Taste matters: A qualitative study of eating traditional vegetables among Bangladeshi immigrants in Italy

Abstract

There has been increasing interest on studying and identifying the immigrant’s food beliefs, dietary changes, medicinal perception of food, and acculturation. It will be useful to study the knowledge about traditional culinary practice of a particular ethnic group that can be implemented to solve problems related to health of diverse migrant group, how food belief can lead to the future occupation in the host country and finally how this knowledge can diversify the food species in the new environment. Moreover, in the phase of global change various calamities like food scarcity, loss of diversity and high frequency of extreme events are arising, studying migrant’s food believe can play a crucial role to offer potential solutions for the rising problems. Income, level of education, religion, and food beliefs are significant factors accounting for changes in dietary habits, whilst immigrant generation is also a major factor. 30 individual semi-structured interviews of the Bangladeshi immigrants were undertaken in Mestre, Italy between October and January 2020. In order to gain perspectives about vegetable consumption and selling vegetables as a job, the research was restricted to 10 sellers and equal number of male and female consumers. Data presented in this study shows taste perceptions and culinary uses of traditional vegetables may be understood as bio-cultural phenomena rooted in human physiology. These phenomenon changes many times during the stay in the host country depending on the individual’s experiences. Although the taste of Bangladeshi grown vegetables differs from the Italian grown, the main satisfaction lies in the availability of Bangladeshi vegetables that eventually plays a crucial role to keep their own culture. From acculturation by fluently speaking the Italian language to growing traditional vegetables, the Bangladeshi immigrants in Italy can be taken as an important example of adaptation in the phase of global environmental change. The study discusses how taste play a crucial role on making immigrants choice of eating vegetables. Taste also the main driver which is the primary reason for the failure of the dietary acculturation among the Bengali diaspora living in Italy. However, full assimilation never happens among most of the migrants’ group and Bangladeshi migrants are not any exception.