Dive Brief:
- Sabra Dipping Co. has petitioned the Food and Drug Administration to set standards for what can, and cannot, be called hummus.
- Sabra, which is co-owned by PepsiCo, claims that rival companies sell the food made with lentils, black beans, and other legumes, not just chickpeas. Sabra wants the feds to rule that only a mixture of chickpeas and tahini can be called hummus.
- There are some precedents for such action. The FDA does regulate what may, or may not, be called sherbet or fruit jelly. And other nations such as Israel, have legal standards to define hummus.
Dive Insight:
It's easy to sort of dismiss Sabra's claims as over-the-top, but there are some legitimate issues here. Hummus is a particular type of food, and it is traditionally made with certain ingredients.
But here in America, hummus has taken on a new meaning -- sort of a Middle Eastern-influenced dip for veggies and chips. So in American supermarkets it's quite common to find something called Black Bean hummus.
The question for regulators is whether hummus is a particular food, as Sabra claims, or is it just a Middle Eastern word that means "dip."
We'll reserve judgment on this and wait for the regulators to rule. In the meantime, we do want to get on the record now and say that baba ghanoush must contain eggplant.