A New Survey Reveals Nearly Half of Brits Have Discovered the Secret is in the Origin

LONDON, July 5, 2010 - Delia Smith and Jamie Oliver are the most influential TV
personalities, according to the latest survey of the nation's food lovers.
Not surprisingly, Oz Clarke is seen as the leading expert on wine. These
experts provide the inspiration to over half (53%) of us to experiment with
new and different styles of food and wine. Over 56% of us, it seems,
regularly consult more than five cookery books. So are we a nation obsessed
with gastronomy? Apparently not - when pushed we still go to Mum for
inspiration and most of us prefer a cosy meal at home to eating out.

The survey was carried out by the Discover the Origin
campaign, created to help consumers understand why origin is so important to
the quality of the food we eat. It focuses on five products - Parma Ham,
Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, Burgundy, Port and Douro Valley wines. And it
seems to be working too - just over half (55%) of us like to know where the
product we are buying comes from and 32% choose to buy a wine by country of
origin. And surprisingly, we are not such duffs after all it seems - in a
country where people usually struggle with an atlas, 62% of those surveyed
knew that Parma Ham comes from Italy but even this pales into comparison as a
massive 89% knew that Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese comes from Italy.

The survey revealed a few other interesting facts - 85% of us
associate Burgundy with red wine when in fact over 60% of the production is
white. Burgundy includes the well-known Chablis region. The survey also
revealed that we are beginning to rethink Port, with 29% drinking it on
special occasions and in the summer choosing different styles of Port, thus
moving away from the idea that Port is just drunk at Christmas.

Nearly all of those surveyed claimed that labels with quality
assurances such as the PDO (Protected Designation of Origin) on food and the
AOC (Appellation d'Origine Contrôlée) or DOC ( Denominacao de Origem
Controlada) appellation on wine helped them to differentiate and provided
them with a recognisable quality guarantee.

So whilst we cannot claim to be a nation of gastronomes, we do
know a good thing when we discover it!

For further information, or images please contact: Sarah Taylor, Westbury Communications, T: +44(0)20-8682-9020, E: sarah.taylor at westburycom.co.uk