ARTICLE:
America's cultural landscape has changed a lot in the last couple of decades, influencing what American's like to eat, and what they consider "American food." The Hispanic culinary influence is perhaps the most prominent: salsa has overtaken ketchup as the most popular condiment, tortilla chips are outselling potato chips, taco kits and tortillas outsell hot dogs and hot dog buns, and tequila consumption has grown in the US. Hispanic flavors have seamlessly been moving into other categories, with taste profiles that include jalapeno, nacho cheese, chile limon and more. Traditionally Hispanic foods like chorizo and guava have been appearing in dishes everywhere, and popular Hispanic brands like Jarritos soda are gaining attention from Millennial drinkers of all demos. Many Americans don't even consider tacos or burritos Mexican food, seeing them in the same way they view pizza and spaghetti as a "standard" food type rather than Italian.
The Hispanic food market is an $8 billion industry, projected to grow to an $11 billion industry by 2017. There are several factors driving this growth, especially an acculturated Generation Y that wants to blend traditional tastes with mainstream "American" flavors. There also seems to be less importance on brands rather than product, but as the familiarity and relationship with these foods deepens that may change.
Other items, like soy sauce and Thai hot sauce Sriracha (which even made it onto Lay's potato chips) are also changing tastes, though arguable not with the same weight of Hispanic food items.
