another said, “Breading was too tough.” Based on the Hedonic scale ratings, the
23
researchers found no significant differences in appearance, taste, texture or overall ratings

comparing FF to DF among individual panelists, but the ratings varied, as shown by the standard
deviations. As expected, not all participants rated consistently attributes taste, texture, flavor and
acceptance. Statistical analysis revealed a significant effect of participant but no effect of
treatment (FF and DF rated about the same).
Conclusions
Results obtained in the present study indicate frying cod at a higher temperature for a shorter
time (“flash-frying”) does not provide a “low fat” option for consumption. The difference was
small (0.6%) and not significant. Both methods of frying changed the fat content of the cod from
1.2% to 21.2-21.8% based on weight. Based on a 100-gram serving, the fried cod samples have
an average of 180 more calories from fat than the raw cod. These results point to the continued
need to promote healthier cooking methods (such as baking or broiling) as alternatives to frying.
Acknowledgement
The authors thank Curt Doetkott and Romi Gomez for statistical consulting.
24
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Sherri Stastny: Associate Professor, Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences, North Dakota
State University, Fargo, ND, USA
Jill Keith: Graduate Student, Health, Nutrition, and Exercise Sciences, North Dakota State
University, Fargo, ND, USA
Dr. Clifford Hall, III: Associate Professor, Cereal and Food Science, North Dakota State
University, Fargo, ND, USA
Dr. Julie Garden-Robinson: Extension Specialist and Professor, Health, Nutrition, and Exercise
Sciences, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND, USA
26
American Perceptions of Mediterranean Cuisine:
Internet-based Research
Philippos Papadopoulos, Perrotis College and American Farm School, Greece
Rodica Arpasanu, Perrotis College and American Farm School, Greece
Aleksandra Pavlovska, Perrotis College and American Farm School, Greece
Abstract: This study maps the terrain of public narratives related to the Mediterranean diet and cuisine through the
investigation of electronic social media in the United States of America. The theoretical part of this paper emphasizes the
role of food in today’s society and the overarching food narratives. Mediterranean food, in its various manifestations,
embodies numerous narratives that extend well beyond the understanding of food as a nutritious source exclusively. The
research is conducted in two parts: Google trends and blog analysis. The findings are in general agreement with the
theoretical background that the health attributes of the Mediterranean diet are a possible solution to the unhealthy food
practices of the American society. It is important to note that this is perceived as an emerging hybrid diet, despite being
composed of many national cuisines. In addition, the popularity of this cuisine is evident through the dominant social
practice of dining out and through seeking advice or instructions online. This paper is of interest to marketers and food
sociologists.
Keywords: Mediterranean Cuisine, Mediterranean Diet, Food Narratives, Social Media
Introduction
E ric Voegelin proposes that every society has to cope with the twin problems of its
pragmatic existence and with the truth of its order (Sandoz 1999, p.92). Within this
context, Montanari places food firmly in the realm of culture, examining how coping with
the mundane is turned into something profoundly meaningful (Montanari 2006; in Arpasanu &
Papadopoulos 2012). On the mundane aspect of food as nourishment, societies add a triad of
psychological, sociological and anthropological meanings (Jones 2005; Dusseller 2009).
Although nourishment is vital, the implications of how, what, and when to eat are largely an
exhibition of the power of social forces (Askegaard 1995, p.2).
The embedded process of food preparation to consumption in daily activities is a lens
through which cultural constituents such as values, beliefs and attitudes are manifested. In her
classic work, Douglas (1975) refers to food as being a cipher for which its patterns are found in
social interaction, examining the occasions when drinks and meals are offered in various social
contexts. Visser (1999) goes a step further, arguing that the food culture relationship is iterative,
with changes of food practices influencing culture.
In short, this paper accepts Montanari’s (2006) proposition that food can disseminate one’s
cultural identity; or, in the famous, if oversimplifying, words of Brillat-Savarin: “tell me what
you eat and I will tell you what you are” (Berry & de Geest 2012, p.9). Within this context, we
aim to codify the main narrative themes associated with Mediterranean Diet and Cuisine in the
US and identify their relative popularity.

