DIETARY ACCULTURATION AND INTEREST IN MODIFICATION OF STAPLE FOODS: A PRELIMINARY QUALITATIVE STUDY WITH RICE

Abstract

This preliminary study examined differences in dietary perceptions and beliefs of a staple food product and a health focused modification of that food product in a focus groups study of native Vietnamese in Vietnam (VNV) and Vietnamese immigrants to the United States (USV).  The concepts investigated were rice product awareness and beliefs, use and preparation of rice, and overall interest in value-added brown rice product concepts incorporating health related language. While white rice was well accepted and daily consumed by both USV and VNV, the brown rice product concept, despite its numerous health benefits, was not readily accepted by Vietnamese consumers, either from US or Vietnam. Both sets of consumers had culturally negative associations of brown rice with poverty, aging, and illness in Vietnam and those perceptions had not changed with immigration. Neither USV nor VNV consumers considered health benefits as key factors for rice consumption, a staple food in all of their diets, a difference from Caucasian US participants studied earlier. Exposure to US culture seemed to have little impact on US-Vietnamese’s rice eating habits. Thus, for a staple food product it appears that it would take time and considerable effort to impact the Vietnamese immigrants’ cultural foodways.