Last week I was going through my morning ritual of reading through my daily local, national, and international news feeds when I happened upon an item that stopped me in my tracks.
It was neither shock nor awe that stopped me, but ingenuity with hints of curiosity.
The item in question was talking about how various foods have been renamed or rebranded in order to gain broader appeal. The trivia master in me wanted fire up the Food Facts Quiz engine and put everyone to the test. (You can still test your knowledge in other things if you're feeling studious) But the curious content creator in me wanted to laugh, or at least see if I could collect a few giggles.
What's in a name
I'm not sure how it happened that I was today years old when I learned about how many fish have been renamed to be more consumable. How many people knew that Orange Roughy is the rebrand of the slimehead fish, or that Chilean Sea Bass is the aquatic animal formerly known as Patagonian Toothfish? Show of hands how many people knew that locusts were rebranded as Sky Prawns in Australia or that in Illinois, Asian Carp has been renamed Copi? And hats off to the group that gave us Sea Urchin because I'm pretty sure no one was interested in dining on "Whore's eggs."
All of this fishy renaming got my creativity flowing. What would we rename different foods if we got the chance to do it over again? Could corn on the cob be renamed Midwestern Ribbed Maize? Maybe we rename bananas to Tree Berries or cauliflower to Flowering Inflorescence. I haven't even gotten started on renaming actual processed foods. Who do we talk to and when can we start referring to potato chips as Deep Fried Potato Slivers?
The opportunities seem endless, which is where I'm opening the floor to anyone and everyone that reads this. What would you rename a food (or food product) if given the chance? Let me know the food you're renaming what what you're renaming it to by popping me an email in the next week. I'll round up the top 10 and publish them later this month.
Erin Hallstrom is the resident geek and Swiss Army Knife of FoodProcessing.com and the author of our Working Wit blog, she's responsible for the digital content strategy for FoodProcessing.com including posting content, managing social media, and analyzing reader data. Erin is the creator and founder of the Influential Women in Food program, the creator, host, and producer of our Food For Thought podcast. Give her a shout-out or get in touch with her via email.
