Plenty of choices, but are any of them good?

FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Moms and dads who work outside the home and act as Family Feeder have

a rough time. I sometimes wonder how they manage to survive the

workday, arrive home after a nerve-wracking commute and have the

strength to even think about getting a meal on the able. Do adults

and children sit down to a traditional supper anymore?

Even those who work at home are having a hard time preserving the

tradition. Grown-ups spend longer hours in home offices and find

their free time filled with meetings, errands and carpool

responsibilities. Teens who participate in sports or any other kind

of school activity deal with staggering schedules of their own. Even

the little ones are cramming homework, karate or dance lessons and

scout meetings into a limited number of after-school hours.

An overwhelming number of Family Feeders turn to prepared fresh

and frozen entrees, packaged salads and desserts out of a box. While

the nutrition content may not be the best, these conveniences make a

shared evening meal possible. Weary adults, sulking teens and little

milk-spillers learn to tolerate and perhaps even enjoy each other’s

company. But the shared evening meal may soon become a casualty of

our the 21st century lifestyle. And there are other forces at work

that are aren’t making the tradition any easier to preserve.

Food marketers have been flooding the market with kid-pleasing

salty, sweet and high-fat snack and breakfast food for years. Images

of cartoon characters and the promise of de-coder rings have

embellished cereal boxes since the 1950s. It’s not surprising that

these market-savvy arbiters of taste are now fine-tuning their

efforts to influence not only what the kids eat for breakfast, lunch

and snacks, but what they eat for super as well. They know the

children and teens in your household determine more than one-third of

your grocery cart contents.

Keeping everyone around the table happy is one thing, but most of

the new products have little appeal to anyone over the age of 6. I

guess they’re assuming most kids eat their dinner beyond the prying

eyes of grown-ups. And, of course, there’s always the issue of

convenience and dealing with finicky eaters.

Heinz introduced green ketchup about two years ago, claiming the

color was attractive on vegetables. I wonder how long that ruse

works?

Ore-Ida, a unit of Heinz, will serve up child-pleasing shock value

with blue fries that can be dipped in purple, orange, pink and teal

ketchup included in the package.

In the not too distant future, whole wheat toast on the breakfast

table can be dressed in Jelly Bean Jelly, with flavors like

watermelon, sour apple and banana, or Parkay Fun Squeeze margarine in

hot pink and electric blue. And what kid won’t be tempted to at least

sample some healthy salad topped with neon-color dressings with names

like Purple Pizzazz and Outrageous Orange?

The traditional spaghetti dinner will soon be replaced by Ragu

Express, single-serve pasta dishes that children can prepare in a

microwave. Kid Cuisine (ConAgra) is cooking up a new spin on the TV

dinner theme meals. A hamburger meal, called the Sandwich Builder,

promises a hamburger patty shaped like a house and cookies that look

like bricks.

The rationale cited by food marketers is almost as scary as hot

pink ketchup on blue fries.

Colleen Fahey, the executive vice president of Frankel, a company

that specializes in marketing to children, is convinced that these

new products reflect dynamics already swirling around the family

dinner table.

“Families have less time together,” Ms. Fahey said. “They don’t

want to risk not having a pleasant experience by hassling over food

choices because they’d rather enjoy each other’s company. Allowing

more freedom in food choices helps that happen. It’s a whole cultural

change and it’s going on very quietly.”

The assumption that kids will devour these odd food choices at a

dinner table shared with adults is questionable. Are the marketing

gurus really offering improved family relations or are they offering

a little novelty to the child who consumes a solo evening meal at the

kitchen counter or in front of the TV?

Cooking is chore for most people, and delivering kids’ favorite

food to the table quickly is genuinely appealing. No fast food guilt

to deal with. But there’s something about “fun food” products that

should trouble all parents and adults. Are they causing more division

in the already-fractured family meal, where generations interact,

bond and perhaps enjoy something good to eat? Will our children ever

know how a slice of bread or leaf of lettuce is supposed to taste?

Everyone has to decide for themselves. But busy moms and dads and

all Family Feeders now have another challenge to deal with.

* LILLIAN REITER is a Laguna Beach resident. A self-described

“shameless foodie,” she is co-authoring a cookbook. She can be

reached at ldreiter@cox.net; at P.O. Box 248, Laguna Beach, CA 92652;

or by fax at 494-8979.