© Common Ground, Philippos Papadopoulos, Rodica Arpasanu, Aleksandra Pavlovska,
All Rights Reserved, Permissions: cg-support@commongroundpublishing.com
Literature Review
Overarching Present Day Food Narratives
In western societies, people are presented with a vast number of consumption alternatives, which
are used not only to satisfy needs but also to construct self-identities (Germov & Williams 2009).
Food has increasingly been treated by media and laymen alike as an art form, a leisure pursuit, a
source of social status and a way to express awareness of social/global distinctions and
environmental consciousness. This is happening through the emergence of overarching food
narratives (Rozin 2005) embedded in social practices that operate simultaneously –and often
competitively– to influence the choices of consumers (Littlejohn 2008).
In the following paragraphs we will outline some of the dominant narratives found in media.
By “dominant”, we mean that such overarching narratives color the meaning of other, more
specific ones - and to a great extent - influence their appeal.
Accredited to Barr and Levy’s (1984), the foodies’ perspective appeared in the second half
of the twentieth century (Warde 2004, p.22). A blend of cultural, rather than socio-economic
patterns of differentiation and a touch of low-key snobbishness sets apart the foodie from the
gourmet (Ambrozas 2003; Weston 2006; Watson et al 2008). In this way, omnivorous food
consumption acquires a new aspect as the “predominant high status cultural consumption
strategy” (Johnston & Baumann 2010, p.223). As a knowledgeable and educated aesthete, the
foodie is advocating a holistic food-oriented lifestyle as the essence upon which his identity is
built, thus, using Bordieu’s (1990) terminology, creating a new “habitus” with related practices
and discourses.
The proliferation of healthy lifestyles among consumers competes with the hedonistic aspect
of food, converging towards the health and fitness perspective. Narratives embedded within this
perspective can be historically found in a large number of texts regarding the effects of food on
the human body (Nicoud 2008). Concerned with overall wellness and body image, the orientation
of these persons dictates their attitude towards product consumption in general (Sparks &
Sheperd 1992; Sneijder & Molder 2009) and food in particular (Shankar et al. 2004). What we
have next is a series of “moral” narratives integrating food choices and practices to a secular
moral order, the symbols of which are used to illuminate the meaning of existence.
One of the narratives that emerge relate to an environmentally conscious consumerist group
that, while not homogenous (Ellen et al 1991; Dembkowski & Lloyd 1994), is driven towards
“green” food and lifestyle choices, suitable for this value system. Another morally based
narrative focuses on animal welfare. The consumption of welfare-friendly products has
increased, as noted by Kehlbacher et al (2012). Also, vegetarianism is on the rise, moving to
societal mainstream, and a large number of consumers advocate against the use of diets that
suggest consumption of meat.
All of the above narratives play out in the late modernist milieu which on the one hand has
elevated science into a secular religion creating a new common sense and on the other hand
cherishes the shreds of myth that can survive in a de-mystified society (Ruse 2003). In this
setting, the overarching position of scientific logic is not challenged; it is simply embellished
with stories of the exotic and the old.
Intertwined with the moral narratives, is the science-based narrative which emanates from
the consumers’ scientific literacy, even if relatively low in the case of the general consumer
(Gaskell et al. 2010, in Entrena & Ordonez 2013). The adoption or refusal of certain types of
food is partly dependent upon their alleged scientifically proven benefit or specific nutritious
characteristic. Closely related but independent is the technology narrative, with supporters and
opponents debating desirability and the feasibility of low tech food choices in the light of earth’s
growing population (Floros et al. 2010; Izmirli & Phillips 2011).
28
PAPADOPOULOS ET AL.: AMERICAN PERCEPTIONS OF MEDITERRANEAN CUISINE
The Mediterranean Diet and Cuisine
The Mediterranean region has long been the subject of scientific research, initially focused on
dietary benefits (Nestle 1995) later expanded to include cuisine issues such as food preparation
(Goldstein 2007). The narrative of Mediterranean cuisine blends the scientific health narrative
with the more mystical and aesthetic narratives of cooking. Historically, the “unusual” health
statistics of the Mediterranean have inspired the nutritional studies by Keys & Allbaugh in the
early 50s (Nestle 1995; Iriti and Vitalini 2012). Conducted on the island of Crete in Greece,
Key’s study defined the boundaries of this diet which subsequently have been extended to
countries with similar food practices. The dietary patterns of this region were officially codified
at an international conference in 1993 and consist of plant-based consumption, dairy products,
olive oil, small portions of red meat, fish, wine and so on. (Serra-Majem et al. 2004, p.927).
Today, this diet is not only closely associated with a tasty cuisine, but also with a
corresponding lifestyle. The Mediterranean cuisine in the postmodern era has evolved
maintaining little resemblance to the antique Mediterranean diet; nonetheless, what is left of it
are the cultural identities and the habits of the Mediterranean population (Montanari 2006,
p.136). Mediterranean food narratives, as rhetorical devices (Littlejohn 2008), merit a special
attention and need to be analyzed within the present day overarching food narratives, previously
noted in this study.
Many of the foodies today, express enthusiasm for this particular cuisine, passionately
engaging in discussions. Recipes, dishes and drinks are utilized in their narratives, blending the
hedonistic food aspect with the whole experience of eating a Mediterranean dish. As Pickering et
al (2013, p.87) note, the foodies’ interest extends from food producers to restaurants. In the case
of the Mediterranean cuisine, this is evident in cyber-based foodie narratives, magazines, TV
shows and networks, books, articles, journals etc. Contrary to popular scientific studies
suggesting that this cuisine needs to be approached from a specific food narrative (Panagiotakos
2009) based on nutrition, food collection or lifestyle, foodies accumulate all these perspective
into one holistic approach.
The Mediterranean Cuisine (MC) is a device through which foodies seek authenticity based
on three possible strategies (Carroll & Wheaton 2008). Primarily, the lack of authenticity of food
practices reflects the lack of self-identity; the “authenticity” of the MC is one way to remedy that
loss. Following, the intention to purchase a product unfamiliar to the community is nothing but
an attempt for self-expression. In this regard, foodies, especially those native to America adopt
practices of the MC so to distinguish themselves from society in general. Ultimately, the most
prevalent rationale for the popularity of this narrative is the status generation through an external
display of knowledge. The cuisine’s most obscure ingredients, methods of preparation and the
lifestyle itself is well known to foodies and manifested through their visits in restaurants, blog
and magazine inputs and so on. Needless to say, this strategy is not specific to MC; it is
implemented in the context of any cuisine that possesses cultural clout.
The appeal of the Mediterranean diet however goes beyond the foodie circles. When Key set
the boundaries of this term, he referred to the general food habits of those living around the
Mediterranean basis, rather than focusing solely on the dietary health patterns (Contaldo et al
2003, p.118). This cuisine is marked by a social narrative of gatherings, festive celebrations, late
dinners and lunches with friends and family, socializing after a meal (Borowski 2004). Another
social dimension upon which this narrative is built is the actual practice of cooking. Bellisle
(2009) expounds on the shared and organized meals which gives people a sense of belonging in a
particular social group. Beyond nutritional benefits, an emphasis is put on the meal itself
contributing to the overall enhancement of social relationships. This could valuably add towards
the generation of social identity of an individual within a certain culture (Bach-Faig et al. 2011).
29
Based on all of these, one could argue that such narratives cannot be easily found in a post-
modern era of individualism and time pressures. Through the MC narrative, people recognise the
importance of such elements and seek to experience them in food related practices.
In short, Mediterranean food in its various manifestations is popular in the US and
throughout the world. Everyone knows, or thinks they know, something about it. Some of these
beliefs are very much part of the public discourse on food and health lifestyles, others relate to
multiculturalism and cosmopolitan lifestyles, and others still to hedonic and aesthetic
sophistication. Whatever the bias of each belief, people cannot hold to it for long without
managing to weave it together with other beliefs in a justificatory web (Rorty 1999).
Based on the above readings, this paper will seek to answer the following research
questions:
1. To what extent is MC discussed in the context of specific food and cooking

