Global and European nutrition trends

Balogh, Sándor – Baló, Tünde

Keywords: convenience products, functional foods, global and local effects in food consumption, obesity

An overview is given of the differences which can be observed between European and American consumer habits – which start and reflect global trends – as well as between European and American characteristics of food supply. The different positions of the supply of convenience products on these two large markets are presented. The close relationship between the supply of convenience products, uncontrolled personal consumption and obesity is pointed out. The third generation of convenience products has already appeared in the USA, where manufacturers aim at combining convenience and health aspects. Contrary to this, the European consumption “philosophy” – while also acknowledging the convenience aspect – gives greater preference to natural origin, freshness and traditional recipes.