You should spend about 40 minutes on this task.

More people are now trying out different varieties of food which results in consumption of ingredients from different parts of the world. Do you think this is a positive or negative development?

Give reasons for your answer and include any relevant examples from your own knowledge or experience.
Write at least 250 words.

 MODEL ANSWER>>>

It is common to see that more and more people are trying out diverse cuisines of different cultures, and for this, they have to consume ingredients from many places. It is difficult to say whether the trend is either positive or negative, as it depends on various situational factors.

The most prominent benefit when this happens is for the people, who are very curious of experiencing the taste of different cultures and geographical locations. To be precise, a Mexican flavour will be quite different from an Italian flavour, as they use different ingredients for cooking. A food enthusiastic would be happy when he gets both these at his proximity. The second major positive aspect of this is it enhances the commercial activities between the nations. For example, tonnes of animal meat and spices are exported from India to countries like the USA, which adds to its revenue. Oats exports from North American continent can be seen as a very similar example.

Of the drawbacks, the prominent one is the health concern. To be clearer, certain ingredients, mostly synthetic in nature, for example, monosodium glutamate, a taste-enhancer, can affect the health of its consumers. Evidences are there for the ill-effects of such ingredients, such as obesity and cancer. The second negative aspect is the loss of revenue. It is seen that people tend to be attracted to the food varieties, and hence they prefer to try food of foreign origin. This enhances the imports of essential ingredients of that food, to which the government has to pay a huge sum of money.

To conclude, it is clear that the increasing preference of varieties of food, which promotes the use of ingredients from many parts of the world, appears to be positive in certain circumstances. However, one should understand it has an equally tangible darker side.