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The purpose of this paper is to assess consumers' perception of a typical Brazilian food in its familiar and innovative versions through a survey combined with textual analysis.

The study collected consumers’ data (N = 476) via survey and conducted two textual analysis – similitude and descending hierarchical classification (DHC) – using the Iramuteq software. In order to evaluate the consumers’ perception, traditional cheese breads (familiar) and cheese breads with carrots (innovative) were used. The consumers are from Central-West Brazil and had diverse socioeconomic status.

Similitude analysis showed that the familiar product presented mostly neutral or positive characteristics. The DHC analysis provided three relevant classes for the traditional cheese bread (familiar) product, considering the consumers’ perceptions and socioeconomic status. For the innovative product, the similitude analysis showed negative associations with the food (food neophobia), but there are also positive characteristics to be explored (food neophilia). Neophobia was attributed to hedonic aspects, e.g. doubts about the taste approval. Neophilia was related to normative aspects, e.g. the product's health benefits.

The results are exploratory and, therefore, cannot be generalized, but can arise insights to different food products. It was observed that the chosen method can be useful to access the consumer's perception and could be replicated in other cultures and regarding different products.

Food neophobia can be avoided by highlighting hedonic aspects and food neophilia can be activate via normative attributes, so the launch of an innovative food should be accompanied by consumer-oriented marketing strategies.

The present study brings relevant insights regarding food neophobia and neophilia and uses a combination of survey with textual analysis.

Birds Eye has successfully managed its company marketing strategy over the past 20 years. Social changes, increased competition and technological changes have all prompted Birds Eye to respond. Its main moves have been to reduce the number of distribution centres; withdraw from its involvement in primary processing; increase mechanisation; move from being a generalist to a more specialist producer by concentrating its energies into five carefully chosen key areas, and evolving a more appropriate personnel strategy.

