NEW YORK CITY – How do you
achieve the artisan look for a food product that’s mass produced? That’s the
question food makers are struggling to answer as more companies market their
products as “homemade” or “artisan,” the Associated Press reports.
For example, when making
Domino’s Artisan Pizzas, employees try to not make sharp rectangles, but have
pies with softer edges. McDonald’s Egg White Delight McMuffin should have a
looser shape than the traditional roundness of the original sandwich. Kraft
Foods spent several years to figure out how to make the edges of its Carving
Board line of lunch meats appear to be homemade “leftovers” and not
assembly-line ovals.
Americans still crave
packaged food and fast food, but they now want to seem like their consuming
homemade foods. Some food companies are stripping down the ingredients and
assembling part of their foods to achieve the wholesome appeal, but others are
tweaking existing product lines for the same result.
“Food manufacturers are
adapting by the way they mold the product or the end color or texture they want
the product to be,” said Michael Cohen, a visiting assistant professor of
marketing at NYU’s Stern School of Business.
However, some argue that by changing the
appearance — and not the ingredients — of foods can trick consumers into
thinking the product is more natural than it really is. “They can’t change the
fact that they’re making processed products so they have to use these other tricks
to pretend,” said Michele Simon, a public health lawyer and author of “Appetite
for Profit: How the Food Industry Undermines Our Health and How to Fight Back.”