Halal and Kosher Foods Jointly Marketed at Trade Show

March 24, 2006

Source: Los Angeles Times

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-ethnic24mar24,1,325342.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

On March 24, 2006 the Los Angeles Times reported, "Muslims and Jews might not agree about much that goes on in the Middle East, but when it comes to food, they're warming up.

Food processing companies of both faiths came together Thursday at the World Ethnic Market show in the Anaheim Convention Center to pitch such delicacies as halal chicken samosas and kosher Italian sausage to retailers from Albertsons to Wild Oats. The trade show, which continues today, is the nation's first to pair food produced according to the laws of Islam and Judaism, organizers said... Both companies are tapping into a growing interest in food produced in accordance with ancient dietary laws, said Antoine Bonnel, a Paris-based food-marketing consultant and partner in the Anaheim trade fair.

Although recent demographic studies show that the U.S. Jewish population stands at between 5 million and 6 million and is slowly declining because of intermarriage and assimilation, the quantity of kosher products available at the supermarket is on the rise... Demand for kosher food is swelling because a growing number of non-Jewish consumers are using the label symbol that denotes kosher certification as shorthand to discern which products are vegetarian or contain dairy ingredients... Although this was the first domestic trade show where halal and kosher products were jointly marketed, certification authorities for each faith have taken initial steps to work together, including persuading the steel industry to stop using animal products to protect metal used in canning, said Joe Regenstein, a Cornell University food science professor and head of the Cornell Kosher Food Initiative."