Abstract:
Mass level of recent food related issues and scandals generated a destructive energy towards the
fast food and ready to eat industry by alarming the world about the food safety and security.
Descriptive and informative food labels play a major role in nowadays consumer choice
regardless of the regional barriers. Our approach is to identify the cinnamon based ready to eat
products and sources in the US market and analyse the label attributes by concerning the
positioning strategies of Ceylon cinnamon. The study was based on survey strategy concerning
the US food and beverage market and online retails. 30 brick-and-mortar stores and 55 online
platforms were used to capture the relevant data. Study identified six products categories
available in the US market as well as three positioning strategies. Prominent strategy was
mentioning the Cinnamon in front label where 3 common methods were identified; display only
the name but not highlighted (26%), highlighted name placed in prominent place (centre of
front package) (43%) and both name and the picture (31%). Breakfast cereal for kids, breakfast
cereal for adults, cereal bars, bakery and confectionary, spice mixes and tea were the identified
categories. Flavoured tea and spice mix recorded the highest nutritional values for the both
Nutrition Profile Model (NPM) score and Nutrition Profile Index (NPI). Seven major Cinnamon
based ready to eat product sources were identified and supermarkets frequently offer the
cinnamon based products compared to the sources. Study identified that larger fraction of less
NPI scored products were consumer friendly and the front label capable of manipulate the
purchase decision rather than the high NPI scored products. Significant amount (98%) of
product labels found in US retail market consist of Cassia image in the front positioning while
none of the labels were used the image of Ceylon cinnamon as product strategy. None of the
labels were not mentioned the Coumarin content and Ceylon cinnamon with its unique feature
of ultra-low levels of Coumarin was not considered. Ethnic food stores, restaurants and
supermarkets were the main retail market places and about 30 Ceylon cinnamon exporters were
supplying Ceylon cinnamon to the USA market.