discourses, including healthy diet, hedonic attributes, ease of cooking, ease of
access to ingredients and so on?
2. To what extent is MC discussed in the context of specific practices, including
dining at home with family or friends, dining out, cooking for one’s self and so
on?
3. To what extent is MC discussed in the context of specific life-styles?
4. To what extent is MC treated by the media as a generic diet or as the sum total of
a number of national cuisines?
Methodology
For this paper, the primary data collection method was generated from internet sources of an
American background. The potential for data collection via the internet has been debated by
researchers for many years (Sheehan 2002). In this case, it is a promising vehicle for data
collection with its ability to reach large numbers of people almost 60% of Americans (NUA
2002), therefore, the potential exists to generalize results (Sheehan 2002) reached through this
method. Based on this line of inquiry we proceeded with content analysis.
Data Collection and Analysis
In order to identify and categorize the MC related discourse themes, we undertook content
analysis of a wide range of sources including major American and European newspapers,
lifestyle and special interest magazines, blogs covering food and cuisine issues and academic
literature. The content of these sources was analyzed in terms of popularity of specific topic
categories such as time/space devoted to different categories, number of people involved in the
conversation and the affective intensity generated by specific topics. In the above, we were
looking both for category settings similarities and for variations.
Initially, the Google Trends data collection was focused on the regional interest of the
Mediterranean diet and cuisine, comparison with other diets, ethnical cuisine and food categories
in general. The second part of the research or the blog analysis was based on the comments of
1.000 individuals, both male and female participating in blogs. We categorized participants on
the basis of their observable attitude towards Mediterranean food using seven variables.
The blog analysis involved coding the meaning of the comments of the individuals as well as
their attitude towards MC. All three authors of the paper were involved in the process of coding
and building hierarchies of codes. The total number of entries was divided among the authors for
initial coding, her/his proposal was discussed by the team and the final classifications were
agreed after discussion. The national background of the authors did not influence in any
perceptible way their positions, even though the national cuisines of two of them fall within the
30
MC range while the third is Romanian. A possible explanation, if there is need for one, is that all
three are familiar with MC, living for many years n Greece.
The streamlined coding scheme (Saldana 2009) was based on theoretical understanding as
well as research findings of Mediterranean food and the coding units were established to fit the
research questions and objectives of the study. The in-depth analysis of the individuals’
comments resulted in establishing different themes or categories to identify what each unit is all
about. For instance, the units of health, nutrition and availability were placed under the category
of concerns. To ensure validity, we kept specific standards and rules for inclusion under each
code and the relevant category. The comments between the time periods of 2000 - 2012 were
taken into consideration in order to get as accurate information as possible.
It is important to note that the implementation of this classification was not always straight
forward and we had to use our own judgment in a number of borderline cases; in eight cases, we
were not able to classify the participant. In this sense, our experience confirmed Boltanski &
Thevenot (2006) that classification of subjects in a research project is not a value-free exercise.
Analysis
Google Trends Analysis
Based on analysis undertaken in March 2013, within the US, the cities that show the greatest
interest are Dallas and Washington (indexed at 100), followed by Chicago (93), Los Angeles and
Huston (87) and New York (76). The map below depicts interest variations at the regional level.
The related terms used in the searches above, give us a good indication of the drivers of
current US interest in MC; as we can see from the graphs bellow, recipes come at the top of the
list, indicating that the general public is interested in the aesthetic /social and the hedonic aspects
of MC; the dominant relevant practices seem to be home cooking and dinning. A niche group
interested in the health aspects could be responsible for the MD “diet plan” entry, showing at 45,
while a smaller group seeks information on the MD “diet pyramid”.
In this sense, MC seems to have broken out of its initial, narrow, health-related status and to
be entering the American culinary mainstream carrying with it the health heritage. This is not a
one way street though, according to our research, moving on the opposite direction, the
idiosyncratic “Paleo diet” discourse seems to be the fastest rising trend.
31
We must note here that the only national bearing that appears is that of Greece; as we shall
see, MC is largely decoupled from specific countries of origin. This tendency has implications in
terms of the authenticity versus dynamic-hybridity debate for ethnic cuisines.
To complete the broad picture, we compared interest in MF with the performance of the
Food and Drinks category in general; as one can see, the two are not very closely corellated, and
on the whole the tendency is for interest in MF to outperform the category.
Having seen a snapshot of the existing situation, we can now examine whether the US
interest in MC is a long term phenomenon. As we can see from the graph below, the overall
interest in food and drink has remained relatively stable in the period from 2004 to the present
and is forecasted to continue in the same vain for 2013. Mediterannean food is consistently
outperforming the category and the slop of the curve is becoming increasingly sharp, indicating
progressively increased interest.
32
Turning our attention to national cuisines that make up Mediterranean food, we can see
from the graphs bellow, even though in absolute numbers they are more popular than MC, in
dynamic terms, they show a long term decline, while the popularity of MF is increasing. Thus, in
the period 2004–2013 Spanish food is predicted to decline by 61% Italian by 21%, Greek at 17%
and MF is expected to increase by 139%. During the same period, the general Food & Drink
category is expected to grow by 48%.
French cuisine, with its vast cultural history, is of course quite independent from the
umbrella MC concept. Statistics indicate that active interest in French cuisine is declining over
the years, a trend probably mirroring the rise of the “omnivorous” foodie.
33
The terms Mediterranean Cuisine and Mediterranean Diet are used by US consumers in
different contexts of practice. By practice we mean sets of routinized physical performances, but
they are at the same time sets of mental activities. A complete examination of food-related
practices would involve evaluation of types of practice that are prevalent (dinning home, dinning
out, cooking), how do they develop considering both their internal dynamics and the external
conditions of their existence, what range and combinations of the available practices do different
groups engage in (e.g. cooking and dining), how are consumers positioned in the range practices
and especially how homologous are their positions across the range of their practices (e.g.
traditionalist at home, experimentalist when dining out), what level of commitment is displayed
to different practices (e.g. cooking as a form of bonding), what kind of social ‘careers’ are built
within practices (e.g. foodie, connoisseur, urbanite), how people come to an understanding of
what is required by the practice and their role within it (e.g. mother’s cooking)
A clear indication of how US consumers attribute different meaning to slight variations of
the same term can be seen if we compare the practices involved in the search for MC, to those
related to MD. The term MC is mostly related in their mind with dinning out. The term MD on
the other hand is mostly related to recipes, an indication of cooking and dinning at home
practices.
34
Concluding this section, we can say that internet research statistics provide indications that
can support the following propositions:
1. MC and diet is a growth sector of interest within the Food and Drink category.
2. MC and diet are perceived by the US consumer as largely independent of
national cuisines with the partial exception of the Greek cuisine.
3. MC and diet are hybrid concepts related to life-style and aesthetic choices,
which are dynamic and characterized mainly by their perceived relevance to
modern US societal narratives and only superficially to notions of authenticity.
Blog Content Analysis
This research is based on the comments of one thousand individuals participating in blog strings.
The gender make up is 49,5% female, 40,1% male, while the gender of 10% is unclear. The
blogs themselves were categorized as: general, foodie, life-style, diet and specialist. The
participant breakdown according to blog category is as follows:
The concern of the research was to draw information from as wide a variety of sources as
possible in order to minimize the risk of inbuilt biases.
Participants’ Profiles
We categorized participants on the basis of their observable attitude towards MC:
• We called “Preachers” those who claim by their style of writing to poses

authoritative knowledge on the subject matter and proceed to persuade others about
the validity of their stance.
• “Cheerleaders” are those who express enthusiasm on the subject and are eager to
share it others, without making overt efforts to persuade them.
• “Disciples” are those who simply communicate in a way that shows conviction
about the positive attributes of Mediterranean food and describe their experiences.
• “Confused” are those who are not certain about the meaning, attributes, or cooking
practices.
• The “Agnostic” express acceptance of the claimed positive attributes, but doubt
whether these are unique to Mediterranean food.
• “Skeptics” question the validity of the claimed attributes, while the term
“Dismissive” is self-explanatory.
35
The choice of “titles” for the participant categories is inspired by the work of Jeffrey
Alexander; it is based on the premise of cultural sociology that a narrative is ideological in nature
to the degree that it seeks not only to explain the world – or parts of – in rational terms, but also
to provide its presentation with meaning and motivation as well as a morally compelling account
of why the proposed ideational and behavioural scheme should replace existing ones (Alexander
2003, p. 199). In this context, influential advocates operate as “prophets and priests” with an
ability to be “critical, to explain, to historicize, even to describe their own time” using fiction-like
narratives and binary structures (ibid p.193).
The statistical breakdown of the participants’ profiles is presented in the table below.
Not surprisingly, Preachers tend to preach to the converted (disciples – 23,2%), and to a
sizeable group of cheerleaders (44,6%).
Discourses
Based on literature review and our preliminary empirical research, we have identified thirteen
potential discourse themes that could be of interest to blog participants. When a participant is
engaged in more than one theme, all fields of interest were recorded. The descriptive statistics
depicting the popularity of these discourses are as follows:
36
We can now turn our attention to the comparative popularity of the dominant themes among
the different participant profile groups.
As we can see, 75% of the confused group, presumably the ones in need of advice, are
concerned with diet planning, to which both preachers and cheerleaders respond enthusiastically.
Typical comments from confused participants are:
Article findings and recommendations are contradictory: “consumption of meat,

