Appreciation or Appropriation?

1. Take time before the project to think about bias that you may be bringing to your work. “We treat things in a way we are used to, and that bias filters into product development and marketing,” says Mallika Basu, a UK communications consultant to food and beverage companies.

2. Visit food stores that sell products from the culture. “Walk down the aisles, buy multiple products, talk to the store owner,” says Abena Opokua Foli, founder of POKS Spices.

3. Eat at as many different restaurants from the culture as you can. “Immerse yourself in the culture, and try to understand why things are done the way they are before you even begin to formulate,” says Foli.

4. Talk with food and cultural experts about how and why a dish originated. “When a food product developer has confidence in their understanding of the nuance of multiculturalism, the creative decisions they make tend to lean naturally in a more authentic direction,” says Sarah Wallace, founder and CEO of The Good Bean.

5. Before you decide to change a traditional dish, Basu advises asking yourself if you would make a similar alteration to a French dish. “Would you do coq au vin with no red wine?” she asks. “If you wouldn’t do it to a French food, that’s a very important starting point.”

6. If specific ingredients aren’t available or won’t work in a formulation, be mindful of appropriate substitutions you can make that maintain a product’s traditional flavor profile.

7. Consider brand partnerships as a means to help ensure authenticity. “There has been an explosion in the United States of globally inspired brands in the past five years from people from a region or new immigrants,” says Foli. “It’s easy now for [larger] brands to reach out to emerging brands to private label your product, or to do a co-branded version.”