NEW YORK – The Nielsen Company is launching a new scanning system that will track product purchases made by Hispanic households. Nielsen’s Homescan Consumer Panel will track purchases made by 11,000 Hispanic households.

Nielsen also said it would expand the use of its existing Homescan Hispanic Panel in Los Angeles from 1,500 to 2,500 households. Consumers taking part in the program scan all their purchases in shopping outlets on a continuous basis.

“With this expansion, the Homescan Hispanic Panel becomes the only available national Hispanic scanner-collected longitudinal purchase panel,” said Tim Kregor, president of Nielsen Homescan & Spectra, North America, to Food Navigator. “Now marketers will be able to measure detailed purchase patterns within the Hispanic population, and translate those insights into brand specific plans. This $1 trillion market is an undeniable opportunity that demands unique strategies for all leading brands.”

The Hispanic population is the fastest growing demographic group in the U.S., and is expected to reach the 50 million mark by 2010. According to estimates by Hispanic Intelligence, based on an analysis of U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis figures, the Hispanic purchasing power had a compound annual growth rate of 7.7 percent between 1994 and 2004 – nearly three times the 2.8 percent total U.S. rate of disposable income.

The Nielsen Company expects to complete its Homescan panel expansion activity by December 31, 2007, Food Navigator reported. The first data will be available in May 2008.