alcohol, and dairy products was negatively valued … So are we or are we not
recommending dairy products? 1
This percentage of confused participants however, is below the average score of the topic;
the same applies to agnostics, skeptics and deniers. One could therefore conclude that the dietary
discourse tends to become esoteric and self-reinforcing, with people believing in the benefits of
Mediterranean diet developing their own nomenclature. A typical preacher entry is:
Planning a menu can mean several different things, depending on whom you're talking
to…Factors to consider…can range from whether the meal is nutritionally balanced to
how a meal looks and tastes to how easy it is to serve to a crowd. 2
Though it falls outside the scope of this research, we could be witnessing the birth process of
a new consumer tribe.
Issues related to ingredients seem to be very important to the “confused” (83,3%) and
“skeptic” (81,8%) groups, but elicit comparatively less abundant advice from preachers and
encouragement from cheerleaders. The difference in interest among confused participants in
ingredients rather than diet planning could be reflecting the desire of some to cook, rather than
diet.
1
Chaya, Participant: 883; Confused, Date: 2012, Blog: Medical News Today
2
Janet Participant: 688; Preacher Date: 2003 Blog: eGullet
37
Not surprisingly, discussing Mediterranean dishes is an above-average favorite amongst

cheerleaders and disciples. A typical cheerleader comment would be:
The Potato Ole Omelet had me hooked on the book plus I loved the idea of using the
broiler…The Walnut Tortellini sounds awesome! I just looked it up and need to try that
one soon. Can you tell me more about the ragu tomato and basil lite? 3
Regarding preachers, this is a rather specialized career. Those who do offer recipes enjoy the
audience’s gratitude expressed in terms like:
Thanks a lot…for your wonderful recipes! I recommend your site to my whole

family...I’ve learnt pita bread n hummus…you rock! 4.
Confusion on the other hand is more about the basics of ingredients rather than the specifics
of dishes.
The predominance of vegetables over meat in the MC seems to be a favorite topic of

preachers addressing a rather eager audience of disciples and facing a fair amount of skepticism,
but getting lukewarm support from cheerleaders. A typical disciple would talk as a lay doctor:
Basically, what my cardiologist wants people to do is start eating ‘healthy’…Here are

some things I've found out doing research that not a lot of ‘Mediterranean diet’
programs tell you…Make sure your salmon is wild caught, and have some once a
week…Those crusty artisan breads are so much better for you than gummy white
bread…5
Before turning to the concerns of the participants, we will examine three discourse themes
that are less popular, but significant in terms of our research.
3
Ann, Participant 424, Cheerleader Date: 2008 Blog: COOKING
4
Yushra, Participant: 544; Cheerleader, Date: 2012,Blog: Dedemed
5
Caroline, Participant: 232; Disciple, Date: 2010, Blog: Chowhound
38
The groups that show an above average interest in ethnic specificity are the preachers, the
disciples and the agnostics. For the latter, it appears that the loose links between the eclectic MC
concept and specific national cuisines is a source of legitimate doubt. For those who follow a
“preacher” social career on the other hand, ethnic namedropping or claiming local experience
credentials could well be part of their self-legitimization strategy. As one of them puts it:
I used to live in Tuscany (Italy) and spend a lot of holidays in Spain, France...(I am
Swiss) and they do not eat that much grains at all…6
As for the disciples, part of the explanation could be found in that small part of the
participant population (8,8%) that either identifies its origin as Mediterranean or has visited the
region; that group influences disproportionately the results by engaging heavily (78,4%) in ethnic
related conversations.
The theme of processed versus cooked from fresh is more interesting for preachers, the
confused and those who dispute MC and MD. Both cheerleaders and disciples seem to be less
concerned with it, thus supporting the validity of the aphorism that it is easier for American
consumers to find the money than the time for cooking. As a disciple puts it:
I have a jar of SPAGHETTI SAUCE in the refrigerator right now -- I think it's Bertoli
Italian Sausage---good for 30 second pizza! Slather a Tbs or so on an English muffin,
top with a bit of mozzarella and sprinkle with a pinch of this and a pinch of that, then
under my halogen lamps to melt and brown. Small portion, low fat, tastes pretty damned
good and NO temptation to eat "just one more slice" of a delivery pizza!…As the
Greeks said, "Know thyself." I know me. I'd eat more...!7
The incorporation of MD into established American food practices, such as the weekend
barbeque, seems to be one challenging issue for all interested either as consumers or producers.
While preachers do show an above average interest in it, cheerleaders are decidedly lukewarm.
The confused, agnostic and skeptic segments on the other hand, seem to be concerned with this
theme. In the words of a skeptic:
6
Mia , Participant: 184; Preacher, Date: 2012, Blog: Paleohacks
7
Anonymous, Participant: 236; Disciple, Date: 2010, Blog: Chowhound
39
The focus here is on Greek and Italian recipes, and they are heavy on vegetables and
fish. The ones we tried were pretty good but not extraordinary, and more labor-intensive
than we could easily adapt into our routine. 8
Concerns
We can now turn to the eight potential concerns through which participants can engage in their
chosen discourse themes. In the coming pages we will relate concerns to the discourses we have
identified as popular, starting with the diet planning theme.
As we can see from the above, the hierarchy of concerns for this group does not alter
radically from the average. It seems that people who are primarily interested in the dietary
planning aspects of MD are concerned with their health through nutritional and as far as possible
tasty solutions. Weight control itself is not their top priority.
From the top four concerns, the most criticized by agnostic and dismissive participants is the
latter. Preachers are preoccupied with health (81,8%) probably responding to the questions of the
confused segment (66,7%) and defending MD from agnostics and skeptics. Cheerleaders and
disciples, on the other hand, are concerned practically equally with issues of health and nutrition.
The superior taste of MC seems to raise little controversy, being commented on by 44,3% of
cheerleaders and 38,1% of disciples and facing little doubt from the rest.
The concerns of variety, availability, sociability and price are very low for all the themes to
be discussed further down, therefore, they will not be included in the tables. Next we will deal
with the concerns of the ingredients theme participants.
The hierarchy of concerns remains stable here too.

