Moslem immigrant consumers' interest for Italian food specialties certified Halal

Recent immigration to Italy of thousand of Muslim workers and families has intensified the problem of a partial incompatibility of different food cultures. For Moslems it is difficult to avoid purchasing foods that contain forbidden ingredients, because these ingredients are common in the generic Italian food market. Halal marks have not been very visible in the Italian market until now. We reports results of a pilot study addressing the question of the interest Moslem consumers may have for the Halal certification of food products that are normal for the Italian market and are usually produced by Italian food processors. We surveyed a sample of 200 immigrant consumers and the data were analyzed trying to connect the interest for Halal certified Italian specialty foods with the principal dimensions concerning the attitudes showed towards the Italian culture and of different aspects of the lifestyle of respondents. Results of the study suggest that a consistent portion of the sample would be willing to purchase Italian traditional food products if the Halal mark would be applied to them, although with some differentiation among the different types of product.