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Superfoods: Latino-style Favorites

Hot opportunities for popular commodities
Superfoods_MS

Typically, the superfood label refers to commodities—often, but not always, fruits, vegetables, seeds, grains, and legumes—that are promoted as better than other foods in addressing specific health and wellness concerns.

Some items may be promoted as beneficial for brain or heart health, aid in digestion, enhance weight loss, alleviate symptoms of diabetes, or even fight cancer. Few efforts have been made, to date, to market commodities specifically to the U.S. Hispanic market using the superfood label. But a health message can appeal to Hispanic shoppers as well.

“Items such as avocados and verdolaga can be marketed as ‘superfoods’ to both Hispanics and the general market,” asserts De Los Santos. “Both are high in nutritional value. There’s a trend among U.S. Hispanics to eat healthier, and many have started to look at the dishes their parents and grandparents used to eat for healthy foods to add to their diets.”

Familiarity, however, drives sales more than any health message at this point. “For the Hispanic market, it’s not as much the health aspect as the fact that it’s a fruit they grew up with,” comments Claudia Pizarro-Villalobos, director of marketing and culinary at D’Arrigo Bros. of California, in Salinas, CA. “They know how to prepare it and it’s familiar to them.”

D’Arrigo Bros. specializes in commodities with origins in Sicily, including some that also appeal to Hispanic consumers, such as cactus pears and nopalitos. Both promote diabetes control and have been credited with weight loss, among other benefits.

Buying and Trying
A clear indication that healthier foods resonate with Hispanic consumers is the correlation between buying habits and fresh produce consumption.

The most recent “State of the Plate” study from the Produce for Better Health Foundation, based in Wilmington, DE, found U.S. Hispanics ate fruit more than non-Hispanic consumers, though slightly less than Asians in the United States. For the vegetable category, Hispanics ate more vegetables than all groups.

In another illustration of the potential power of a health message, 52 percent of U.S. Hispanics say they eat healthy foods, across all product categories, even though they are more expensive, versus 41 percent of U.S. shoppers overall, according to Acosta Sales and Marketing’s “The Why? Behind the Buy” shopper survey.

In addition, 44 percent of U.S. Hispanics say they often buy natural or organic products because they believe they are better for them (compared to 31 percent of shoppers in general) and 43 percent eat natural foods even though they are more expensive, versus 30 percent of total shoppers in the United States, according to Acosta.

Lastly, Hispanics are also more likely to try and integrate new foods, including fruits and vegetables, into their diet more often than non-Hispanics.

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