The duality of innovation and food development versus purely traditional foods

Abstract

Background: Intangible cultural heritage includes knowledge and skills transmitted throughout times, and this also applies to the food sector. Traditional knowledge assumes important social and economic value, which is relevant both for sectorial clusters as well as for majority social groups. Scope and approach: The objective of this review was to analyse the constraints and motivations for development in the sector of traditional foods, from the point of view of marketing and consumer trends. This review was based on published works searched for in scientific databases, such as ScienceDirect, PubMed, Scopus and web of Science. Key findings and conclusions: This review showed that the value of tradition, recognized in many sectors of society, is also important in the food sector, which is particularly rich in ethnical elements, local ingredients, traditional formulations and social aspects, linked not only to the food itself but also to the act of eating and sharing. However, the food industry seeks development of new products that follow modern trends and are able to conquer today’s consumers, while at the same time maintaining the identity of specific products, valued as traditional. 1. Introduction Having in mind the present competitive and fast shifting markets, companies rely much on the successful development and introduction of new products and/or services into the market. Innovation is a vast and multi-dimensional concept, which can be defined as the capacity to develop new products, new processes, new forms of organization or even new markets (Horvat et al., 2019; Kalluri & Kodali, 2014; Kühne et al., 2010). There is an increased interest in foods which are linked with tradi-tion, and these represent an increased segment of the food market in Europe. In order to maintain or even augment market share and lucra-tiveness taking advantage of marketing opportunities, the traditional food sector companies are also impelled to innovate, even though in-novations are controversial in this particular context (Kühne et al., 2010; Vanhonacker et al., 2013). Presently, the food sector is regarded as one of the most important in the current global economy. According to the FAOStat (Food and Agri-culture Organization of the United Nations) the food production value increased by 8% in a decade (from 2007 to 2017) being in 2017 2.3 billion USD (last available data). Yet, food industry or food service companies still face many challenges in managing their products and competing in the market, being an area with high degrees of new product failure (Horvat et al., 2019; Pinna et al, 2017, 2018; Ryyn ̈anen & Hakatie, 2014). Innovation is generically accepted as one of the keys to success, although it is not enough to guarantee success for its own. In fact, companies can innovate and still fail if the innovation was not market driver, ; Pinna et al, 2017, 2018i.e., if the markets fail to accept it. Frequently, the acceptance of an innovation will depend not only on the innovation itself but also on the product to which it was applied. In the case of traditional foods, in a higher extension than for other types of food products, the level of innovation and its conceptualization are pivotal factors influencing consumer acceptance (Guerrero et al., 2016; Vanhonacker et al., 2013). * Corresponding author. Dep. Food Industry, ESAV, Quinta da Alagoa, Estrada de Nelas, Ranhados, 3500-606, Viseu, Portugal. E-mail address: raquelguine@esav.ipv.pt (R.P.F. Guin ́e). Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Trends in Food Science & Technology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tifs https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2021.01.010 Received 8 April 2020; Received in revised form 30 December 2020; Accepted 4 January 2021