Local-traditional foods of Bangladesh: A treasure to be preserved

Abstract

Vast expansion of industrially processed food market is threating the existence of demographically preferred traditional food items wherein there is always an increasing demand of consumer's preference driven food product development. In response to this context, documentation, and flow of information through generation are prerequisite to the preservation and sustainable utilization of the traditional foods. What's more, a successful integration of traditional foods with modern days industrial production would be a key contributor to meet the global food challenges. The focus of this study was to search and preserve the details of Bangladeshi traditional food items with the potentiality of large-scale industrial production to meet the increasing need for diversified food for increasing population. This study was conducted through an open-ended question-based survey, where older citizen of the country was the source of information and younger citizen was the conveyor of information. Results showed that, diversity in geography, religion, availability of ingredients, crop production, socio-cultural indices have influences on Bangladeshi traditional food choice. In total, the documentation of 134 local-traditional food items, encompassing main course meal (comprising of main dishes and complementary ones), snacks, sweetmeats, among others has been performed. The incorporation of product-specific processing operation to the existent production process of traditional food items would improve their safety and preservation aspects. This study could be a groundwork for more investigations towards the expansion of traditional foods of Bangladesh for their industrial production, knowing the existing market demand.