Other concentrated milk products are evaporated or condensed milks. These do serve as direct substitutes for the original, simply by the restoration of the original amount of water content. Large shipments of these products are going forward regularly from Canada and the United States to Great Britain. The next logical step in the process is the complete dehydration into powdered form. This has been an expanding industry in recent years. Milk in powdered form occupies only about one‐quarter of the space taken by evaporated milk and approximately one‐eleventh of the volume of the original fluid milk. Experiments are now under way in Canada to make further economies. Dried milk is usually packed in tins or small containers, in loose powder form. Half a ton of milk was recently sent from Ontario to Great Britain in the form of solid blocks, packed in large cartons. If these experiments are successful further important economies in shipping space will result. The drying of eggs has until last year only been incidentally carried on in this continent, and industries using dried eggs have depended upon China for their supply. The cutting off of this source and spectacular demand for military use and overseas shipment have resulted in a tremendous increase in output. In 1939 the United States egg‐drying industry prepared only 10 million pounds of dried egg products. By 1941 this had been increased to 45 million pounds, and it has been estimated that output in 1942 will reach 150 million pounds. Some fear has been expressed that the present expansion in the industry will have severe repercussions, when conditions of normal supply and demand are restored after the war. It should be noted, however, that production of this year's quota will involve operation of the plants twenty‐four hours a day throughout the year and that the industry can go back to a peacetime operation with an eight‐hour day and a four‐month season. On this basis output would be only 17 million pounds per annum, or slightly larger than pre‐war consumption in the United States. Egg drying in Canada has also begun to expand. During 1941 we delivered 15 million dozen eggs to Great Britain. These eggs were shipped in the shell, and owing to shipping delays their condition upon arrival was not always satisfactory. Egg deliveries to Great Britain in 1942 are expected to reach 45 million dozen eggs, and since February 7th all of these have been shipped in the dried form. Although the drying capacity in Canada has been sharply increased it is not yet capable of handling all the eggs available at the period of peak production and the surplus eggs are being packed for future processing. While there has been a substantial growth in the processing of milk and eggs by dehydration, the industry which has received the greatest publicity and aroused most public interest is the dehydration of vegetables. During the World War of 1914–18 a substantial quantity of dehydrated vegetables was prepared and shipped to Europe, primarily for the use of United States armed forces. These were not popular; in general they tasted like anything but vegetables, and the kindest description of their flavour was that it resembled hay. The industry died away at the end of the war almost as rapidly as it had risen. The last few years, however, have seen a revival of interest and of operation in the dehydrated vegetable industry. This revival has, curiously enough, been based upon discoveries made in research for a rival, the quick‐frozen food industry. In the earlier days of the latter industry the same problem of hay‐like flavour arose. Research indicated that this was due to activity of enzymes—those curious biological catalysts present in all living matter without which the chemical changes necessary for its existence could not take place. It was discovered by pioneers in the frozen food industry that a pre‐heating or “blanching” process immediately prior to freezing prevented activity of the enzymes during the period when the food remained frozen. As a result of the lack of chemical change the flavour remained unaffected. It is thus against the background of this research rather than as a result of immediate war demands that the dehydrated vegetable industry has so far had its development. For a number of years the industry in the United States has been slowly growing, and a survey conducted last year by the United States Department of Commerce indicated that fifteen commercial plants produced slightly less than 5 million pounds of dehydrated vegetables in 1940. Nearly two‐thirds of the output was in the form of powders to be used for seasoning, including such highly flavoured vegetables as onions, celery and red peppers. The remainder of the output was either in the form of mixed vegetables which, combined with animal protein and flavourings, make up the now familiar packaged soups. There has also been, however, a relatively substantial volume of production for dehydration and use in the form of the original vegetable. One company in fact has specialised in the production of potato shreds which permit the preparation of mashed potatoes in five minutes. The greater part of the output was purchased by hotels, restaurants and other large organisations where convenience in use was a major factor. The direct sale to individual consumers was only in the preliminary stages. The increased demand for food products in the United States, both for the armed forces and for shipment abroad under “lease‐lend,” has aroused an intense interest in the industry. The United States Department of Agriculture announced at the beginning of June a programme of technical assistance and priorities on materials for food processors desirous of converting their plants. Compared with the fifteen plants producing 5,000,000 pounds in 1940, there are now reported to be 113 companies operating dehydration plants, with an aggregate annual production of 125,000,000 pounds. Potential demand may be measured by the fact that if dehydrated potatoes were served to the men in the United States army only once a week it would require 7 million pounds of finished product per annum of this vegetable alone. The types of dehydrated vegetables most in demand are potatoes, onions, cabbages, carrots, beets and tomatoes. The important factor in all these products is quality. Dehydration is not a process for getting rid of second‐grade products. One successful operator has found that green peas for dehydration should be of approximately the same quality as those used for quick‐freezing, and must be better than the average quality of peas canned. If the product is to be restored to anything like palatable flavour and texture the flavour must be there to begin with. During recent months the Canadian Government has been actively encouraging experimental work in the dehydration of vegetables.

The value which can be placed upon the rights of property in a name of a commodity, a food or drink, perhaps famous all over the world, which has come down to us through the centuries, is incalculable. Most of such foods and drinks have a regional association, and are prepared according to methods, often secret, handed down from one generation to another and from locally grown and produced materials. Nowhere are such traditions so well established as in cheese‐making and the wine industry. The names do not signify merely a method of manufacture, since this can be simulated almost anywhere, nor even the raw materials, but differences in climate, the soil and its treatment, its produce, harvesting, even in the contaminants of environment. Rochfort cheese, for example, is made from ewe's milk, but most important, with mould growths found only in the caves of that part of France where it is stored.

In the Court of Appeal last summer, when Van Den Berghs and Jurgens Limited (belonging to the Unilever giant organization) sought a reversal of the decision of the trial judge that their television advertisements of Stork margarine did not contravene Reg. 9, Margarine Regulations, 1967—an action which their Lordships described as fierce but friendly—there were some piercing criticisms by the Court on the phrasing of the Regulations, which was described as “ridiculous”, “illogical” and as “absurdities”. They also remarked upon the fact that from 1971 to 1975, after the Regulations became operative, and seven years from the date they were made, no complaint from enforcement authorities and officers or the organizations normally consulted during the making of such regulations were made, until the Butter Information Council, protecting the interests of the dairy trade and dairy producers, suggested the long‐standing advertisements of Reg. 9. An example of how the interests of descriptions and uses of the word “butter” infringements of Reg. 9. An example af how the interests of enforcement, consumer protection, &c, are not identical with trade interests, who see in legislation, accepted by the first, as injuring sections of the trade. (There is no evidence that the Butter Information Council was one of the organizations consulted by the MAFF before making the Regulations.) The Independant Broadcasting Authority on receiving the Council's complaint and obtaining legal advice, banned plaintiffs' advertisements and suggested they seek a declaration that the said advertisements did not infringe the Regulations. This they did and were refused such a declaration by the trial judge in the Chancery Division, whereupon they went to the Court of Appeal, and it was here, in the course of a very thorough and searching examination of the question and, in particular, the Margarine Regulations, that His Appellate Lordship made use of the critical phrases we have quoted.