A typical cheerleader comment in this context would be:
The Mediterranean diet is amazing-not only does it taste delicious, but is so good for us.
One of my very close friends is from Spain. She has a little shot of olive oil in the
8
Amanda, Participant: 942; Sceptic, Date: 2012, Blog: Amazon
40
morning-even though I always thought she was a bit crazy, she has the best skin and
hair! Can't beat Mother Nature! 9
Turning our attention to the participants interested in the specific dish theme, we can see
taste moving up to third position.
Preachers are preoccupied with health (81,8%) while Cheerleaders and disciples are
concerned equally with issues of health and nutrition. The superior taste of MF seems to raise
little controversy, being commented about by 44,3% of cheerleaders and 38,1% of disciples.
Regarding the hierarchy of concerns with the vegetable versus meat theme, we can see the
health issue moving to first place, followed by nutrition and taste as a distant third.
The conversations on health and nutrition are led by preachers with 92,2% and 71,9%
respectively. Weight control and taste come jointly a distant third with 36,6%. The health
concern in the vegetables versus meat context seems to be by far the most controversial, raising
questions among the confused segment (77,8%) and a strong carnivorous opposition. Taste on
the other hand, or the lack of need to sacrifice it on health grounds, seems to be a major concern
of cheerleaders with 45,8%.
Turning lastly to the incorporation of MC in classic American practices, we note the
predominance of the health concern.
9
Melissa, Participant: 403; Cheerleader, Date: 2012, Blog: A Light Perspective
41
This predominance, might be reflecting the orthodoxy that there is a lot that is unhealthy in
the American diet, and the hope that MD could be a solution, without having to forego one’s
favorite routines or rituals. In this case a MD agnostic would agree that
Anyone who eats octopus, fish, lamb, organ meats, and veggies dressed in olive oil,
with a bit of wine, along with a good dose of sunshine…is on the real Mediterranean
diet, and likely as healthy as they can expect to be. I'd recommend it in a
heartbeat…The American version of it is pretty silly, and not particularly healthy or
even Mediterranean at all. Its most redeeming feature is that it gets people away from
eating pure crap, and encourages home cooking, and they will likely have some
10
improvement going from fast food to that...
Though the numbers involved are small (103 posts) and we cannot draw conclusions with a
reasonably degree of certainty, it is interesting to note that while preachers are more concerned
with nutrition than health issues, cheerleaders and disciples turn the scales by focusing on the
latter.
Overall, the sampled population engaged in blog conversation can be segmented into: a
minority of just under 16% who make a social career as MF preachers, the enthusiastic majority
of cheerleaders (just under 45%), the convinced (just over 23%), a small group of confused
individuals (just over 7%) who are open to persuasion and a slightly larger group of over 8% who
express opinions ranging from agnosticism to outright rejection.
The most popular themes of discussion are related to diet planning, specific ingredients and
dishes and the balance between vegetables and meat in the MC. Issues of ethnic specificity were
not high in the agenda, which confirms our initial finding of a decoupling of interest between
MD and national cuisines. Equally important, issues of sociability, generally related to the
Mediterranean way of living were not often picked up by blog participants. The most popular
concerns, through which the general discourse is channeled, are health, nutrition, taste and
weight control.
It must be noted here that taste does not appear as a top concern even when people are
discussing specific dishes. This should not be taken to mean that people interested in MD are not
hedonic; it could mean that when discussing MD in a home-eating context, people see taste as a
corollary of health and nutrition.
Conclusion
In light of the above our conclusions regarding the research questions are as follows:
The MC and its hedonistic attributes are perceived as corollary of health and nutrition and
there is no doubt of the perceived superiority of this diet in terms of taste, also confirmed by the
study of Panagiotakos (2009) regarding the holistic approach towards this diet. Also, the health
attributes of MC are noted as a solution to unhealthy eating practices of the American diet. The
abundance of ingredients that constitute the MC is a main discussion point; the discussion is
focused around basic and not specific ingredients and the predominance of vegetables over meat.
Convenience or ease of cooking is sought through the consumption of processed MC products
which contradicts the Mediterranean Diet principles; this indicates the time pressure of American
consumers and their desire to incorporate such practices in any way possible.
The term MC is mostly associated with the social practices of dining out or in restaurants,
closely followed by the interest in recipes. Consequently, American consumers are interested in
what ingredients enter into the MC being one of the top four discourse themes related to the
specific practice of dining, also proven by the research of Papadaki and Scott (2005). In cooking
for one’s self, seeking an advice or giving instructions for diet planning emerges as the most
10
Unidentified Participant: 605, Agnostic, Date: 2012, Blog: Paleohacks
42
popular theme with an emphasis put on a tasty and healthy meal. This is in a partial disagreement
with the study by Hartel (2006, in Cox & Blake 2010) noting that people seek for inspiration
rather than concrete information.
In this research, sociability does not appear as a main concern for the American consumers
nor does the life-style. Sophistication, at least in some larger cities, is exhibited through the
consumption of sea food and those that adhere to the principles of this diet for health and
nutritional reasons. Also, those that have visited the Mediterranean region display a higher
degree of sophistication and knowledge related to Mediterranean cuisine. Slow food is discussed
from the perspective of cooking from scratch, rather than fresh over processed food. This,
however, contradicts the study made by Meneses and Palacio (in Cheah & Curtin 2011) that
those following a specific lifestyle, such as an environmentalist one would utilize this diet to
express their beliefs. This was not the case proven in this research.
This research highlights Mediterranean Cuisine and Mediterranean Diet as generic concepts,
largely independent from national cuisines, with Greek cuisine being a partial exception.
Although MC comprises of over twenty national cuisines, the long term popularity of the
constituent cuisines appears to be declining, at least in dynamic terms. On the contrary, our study
suggests that it is expected that the popularity of the Mediterranean food will increase, due to its
all-encompassing benefits, and taste as suggested by Carman (2007).
Taken together, the above findings paint a complex and dynamic picture of the attitudes of
American consumers towards Mediterranean Cuisine. From a Marketing perspective, these
findings are interesting for food manufacturers.
The mental de-coupling of MC from geographic specificity carries with it the corollary of
de-historicizing the concept. Consequently, “traditional” would not be an appealing epithet for
MC food offerings to the American public. As it emerges from this research, the existential and
empirical units of reference of the blog participants are firmly the present and the US society.
Therefore, authentic replaces traditional as a desired quality; authentic itself, is a negotiable
concept that can be easily extended to meet the “MC inspired”. It therefore follows that
Mediterranean Cuisine offerings may well be blended to include elements of other ethic cuisines
that are established in the American palate, for instance Mexican.
A direct implication of the above is that the recipes of new MC products have a relatively
short life-span; apart from some perennial favorites like humus, manufacturers and restaurateurs
need to constantly update their offering while respecting the core demand for something simple
with easily identifiable ingredients, tasty and healthy.
The combined findings of limited concern for processed food and of desire for convenience
among the cheerleader and disciple categories indicate that both the canned and the frozen food
sectors could take advantage of the popularity of MC. One could further argue that frozen food
sector could use MC to up-grade its image and offer an acceptable solution for healthy home
cooking to time-stressed consumers. In addition, the popularity of MC recipe searches, in
combination with new technologies, opens new possibilities for mobile bar code packaging
solutions; easy access to cooking ideas at the point of purchase could prove a well appreciated
benefit, especially for early adopters.
Overall, this paper demonstrated the popularity of MC with American consumer segments
and the possibility of it becoming embedded in the food mainstream. Further research could be
undertaken in this field to examine attitudes and practices related to the Mediterranean Cuisine in
the restaurant sector. Furthermore, one could gain interesting insights by comparing the
longitudinal development of attitudes towards MC with attitudes towards other ethnic cuisines.
Acknowledgement
We are deeply indebted to Pelopac INC and Hormel Foods LLC who kindly financed the
research for this paper.
43
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Philippos Papadopoulos: Acting Academic Dean, Perrotis College and American Farm
School, Thessaloniki, Greece
Rodica Arpasanu: Assistant Lecturer, Perrotis College and American Farm School,
Thessaloniki, Greece
Aleksandra Pavlovska: Assistant Researcher, Perrotis College and American Farm School,
Thessaloniki, Greece
46
Sources and Dietary Consumption of Fruits and
Vegetables among Low Income Latinos in South
Texas
Catherine Faver, University of Texas-Pan American, USA
Tina Schiefelbein, South Texas Behavioral Health Center, USA
Abstract: Nutritional gardening is a strategy to increase consumption of produce among low-income populations, thereby
reducing the risk of obesity and obesity-related diseases. To assess produce consumption and interest in nutritional
gardening, interviews were conducted with 100 low-income adults residing in a south Texas county where the population
is predominantly Latino and rates of poverty and obesity are high. Respondents consumed an average of 2 servings of
fruit and 1.75 servings of vegetables daily, including less than one-half serving of green vegetables. Grocery stores were
the primary source of produce. Thirty-seven percent of the respondents grew some of their own food, and 67% of those
who grew no food expressed interest in doing so. Those who grew food consumed approximately one more serving of
fruits and vegetables combined than those who did not grow food. Almost two-thirds of the respondents were interested in
participating in a community gardening program, but obstacles included caregiver responsibilities and lack of time and
transportation. Given the favorable climate conditions in the region, programs to encourage nutritional home gardening
may be an effective and relatively inexpensive strategy to increase consumption of fresh produce among low-income
Latinos in this and similar regions.
Keywords: Fruit and Vegetable Intake, Nutritional Gardening, Latinos, Poverty
The Study Context
P revious research suggests that higher levels of fruit and vegetable intake are associated
with reduced risks of obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease (Alaimo et al.
2008; Cooper et al. 2012). As a strategy to facilitate access to produce, especially among
low-income populations, community gardening programs have gained increasing attention
(Alaimo et al. 2008; Castro, Samuels, and Harman 2013; McCormack et al. 2010; Robinson-
O’Brien, Story, and Heim 2009).
In some regions household gardens may be a feasible alternative to community gardens as a
strategy to increase produce consumption (Smith, Greene, and Silbernagel 2013). More
information is needed, however, about the extent of household gardening currently practiced and
its relationship to produce consumption in specific populations. To address this gap, this study
examined types and sources of produce consumed, use of household gardens as a source of
produce, and interest in community gardening in a sample of low-income Latinos living in the
Texas-Mexico border region.
The site of this study, Hidalgo County, Texas, is in the lower part of the Texas-Mexico
border region. The county’s population is 90.6% Latino, compared to 37.6% in the state, and the
poverty rate in the county is 34.4%, compared to a state poverty rate of 16.8% (U.S. Census
Bureau 2012). According to self-reported data derived from a probability sample of respondents
in the county, the area has high rates of obesity and Type 2 diabetes and a lower than average
rate of produce consumption (Table 1).

