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Cinco de Mayo food trends

May 5, 2011

Many Americans believe that Cinco de Mayo ("May 5th" in Spanish) commemorates

Mexico

's independence from

Spain

Toops Scoops

Many Americans believe that Cinco de Mayo ("May 5th" in Spanish) commemorates

Mexico

's independence from

Spain

. In fact, it began as a local holiday that celebrated

Mexico

's defeat of the French army at the Battle of Puebla in 1862, according to www.Allrecipes.com

Full of celebratory music and dance, delicious food and drinks, Cinco de Mayo, has been embraced throughout the

U.S.

, even by those whose Spanish consists of only three familiar words: fiesta, cerveza, and margarita.
What’s on the menu? Shoppers are choosing healthier alternatives within many traditional food and cooking categories for Cinco de Mayo, according to www.mywebgrocer.com

Based on online sales data collected the week prior to Cinco de Mayo in 2008, 2009 and 2010, sales went up for many healthier food items: Sales of multi-grain and whole grain tortilla chips grew at a faster rate than the overall tortilla chip category: where sales of the multi-grain variety were up 15 percent last year over 2009, overall, sales in the tortilla chip category rose 8 percent; Whole-wheat tacos and tortillas also grew at a faster rate, with sales spiking at 39 percent last year, and plain tacos and tortillas seeing only an increase of 29 percent; Salsa, a popular nutritious item for many Mexican dishes, is typically either low fat or fat free. Salsa saw a 13 percent growth from ‘08 to ‘09, and a 15 percent growth from ‘09 to ’10; Low fat shredded cheese is clearly a go-to healthier alternative for many, with sales more than doubling that of regular shredded cheese (68 percent sales growth from ’09-’10 vs. 32 percent sales growth from ’09-’10, respectively).Happy Cinco de Mayo.