Changes in eating habits and consumer expectations of food will increase the use of food additives. This is the conclusion drawn from a survey of the American market by The Freedonia Group, Inc, entitled Food Additives: Threats and Opportunities. Analyst Luci Weisenbach concludes that food additives demand in the US will increase by nearly nine per cent per year by 1994 to $3.9 billion representing real growth of over five per cent annually.

This article examines the business relationships in the cold chain used for exporting food to new markets in developing countries. The American Potato Trade Alliance, a cross‐network alliance that includes all levels of the value chain, is the subject of case study research involving participant observation and fieldwork in the Philippines and Thailand. Multinational restaurant companies manage technical challenges in target markets with tight specifications and exclusive supply chains, while smaller firms use extensive networks to supply imported frozen potatoes. Pricing strategies for cold chain services are closely related to quality and potentially affect the availability of outsourced cold chain services. Opportunistic behavior by buyers could reduce incentives for private investment in cold chain infrastructure, while long‐term commitment by chain partners would strengthen the potential for private markets to provide cold chain services in newly developing markets.

The pattern of food prosecutions in more recent times has remained relatively unchanged. Most have been taken under Section 2, Food and Drugs Act, 1955, even for foods which have obviously been unfit for human consumption. The Section because of its wider application has distinct procedural advantages. A few local authorities routinely use Section 8 successfully; it probably depends upon a more liberal interpretation and understanding by local justices. The five‐year study of food prosecutions, (BFJ 1971, 73, 39), separated them into a number of well‐defined groups and showed that those for the presence of foreign material were the majority and remained fairly constant throughout the period; mouldy foods increased during the five years and then remained steady as the second largest single group. The foods most commonly affected and the foreign matter commonly present could be seen; neither changed much during the period of the survey.

We can think of those with a cynical turn of mind who might consider not a little of the present output of the parliamentary machine as “harem scarem” law, but the indecent haste, the freak urgency of some politically inspired laws apart, it is only too obvious that law is being made under rush conditions, and the reasons are not far to seek. A hectic, over‐active party executive, feverishly pushing ahead with its policies produces impossible working conditions for the parliamentary draftsmen. Law, whether it is statute or regulation, has never been more complex than it is today; time allowed for parliamentary debate is completely inadequate; too many and varied interests have to be taken into account, to say nothing of the vast range of delegated legislation. The urgency of some legislation is doubtful; it is difficult to see the need for all the hurry; a little more time in proper debate would prevent some of the loopholes which subsequently appear and render the law more comprehensible; incomprehensibility and justice are rarely compatible. As Diplock L J., said in the Court of Appeal in Rex. v. Industrial Injuries Commissioner ex parte Cable (1968) 1 A.E.R., 9, a few months ago—“Judges have been at their wits' end to know what some of the provisions mean. It would be a good thing if time could be found to remedy the blemishes.”

The volume and range of food law enforcement in the field of purity and quality control has grown dramatically in recent times. Only those able to recall the subject from upwards of half a century ago can really appreciate the changes. Compositional control now appears as more of a closely knit field of its own, keeping pace with the advances of food processing, new methods and raw materials. It has its problems but enforcement agencies appear well able to cope with them, e.g. the restructuring of meat, excess water content, fat content, the application of compositional standards to new products, especially meat products, but the most difficult of all areas is that of securing and maintaining acceptable standards of food hygiene. This is one of the most important duties of environmental health officers, with a considerable impact on health and public concern; and one of the most intractible problems, comparable in its results with the insidious onslaught of the ever‐growing problem of noise, another area dependent on the reactions of people; to use an oft repeated cliche — “the human element”.