The Sun-Herald

WHO WE ARE: From impulse to mouth

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A column about Australia by David Dale, published in The Sun Herald, 29/6/2009
Recent pronouncements by the prime minister about the shaking of sauce bottles, and the decision by the Kraft company to market a new version of Vegemite with cream cheese stirred through, compelled this column to re-examine a key question of identity: what are Australia's national foodstuffs?

We established years ago that the national dish is spaghetti bolognese, in the sense of the meal cooked most often for family dinner. That's barely the beginning. The research company ACNielsen has just published The 2009 Nielsen Convenience and Impulse Report, which, combined with earlier data on supermarket habits, lets us look deeply into the mouths of Australians.

The national breakfast. We start the day with Weet Bix or Kellogg's Nutri-Grain, onto which we pour Paul's milk or Pura milk. Then we smear Vegemite on Tip Top and wash it down with Nescafe Blend 43.

The national snack. Nielsen reports that in 2008 Australians spent $2.7 billion in "the convenience channel" - mainly shops attached to petrol stations. "Over two thirds (66 per cent) of Aussie consumers claim to buy lollies in convenience stores, while 59 per cent buy chocolate," says the report. "Almost one in three Aussies claim to have purchased an item from a convenience store on their last visit to a petrol station."

Here's what Nielsen says we mostly grab on the way back to the car: Mars bars; Extra spearmint gum; Snickers; Coca Cola; V Guarana; Red Bull Energy Drink; Streets Golden Gaytime, Streets Magnum; Peters Maxibon; R/Rock Potato chips; Cheese Twisties; Smith's Crinkles; Icebreak Iced Coffee; Arnott's Tim Tams; Arnott's Shapes.

You get an inkling of who does most of this impulse buying from the fact that the top two publications bought at convenience stores are Zoo Weekly and Picture, which specialise in photos of buxom women.

The national lunch. Boringly, this is likely to be a sandwich, stuffed with Primo ham or devon and a slice of Bega cheese. A bold minority buy hot chips. Every Australian eats 63 kilograms of potatoes a year.

The national smoke. Only 20 per cent of Australians are regular smokers (but the figure is 33 per cent if you're talking about males aged between 25 and 34). Nielsen reports that Australians spend $750 million a year at the supermarket on Winfield cigarettes and also on Longbeach, and more than $500 million on Peter Jackson and on Horizon. In convenience stores, the top sellers are Winfield Blue and Peter Jackson Rich.

The national sauce. I could find no reference to tomato sauce among Nielsen's top 100 selling brands, which might support the complaint that Kevin Rudd's "Fair shake of the sauce bottle" was an outdated image. But on the website of the Japanese-owned food company Cerebos, we learn: "Fountain Tomato sauce is found in more kitchens, cupboards and fridges than any other sauce brand -- and Aussie households consume an impressive 6.8 million litres of Fountain Tomato sauce each year." Since Fountain claims to have 22.7 per cent of the market, we may conclude that Australians consume 30 million litres of the red stuff a year, or 1.4 litres per person.

The national dinner. As we noted, it's spag bol, usually made with San Remo pasta and Leggo tomato paste. Slightly less often it's Old El Paso Mexican. If we have a steak, it's served with McCain frozen peas.

And once a week the average household orders out. For the title of Australia's favourite takeaway, it's a battle between pizza, fried rice, Pad Thai noodles, and butter chicken. Further research is clearly required. It's a dirty job, but somebody's got to do it.

Go to Comments to discuss what you think are the national dishes of Australia.

David Dale is the author of Who We Are -- A snapshot of Australia today (Allen and Unwin). For daily updates on Australian attitudes, bookmark http://blogs.sunherald.com.au/whoweare.