© Common Ground, Catherine Faver, Tina Schiefelbein, All Rights Reserved
Table 1: Hidalgo County Health Indicators

McAllen-Mission-Edinburg
Metropolitan Area United States
Obesity 38.5% 26.2%
Diabetes 21.3% 10.9%
Eat produce frequently 48.5% 57.8%
(≥ 5 servings ≥ 4 days a week)
Source: Data from Gallup (2012).
Previous research in Hidalgo County has highlighted the high rates of childhood obesity, low
levels of education, and limited access to health care that characterize the extremely high poverty
neighborhoods known as colonias (Mier et al. 2013; Lopez 2013). Residents of these high
poverty areas in Hidalgo County also have inadequate access to sources of nutritious food, such
as supermarkets and grocery stores (Sharkey et al. 2009).
Although the region’s economy has diversified considerably, agriculture was the primary
industry for many years. Facilitated by a subtropical climate and a long growing season, the
commercial production of fruits and vegetables is still a significant part of the region’s
agricultural sector (http://www.rgvtexas.com/agriculture.htm). Given the county’s favorable
climate conditions, programs devised to support household gardening may help to increase
produce consumption among low-income residents.
Method
Sample and Data Collection Procedure
The respondents in this study were clients of the Emergency Food Assistance Program of the
Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc., which distributes United States Department of
Agriculture (USDA) commodities through the Texas Commodities Assistance Program
(TEXCAP). The emergency food is distributed by the Food Bank’s 200 partner agencies,
following income eligibility guidelines established by TEXCAP (http://www.foodbankrgv.com).
Bilingual interviewers conducted the interviews in Spanish and English at five Food Bank
partner agencies in Hidalgo County during regularly scheduled food distribution periods. All five
sites were church-affiliated food pantries. A total of 100 interviews were conducted during a
three-day period in March, 2013. The size of the sample was limited by the resources available
for the study. The number of interviews completed at each site varied due to differences in the
volume of clients at each site.
The interviews were conducted while clients were waiting to receive their food at the
distribution centers. The interviewers verified that the potential respondent was at least 18 years
old and read a brief informed consent statement to determine the respondent’s willingness to
voluntarily participate in the survey. After assent was given, the interviewers read all the
questions to the respondents and wrote their responses on the interview schedule. Eighty-four
percent of the interviews were conducted in Spanish.
To minimize the length and intrusiveness of the interviews, no demographic information was
solicited in the interview. The eligibility requirements of the food distribution program ensured
that the respondents would be relatively homogeneous in income, and the demographic profile of
the region made it likely that the sample would be predominantly Latino. In 86 of the 100
interviews, the respondent’s gender was noted by the interviewer, and 73 of these respondents
(84.8%) were female. The study procedures were approved by the Institutional Review Board of
the university with which the principal investigator is affiliated.
48
FAVER & SCHIEFELBEIN: SOURCES AND DIETARY CONSUMPTION OF FRUITS AND VEGETABLES
Survey Instrument and Measures
The survey questionnaire was constructed in English and translated into Spanish. The Spanish
translation was prepared in consultation with Spanish-speaking local residents who were
thoroughly familiar with the Spanish dialects spoken in the region. A formal pre-testing of the
questionnaire was not conducted due to limited resources available for the study.
The first part of the survey instrument consisted of a set of open questions designed to elicit
a comprehensive list of the types and amounts of fruits and vegetables consumed by the
respondent on the previous day. Interviewers listed all servings of fruits and vegetables reported
by the respondent on a 24-hour food recall form attached to the interview schedule. In the coding
process, the total number of servings of fruit and the total number of servings of fruit juice were
computed separately.
To code servings of vegetables, information from Fuhrman (2011) and www.nutrition.com
was used to create the following three categories, ranging from the highest nutrient density to the
lowest: (1) leafy green and other green vegetables, (2) nutrient-rich non-green vegetables, and (3)
colorful starchy vegetables and white potatoes. The number of servings in each of the three
categories was coded for each respondent.
When single servings included a mixture of green and non-green vegetables, such as “mixed
vegetables,” the servings were classified in the lower of the two categories (nutrient-rich non-
green). Salsa, which is tomato-based but includes other ingredients, was classified in the same
category as tomatoes. The limitations of these imprecise classifications are addressed in the
discussion section of this paper. The sum of the number of servings in the three categories was
computed to obtain the total number of servings of vegetables.
In the dietary recommendations of the U.S. government (www.choosemyplate.gov), green
beans and green peas are classified as vegetables. Other beans and peas, such as pinto beans,
black-eyed peas, black beans, and garbanzo beans, are classified as legumes and can be counted
as either vegetables or as a protein source, depending on the other elements in the individual’s
diet.
In this study, green beans and green peas were classified as vegetables. Other peas and beans
(legumes) were coded separately from the vegetables. Legumes were excluded from the primary
analyses of vegetable servings; in a second analysis, servings of vegetables plus legumes were
computed and averaged.
The second part of the interview consisted of structured questions about sources of produce,
nutritional gardening, and interest in community gardening. Sources of produce were determined
by asking respondents to indicate whether they purchased or received fruit from each of the
following potential sources: grocery store; roadside stand; food bank distribution; neighbor,
relative, or friend; your own garden or yard; flea market. Responses were coded yes or no for
each source. Respondents were then asked to indicate from which source they obtained the most
fruit. The response to this question was coded as the respondent’s primary source of fruit. The
same sequence of questions was asked to determine the respondents’ sources of vegetables.
A series of questions was used to determine levels of involvement and interest in nutritional
gardening. First, respondents were asked: “How much of your own food do you grow?” The
response alternatives were “none of it,” “a little of it,” “a lot of it,” or “most of it.” Respondents
who replied “none of it” were asked, “Would you be interested in growing some of your own
food?” Respondents who replied “a little of it” were asked, “Would you be interested in growing
more of your own food?”
All respondents were asked: “Would you be interested in growing food in a community
garden program?” The response alternatives were “yes,” “no,” and “maybe.” Respondents who
answered “no” or “maybe” were asked an open question, “What would affect your decision to
participate?” Interviewers recorded all factors indicated.
49
Data Processing and Analysis
The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) 21.0 was used to calculate descriptive
statistics and statistical tests including the t statistic.
Results
Fruit and Vegetable Intake
Table 2 summarizes the levels of fruit and vegetable consumption in the sample. Half the
respondents consumed fewer than two servings of fruit, although the overall mean is two
servings. Seventy-two percent of the sample consumed fewer than three vegetables, and the
overall mean for vegetables is less than two servings (Table 2). The difference in the mean
number of fruit and vegetable servings consumed was not significant (t = 1.38, df = 99, NS).
Nineteen percent of the respondents consumed at least one serving of fruit juice (not shown
in Table 2). When servings of fruit juice were included with the other fruit, the mean number of
fruit servings increased from 2.02 to 2.26 (SD = 1.88).
Table 2: Servings of Fruits and Vegetables (N = 100)

