Traditional foods: challenges facing the European food industry

Abstract

Brief analysis about the meaning of traditional food products and the delicate situation of this kind of product in a global market, where consumers are requiring a great amount of nutritional and cheap foods, is presented. These demands have contributed to the production and distribution of food stuffs by big industrial and commercial corporations that are looking for consumer satisfaction, thus homogenising what is eaten in each country, although with a great diversity of brands and displays. Traditional foods are thus restricted by the current conditions in the market but they have good perspectives for growing in the future if some challenges are accomplished. These challenges are communication (a traditional product is exotic in the other markets and then has to be advertised), legal protection of collective brands (insufficiently guaranteed in the different markets of the European Union), quality assurance (that, as in all the branded products must be a priority objective) and innovation. Most of these challenges will only be accomplished through an efficient and jointly shared organisation of the small industries that produce this kind of product.