The personal eating habits of Israelis

November 22, 2009 - 9:47 AM by David

bamba‘What is there to eat?” is a common refrain in our household. And it seems to get harder and harder to find new, innovative dishes to make, as we continue to rely on old standbys. It looks like we’re not alone, as a recent study reveals.

According to statistics compiled for the Federation of Israeli Chambers of Commerce,
Israelis are quite unadventurous in their eating habits. Milk is the most sold product in Israel with sales totaling about $303,214 million in 2009, which marks a 1.7% drop compared to last year. The study was based on 1,500 points of sale examined between the months of January and October, compared to the same period last year.

Coca Cola was the top soft drink in Israeli shelves, with sales totaling $118.4 million – a 2.1% drop compared to last year. According to the Ynet report on the study, bottled water recorded a sharper decline – 6.1%, mainly due to the pollution in the sources of water, which hurt two of the economy’s leading companies.

Dairy products and chicken top the list of what Israelis like to eat. Yogurt products were the biggest sellers, with $251 million being spent. But the biggest jump was in cottage cheese, in which a 10.1% rise was reported. Israelis also spent $231 million on chicken, a
2.6% rise compared to last year.

Other popular products were packaged spreads, like humous – $159.5 million, eggs – $135 million), soft white cheese – $118 million, and hard yellow cheese, which recorded an 8.4% rise in sales. Canned tuna also was more popular, with a 6.1% increase.

But if it seems like we eat relatively healthy, Israelis are certainly not forgetting their ’sweet’ and ’salty’ tooth. Salty snacks, like Bamba, which one man last week even broke into a convenience store to steal, set Israelis back $165.5 million) – down 1.6% compared to last year. Sweet snacks however saw a 3.4% rise.

So, I guess my household is within the realm of the average Israeli food consumer – lots of eggs, cheeses and chicken – and a fair share of Bamba. So why do I still keep hearing that refrain, ‘what is there to eat?”

Tags: , , , • Category: A New Reality, Business, Food, General, Israeliness, Life, health 

Comments

One Comment on The personal eating habits of Israelis

  1. k on Sat, Nov 28th 2009 1:07 PM

    2. Israelis are actually very adventurous when buying food products. For example, this study only shows that they regularly buy yogurt, but unlike Americans, Israelis don’t buy the same brand for years upon years. There’s a huge dairy section in supermarkets because of that, because there are all kinds of dairy products that appear all over the place.

    And by the way, Israelis cook a lot and do not live off of packaged products like Americans, so I would disagree with you about your view of what the average Israeli kitchen is like..

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