Younger generation to shift chili pepper market, says expert - FreshFruitPortal.com

Younger generation to shift chili pepper market, says expert

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Younger generation to shift chili pepper market, says expert

Supermarkets will likely stock a much greater varietal selection of chili peppers in the near future as the younger generation embraces new flavors, according to an internationally recognized capsicum expert.

Dr. Paul Bosland, who is the director of the Chile Pepper Institute at New Mexico State University and popularly known as 'The Chileman', spoke to www.freshfruitportal.com about the trend at the 22nd International Pepper Conference currently being held in Chile's Viña del Mar.

Dr Paul Bosland.

Dr. Paul Bosland.

"If you go back 30 years there were probably two hot sauces in the U.S. - something called Tabasco and one that we call Louisiana hot sauce. Nowadays there's probably 10 or 15, and hundreds on the internet," Bosland said.

Chilies have a heat profile along with various flavor components, and Bosland said different cultures around the world had been adapting combinations of these two aspects to meet their preferences.

Now these new tastes are being introduced to countries like the U.S.

"Nowadays there are ethnic restaurants dedicated to specific food groups – a Bolivian restaurant or a Peruvian restaurant – to use those food profiles," Bosland said.

"So what we see is instead of just red chili powder being used, you'll get a specific powder to use in the food because you know that that's going to season the food a certain way."

Bosland explained the way younger generations were currently embracing different chile flavors was similar to how consumers' appreciation for wine had evolved substantially.

"For many decades there was red wine and white wine. But now people know varietal wines and are getting into more what we would call the minor wine crops - wine varieties that you haven't really heard of, maybe from Dalmatia in Croatia," he said.

"And so the young generation - those that are under 30 - have really embraced this food adventure.

"The older generation - people over 60 or 70 - they're generally not too interested. The last generation was used to eating potato, meat and maybe a vegetable, but the younger generation really does want to experiment with these types of chillies."

This new trend among younger demographics would probably lead to a change in global agricultural trade dynamics whereby chili-growing countries begin to export a greater varietal diversity, Bosland said.

The taste variation of different chilies is also heightened by their heat level and flavor changing according to where they are grown, as is the case with coffee.

"For example, in New Mexico which is stressful and Santiago which isn't, the chilies have a very different heat level and flavor - they're much more flavorful and hotter in New Mexico," Bosland said.

"So you have the different species, flavor profiles, and then where you grow them."

A spicy tomato?

A bigger choice of chilies may not be the only spicy addition consumers are offered by supermarkets in the future, as recent work that sequenced the tomato genome has opened the possibility of incorporating the genetic material that gives chilies their heat.

Bosland said researchers had initially thought altering tomatoes in such a way would be much harder than it now appeared, due to not having understood the genetic similarities between the two vegetables.

"We didn't know how many genes tomatoes have that chilies have too, so we didn't know how many we'd have to put in to get to the final product," he said.

"And then by sequencing tomato, we saw 'oh, we've already got the precursor to get to the final product'."

The Chileman said technology hadn't advanced far enough just yet to produce spicy tomatoes and may take another few years, but if it were possible the product would likely be met with strong consumer resistance.

"The GMO (genetically modified organism) thing has got people kind of saying 'we don't want it'," he said.

"So it may be possible but there really won't be a market. The consumer's always right is what I always say - what they want to buy is what people produce. So if we produced it would people want it? Probably not. Not today."

www.freshfruitportal.com

 

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