Food safety inspectors in New York have their hands full regulating the sale of illegal meats. And they're not talking about foie gras. Markets all over the city carry exotic meats to cater to immigrants who are used to fare beyond chicken and beef. Inspectors have found everything from armadillos to cow lungs to gorilla meat and a lot of it is illegal.

The issue is not necessarily about which animals are being eaten - although it is illegal to eat endangered or threatened species (like gorillas) - but is instead about the lack of regulation of these meats. Neither the shopkeepers nor the customers necessarily know about food safety, and when the shopkeepers don't uphold the state and federal standards, anyone who purchases from them could be at risk. Unprocessed meats or meat prepared outside of a certified and inspected facility can contain potentially dangerous bacteria, like salmonella or botulism. Some of these "exotic" meats are perfectly permissible - turtles, frogs, iguana and armadillos - if they come from a licensed facility, although they rarely do.

One of the primary issues is that inspectors find the food being sold in heavily immigrant neighborhoods, where language can be a barrier between food safety guidelines and those selling the food. The city health department supports ordering business owners to take state-approved food safety courses that teach about hygiene and cross contamination in an effort to continue their goal of preventing food-related sickness or epidemics.

The new trend in frozen foods is pushing our taste bud frontiers with exotic and unusual ethnic dishes. Supermarket surveys have shown that customers want to see more ethnic cuisines on the market shelves and that we aren't afraid to taste a few spices.

For some time brands like Ethnic Gourmet have been producing frozen entrees and sides with Asian dishes from China, Thailand, and India; now they have added other cuisines like American Southwest and Italian, amped up with a bit more spice and flair than we are used to. Many other brands are stretching the culinary envelope into areas like Morocco, with Fairfield Farm Kitchens making refrigerated soups like Moroccan Stew, Tibetan Curried Soup, and Hungarian Vegetable Noodle Soup, all based on a recipes from the well known Moosewood Restaurant. They also have other offerings like Jamaican Style Jerk Chicken with Wehani rice and Thai Style Chicken Curry. Paani Foods Inc. is exploring other areas of African cuisine with Jollof Rice with Chicken and Peas, a mainstream Nigerian dish, and a West African Meat Pie. Two frozen entrees I can't wait to try.

Expect to see Latin cuisine defined by national dishes and regional recipes from places like the Yucatan showing up in your grocers freezer. Indian food has had a strong showing lately and now we can expect to see the tastes and spices amped up so that if the box says spicy, it will be. Also you can expect many of these frozen ethnic foods to be organic and from humanely raised livestock. I love that we are going to be exposed to more varied offerings in the freezer aisle. For many this will be first tastes of new cuisines, with the opportunity to explore safely from our home. I can't think of a better way to get exposed to the varied food of our global society as we eat our way deeper into the 21st century.

I thought it was just in my neck of the woods that small ethnic grocery stores were the place to go for the hard to find supplies I need for my multicultural cooking and lifestyle. It seems that all over the country, folks are traveling to seek out small markets to find Sriracha sauce, real leaf lard, weird and tasty candy, black chickens, exotic produce, interesting spices, and Asian condiments. This is the exact opposite of one trend I reported recently where some neighborhood grocery stores are tailoring their wares to fit the local cultural profile. These are stores that focus on specific products, and people seek them out for what they consider traditional foods or for items that are difficult to come by in the more generic supermarkets.

I have a few places I go to and they aren't just smaller places like my local New Golden Village in Scarsdale and Meiji-Ya in Hartsdale, NY. There is Kam Sen Asian Market with locations in Flushing and White Plains, NY and the large, if not enormous purveyor of ethnic foods like Mitsuwa Marketplace in Edgewater, NJ, one of nine locations in three states, primarily CA. So, do you have specialized ethnic markets that you seek out in your area?

Growing up in the NYC suburbs, I always thought most grocery stores were the same. So many of the foods seemed to be generic items that were aimed at an ideal of America circa 1950. I assumed that if you wanted Kosher, Italian, Asian, and Latino foods you had to dig out that minor bottom shelf section in the back of the store. That is until I did several road trips across America, and lived all over during college and grad school. I came to realize that markets tailor their products to the region and even the city.
Now this regional specialization is being fine tuned to its maximum potential. Many markets, whether small and local, high end, or the big chains, are researching their customers to find out what they want and need. Attention is focused on ethnic and religious background, economic levels and education, and supplying products to fit their local neighborhood. The most progressive stores in custom tailoring tend to be privately owned independent markets that are in urban areas. The Philadelphia Inquirer has been investigating this trend among the smaller, urban markets in Philly. It seems that the "old-fashioned corner store" is back, and better than ever.

Beef consumption is down in many consumer groups, with people saying 'I like beef, but I already eat too much.' According to the USDA, beef consumption has dropped by 14% over the past 20 years while, for example, chicken consumption has risen over 60%. These are worrying numbers to the beef industry, who are constantly seeking new ways to combat negative consumer perceptions about red meat and bolster sales.

Their newest strategy is to target the one group whose beef consumtion hasn't flagged: Hispanics. According to the beef council, "Hispanic shoppers spend 33 percent more on beef than non-Hispanics" - a statistic that is worth taking notice of. In an effort to maintain these sales, campaigns will be launched in states including California, Texas, Colorado and Minnesota that are aimed at promoting beef to Hispanic buyers. And just like they have a website marketed at teens, the beef industry is developing one that will be marketed towards an Hispanic audience to promote the nutritional and taste benefits of beef.