HUMMUS IS A HUMDINGER!

Hummus far from ho-hum
Surprise ingredient makes for sublime homemade hummus

MICHELE KAYAL
For The Associated Press
February 28, 2007

When a recent snowstorm threatened, David Durcsak didn’t take chances. He stocked up on hummus.

“I bought some yesterday but I’m buying a second to keep on hand,” he said while shopping in the deli aisle of an Arlington, Va. supermarket. “I like to see it in the house.”

Not a sentiment you’d have been likely to hear a decade ago, when Durcsak — and most Americans — had yet to embrace the creamy puree of chickpeas, sesame seed butter and garlic then rarely seen outside Middle Eastern and vegetarian circles.

Today, hummus has grown into a more than $143 million business.

Mainstream grocers give it significant real estate, restaurant menus tout seemingly infinite varieties, and insiders speculate it is well on its way to becoming the next salsa.

“I don’t see this thing slowing down any time soon,” said Rick Schaffer, vice president of sales and marketing for Taunton, Mass.-based hummus maker Tribe Mediterranean Foods. He expects growth to push the industry to $250 million during the next four years.

And there’s plenty of room — and precedent — for that. As ubiquitous a sandwich spread and dip hummus has become, Rubin estimates fewer than 5 percent of American households have tried it.

Yet just 10 years ago, hummus was about a $5 million business powered by just a handful of companies. Today there are more than 80 companies and last year sales increased 25 percent, according to ACNielsen.

Much of the growth is attributed to the strong interest in healthier eating and natural foods, trends that have benefited many ethnic — and especially Mediterranean — foods, said Bob Vosburgh, health and wellness editor at Supermarket News, a trade publication.

“In the case of something like hummus, many people see it as a healthier option than what’s traditionally been out there,” he said, referring to its high protein and low fat content

Arabic for chickpea, hummus began its commercial American life in Middle Eastern and Mediterranean restaurants. From there, it trickled into natural foods stores, then into bagel shops, where it got more mainstream exposure.

“When I came to the business in the early 1990s, hummus was an unknown commodity in the general market,” said Yehuda Pearl, chairman of Astoria, N.Y.-based Blue & White Foods, which markets Sabra brand hummus.

“Most buyers wouldn’t buy it. It was bought in ethnic areas and only in the ethnic food category,” he said. “The same guy who bought Spanish food bought hummus. And the question was always ‘What is that made out of?'”

The migration of hummus into mainstream grocers began in the mid-1990s. It was around this time that Tribe, then a herring and smoked fish manufacturer called Rite Foods, got in on the market.

“We were turned down by nobody,” said Bruce Rubin, the company’s general manager. “We couldn’t get to customers fast enough.” Within a year, he said, Tribe went from selling one flavor in Boston to selling eight flavors across the country.