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December 15, 2006
It's all about branding
From the Wall Street Journal - What's in a Name: Crabless Crab Legs No Longer Imitation:
If cheese mixed with emulsifiers and other stuff is called "pasteurized process cheese food," what do you call a fish paste made to look like crab meat?
Until now, the Food and Drug Administration has required that the product, known as surimi, be labeled "imitation crab." But after a dozen years of lobbying, the seafood industry has succeeded in getting permission to drop that unappealing description. Instead, it may now use a new, long-winded label: "Crab-flavored seafood, made with surimi, a fully cooked fish protein." The phrase can be adapted for surimi made to resemble lobster, scallops, shrimp and other seafood, as well.
The industry hopes the new label will help increase sales of an odd product that caught on in the boom for ethnic food but which has had flat sales for the past decade. "The word 'imitation' is not as annoying as 'fake,' but we shudder when we hear the word," says John van Amerongen, a spokesman for Trident Seafoods Corp., in Seattle, which sells the Louis Kemp brand of refrigerated and frozen surimi. "Hopefully, people who were turned off by the word 'imitation' will take another look and give it a try." Louis Kemp adds flavor and color to surimi and sells it as Crab and Lobster Delights. Trident also sells the product as Sea Legs.
Maybe Shakespeare was wrong - a rose by any other name might not be as appealing. Thus is the power of brands. Remember that when you are out shopping for "crab-flavored seafood."
Posted by Ken Jarboe at December 15, 2006 7:30 AM
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