a. Frequency Distribution
Fruit Vegetables
Number of Servings % %
0-0.5 23 22
1-1.5 27 23
2-2.5 15 27
3-3.5 14 19
≥ 4.0 21 9
100% 100%
b. Descriptive Statistics
Range 0-9 0-4
Mean 2.02 1.75
SD 1.84 1.24
Median 1.75 2.00
Table 3 compares the Hidalgo County sample to state and national samples. In these
comparisons, it is important to note that the Texas and national data were based on probability
samples, while the Hidalgo County data were derived from a sample that is not representative of
the county population. Half the Hidalgo County sample consumed at least two fruits, which
exceeds the levels of fruit consumption in the state and nation. Twenty-eight percent of the
Hidalgo County sample consumed at least three vegetables, and 16% consumed a combination of
two or more fruits and three or more vegetables. These figures are roughly comparable to state
and national levels. Overall, the mean number of servings of fruits plus vegetables in the Hidalgo
County sample was 3.77 (SD = 2.46).
50
Table 3: Daily Servings of Fruits and Vegetables in Nation, State, and Hidalgo County Sample
Number of Servings National Texas Hidalgo County Sample
≥ 2 fruits 32.8 29.1 50.0
≥ 3 vegetables 27.4 30.0 28.0
≥ both 2 fruits and 14.0 14.3 16.0
3 vegetables
Source: National and state data adapted from the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance Survey reported in U.S.
Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Disease Control, 2009
Ten percent of the sample consumed at least one serving of legumes, which are sometimes
regarded as vegetables. When servings of legumes were added to servings of vegetables, the
mean for vegetable consumption was 1.93 servings (SD = 1.41, median = 2).
Table 4 summarizes the types and amounts of vegetables consumed in three categories. On
average, respondents consumed less than half a serving of leafy green and other green
vegetables, approximately one serving of non-green nutrient-rich vegetables, and less than half a
serving of colorful starchy vegetables and white potatoes. Moreover, there is limited variety in
the types of vegetables consumed within each category: nine types of green vegetables, nine
types of non-green nutrient rich vegetables, and three types of colorful starchy vegetables in
addition to white potatoes.
Table 4: Types of Vegetables Consumed

