5.2.1 Perceptions of ethnicity and social group

Individuals' perceptions of ethnicity and social group, and the relation of these perceptions to the environment and the food, is a basic consumer variable. The term 'situational ethnicity' is used to show that there can be a change in food choice according to the environment except for strongly held taboos. In Box 5.1, the changes occurring in food eating in China are described to illustrate how the change in the environment changes the food choice.

Box 5.1 Culture and fast food in the People’s Republic of China (PRC) Chinese cuisine has a long history, a rich culture, and enjoys worldwide popularity. Because Chinese food takes time to prepare even when cooking time is short, most work units (danwei) serve three inexpensive, relative low- quality meals each day. With economic reform and rising living standards, it has become fashionable and affordable for average PRC consumers to consume more time-saving services and to demand food that is different in taste, culture and quality. As happened earlier in Hong Kong and Singapore, demand for time-saving services is increasing faster than income. 'Face' ('mianzi', reputation, prestige obtained through one's efforts or conduct) is related to tangible and intangible personal success. 'Face' makes the Chinese risk-adverse and slower to accept new products, and more loyal than Westerners once brand image is established. Culture can influence consumers' food choices. The Chinese diet contains more rice, noodles, chicken, pork, vegetables and fewer sweet desserts compared with the American diet of bread, beef, cheese, dairy products and sweet desserts. Therefore, chicken and beef noodle fast-food restaurants are more popular in PRC than pizza and burger restaurants. Beef is scarce, and considered very nutritious in traditional Chinese medicine. The older a person is, the more difficult it is to adapt to the new diet. Therefore older PRC consumers eat burgers for nutrition, and younger consumers eat burgers for taste. Younger persons are more likely to try new foods. Many young, one-child families in urban Beijing take children to McDonald's about once a week. Young people seek novelty and material progress. Although they do not like pizza, Chinese teens sit at Pizza Hut to be seen, older Chinese like low-fat food; all go to McDonald's to be served, enjoy friends and listen to music. Source: From Anderson and He, 1999, by permission of Haworth Press.

Changing the proportion of ingredients but in particular changing the spicing and sauces and the ethnic name can vary a product's ethnicity. This can be used for simultaneous food product development for domestic and export markets.

For example, Thai and Australian consumers examined 18 Thai and 18 Australian meat products to determine if meat products acceptable in both Thailand and Australia could be developed (Nantachai et al., 1992). They were asked to identify the context in which each product was used to determine common perceptions of meat products. The common dimension for Australians and Thais was 'social occasions'. Two groups of products satisfied social occasions for both the Australians and Thais - fermented sausages, such as Australian salami, pepperoni and Thai nam, and emulsified sausages such as Australian cabanossi and Thai frankfurter.