Number of Servings
Type of Vegetable Range Mean (SD) Median
Leafy green and other greena 0-3 0.39 (.65) 0.0
Non-green nutrient richb 0-4 0.99 (.98) 1.0
Colorful starchy and white potatoesc 0-3 0.39 (.66) 0.0
a
spinach, cabbage, broccoli, string beans, green peas, lettuce, cucumber, celery, nopales
b
onions, bell peppers, cauliflower, tomatoes, carrots, salsa, avocado, mixed vegetables, salad
c
squash, corn, yucca, white potatoes
Sources of Produce and Interest in Gardening
The number of respondents completing the questions in part two of the interview varied. For
variables with fewer than 100 respondents, the total N for the question is indicated in the
following description of the results.
Grocery stores were the primary source of fruit for 83.5% (81/97) of the respondents and the
primary source of vegetables for 85.5% (83/97). Only 1% to 5% of the respondents reported one
of the following as their primary source of fruits or vegetables: roadside stand; food bank
distribution; neighbor, relative, or friend; own yard or garden; or flea market.
At the time of the survey 62.6% (62/99) of the respondents grew none of their own food. Of
these, 67.7% (42/62) indicated their interest in beginning to grow some of their food. Of those
who already grew “a little” of their own food, 74.2% (23/31) were interested in growing more.
A dichotomous variable was created to compare respondents who grew none of their own
food (N = 62) with those who grew some of their own food (N = 37). For those who grew some
of their own food, the average number of servings of fruits and vegetables combined was 4.41,
compared to 3.36 servings for those who grew none of their own food (t = 2.09, df = 97, p < .05).
In the sample as a whole, 65.7% (65/99) expressed interest in growing food in a community
garden, and interest did not differ significantly between those who grew food and those who did
not (66.1% and 64.9%, respectively). The primary factors affecting respondents’ decision about
whether to participate in a community garden were lack of time (due to work or school
51
commitments), caregiver responsibilities (for children or adult dependents), their own health, and
lack of transportation.
Discussion
Limitations
The sample in this study is small, and because it is not a probability sample, it is not possible to
generalize from this study to other low-income adults in Hidalgo County. The presence of the
respondents at distribution centers of an emergency food program indicates that they (1) were
physically mobile, (2) had access to transportation, and (3) knew how and where to obtain food
assistance. As a result of these factors, the adults in this sample may be more likely than other
low-income adults in Hidalgo County to have access to, and consume, fruits and vegetables.
The 24-hour food recall method used to collect data is also limited. The accuracy of the data
may be compromised by possible errors in respondents’ memories of the types and amounts of
produce they consumed. An alternative method is the food diary, which avoids reliance on
memory by requiring study participants to record their intake at the time of consumption. The
food diary method, however, places a much greater burden on study participants and was not
feasible for this study.
In the coding process, inaccuracies in estimating number of servings based on the
respondents’ descriptions were also possible. In coding types of vegetables, single servings that
included non-vegetable ingredients were classified according to the primary vegetable ingredient,
and single servings that included multiple types of vegetables were coded according to the
vegetable in the serving that had the lowest nutrient classification. These potential sources of
error or bias are not uncommon in surveys aiming to estimate levels of produce consumed by the
public.
Major Findings and Implications
The low-income sample in this study, which was not randomly selected, exceeds state and
national rates in fruit consumption and is comparable to the state and nation in vegetable
consumption. Additional research is needed to determine whether the findings of this study can
be replicated in studies within this region that use probability samples and measurement methods
comparable to the state and national studies. If the findings are replicated, it would be useful to
ask whether access to fruit is increased in the study region by the prevalence of backyard fruit
trees and the region’s commercial production of citrus.
Overall, however, the sample’s consumption of fruits and vegetables is far below the U.S.
dietary recommendations of approximately four servings of fruit and five servings of vegetables
for a 2,000-calorie diet (USDA, CNPP 2011). Moreover, the sample consumes less than one-half
serving of the most nutrient dense vegetables, such as spinach and other leafy greens, and the
variety of vegetables consumed overall is limited. This limitation in amounts and types of
vegetables consumed is a particular concern in light of recent research suggesting that reduction
in risk of Type 2 diabetes is associated with intake of higher quantities of vegetables and greater
variety of both fruits and vegetables (Cooper et al. 2012).
It is particularly noteworthy that respondents who grew some of their own food consumed an
average of one additional serving of produce compared to those who grew none of their own
food. This discovery about home gardening is consistent with research (Alaimo 2008) on the
effects of participation in community gardening on produce consumption among adults. More
than a third (37%) of the Hidalgo County sample already grew some of their own food, and most
of those who grew food were interested in growing more. At the same time, two-thirds (67%) of
those who grew no food were interested in doing so.
52
Overall, these findings suggest that programs to support nutritional home gardening may be
useful in increasing produce consumption in this sample and similar populations. While 65% of
the respondents expressed interest in community gardening, home gardening may be a more
feasible option, especially for those with little discretionary time and minimal access to
transportation.
Programs that provide training and supplies for low-income families to initiate small, raised
bed home gardens could take advantage of the region’s climate with relatively low costs
compared to the infrastructure and organization needed for community gardens. For those with
very limited time, backyard cultivation of regional edible plants may be appealing. In summary,
the development of nutritional gardening programs that build on the strengths of the region’s
natural environment and the interest in gardening expressed by this sample could yield positive
results in overall produce consumption.
Acknowledgement
For assistance with the research project described in this article, the authors are grateful to the
Department of Social Work and the South Texas Border Health Disparities Center of the
University of Texas-Pan American, the University of Michigan Public Health Action Support
Team (PHAST), and the Food Bank of the Rio Grande Valley, Incorporated.
53
REFERENCES
Alaimo, Katherine, Elizabeth Packnett, Richard A. Miles, and Daniel J. Kruger. 2008. “Fruit and
Vegetable Intake among Urban Community Gardeners.” Journal of Nutrition Education
and Behavior 40:94-101.
Castro, Dina C., Margaret Samuels, and Ann E. Harman. 2013. “Growing Healthy Kids: A
Community Garden-Based Obesity Prevention Program. American Journal of
Preventive Medicine 44:S193-99.
Cooper, Andrew J., Stephen J. Sharp, Marleen A. H. Lentjes, Robert N. Luben, Kay-Tee Khaw,
Nicholas J. Wareham, and Nita G. Forouhi. 2012. “A Prospective Study of the
Association between Quantity and Variety of Fruit and Vegetable Intake and Incident
Type 2 Diabetes.” Diabetes Care 35:1293-1300.
Fuhrman, Joel. 2011. Eat to Live (revised edition). New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Gallup 2012. U.S. City Wellbeing Tracking. Accessed July 21, 2013. http://www.gallup.com/
poll/145913/City-Wellbeing-Tracking.aspx?ref=interactive
Lopez, Leo III. 2013. “On the Texas-Mexico Border, A New Drug Trade Emerges.” The Lancet
382:756-7.
McCormack, Lacey Arneson, Melissa Nelson Laska, Nicole I. Larson, and Mary Story. 2010.
“Review of the Nutritional Implications of Farmers’ Markets and Community Gardens:
A Call for Evaluation and Research Efforts.” Journal of the American Dietetic
Association 110:399-408.
Mier, Nelda, Matthew Lee Smith, David Irizarry, Genny Carrillo-Zuniga, Chanam Lee, Laura
Trevino, and Marcia G. Ory. (2013). “Bridging Research and Policy to Address
Childhood Obesity among Border Hispanics: A Pilot Study.” American Journal of
Preventive Medicine 44:S208-14.
Robinson-O’Brien, Ramona, Mary Story, and Stephanie Heim. 2009. “Impact of Garden-Based
Youth Nutrition Intervention Programs: A Review.” Journal of the American Dietetic
Association 109:273-80.
Sharkey, Joseph R., Scott Horel, Daikwon Han, and John C. Huber. 2009. “Association between
Neighborhood Need and Spatial Access to Food Stores and Fast Food Restaurants in
Neighborhoods of Colonias.” International Journal of Health Geographics 8:9.
Accessed July 22, 2013. doi:10.1186/1476-072X-8-9
Smith, Vincent M., Robert B. Greene, and Janet Silbernagel. 2013. “The Social and Spatial
Dynamics of Community Food Production: A Landscape Approach to Policy and
Program Development.” Landscape Ecology 28:1415-26.
United States Census Bureau. 2012. State and County QuickFacts. Hidalgo County, Texas.
Accessed May 13, 2012. http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/48/48215.html
United States Department of Agriculture, Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion (USDA,
CNPP). 2011. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010. Released January 31, 2010.
http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/dgas2010-policydocument.htm
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Prevention. 2009. State Indicator Report on Fruits and Vegetables, 2009.
http://www.cdc.gov/nutrition/downloads/StateIndicatorReport2009.pdf
ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Dr. Catherine Faver: Professor, Department of Social Work, University of Texas-Pan American,
Edinburg, Texas, USA
Tina Schiefelbein: Social Worker, South Texas Behavioral Health Center, Edinburg, Texas,
USA
54
Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal explores
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As well as papers of a traditional scholarly type, this

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Upgrading Traditional Food Processing Technologies: The Cassava

Article · January 2014

KARIM Ramota OLAYINKA

Food product Development View project

Food Drying View project

The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file.

First published in 2014 in Champaign, Illinois, USA

© 2014 (individual papers), the author(s)

Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal is

Courtney Thomas, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, USA

EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

FOOD IN HUMAN HEALTH AND WELLBEING

FOOD POLITICS, POLICIES, AND FUTURES

Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

Keywords: Nigeria, Traditional Technologies, Cassava

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Prof. Oluwasegun Adetokunbo Adekunle: Head of Department of Agricultural Extension and

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Chef Boyardee appears to be exploiting consumer desires to be healthy by marketing its

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Keywords: Deep-fat Frying, Flash-frying, Fat Content, Fried Fish

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researchers found no significant differences in appearance, taste, texture or overall ratings

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

Keywords: Mediterranean Cuisine, Mediterranean Diet, Food Narratives, Social Media

Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal

The Mediterranean Diet and Cuisine

1. To what extent is MC discussed in the context of specific food and cooking

Data Collection and Analysis

Blog Content Analysis

We categorized participants on the basis of their observable attitude towards MC:

• We called “Preachers” those who claim by their style of writing to poses

Article findings and recommendations are contradictory: “consumption of meat,

Not surprisingly, discussing Mediterranean dishes is an above-average favorite amongst