The Winter Fancy Food Show took place in San Fransisco this week and although we didn’t attend, we took the opportunity to observe the latest foodie trends from afar. One overall observation is that strong continuing consumer interest in healthy, unprocessed foods is driving some really innovative new food products with some crazy combinations of ingredients. With that in mind, here are what we thought were three of the most interesting foodie trends on display at the Fancy Food Show:
- Healthy Snacks: Recent research conducted by DuPont found that 86% of Americans snack daily with 51% of them eating three or more snacks per day, an approximate 50% increase since 2010. Packaged Facts attributes the increase in snacking to time crunched, 24/7 connected consumers eating on the go in shorter but more frequent “mini-meals” through out the day and night as well as the consumer belief that smaller, more frequent meals, aka snacks, are healthier than larger meals. Nielsen finds that snacks are replacing meals for many American and Global consumers. Healthy snacks appearing at the Fancy Food Show included chips made from root vegetables from One Potato Two Potato, cheese puffs from Boom Chicka Puff made from ancient grain non GMO corn, quinoa, and sorghum, and even cheese puffs made from 100% cheese from Moon Cheese. There was also baked popcorn from Snacks 101, chewy fruits bars made from real fruit from That’s It and chewy fruit and vegetable bars from Veggie- Go’s. Beets, Brussel Sprouts, broccoli and parsnips also found their way into chips. Crazy!
- Yogurt: Remember when we talked about Greek Yogurt? So last year! This year we have Beet Yogurt, Sweet Potato Yogurt, and Parsnip Yogurt among the flavors from Blue Hill. (Come to think of it beets, sweet potatoes, and parsnips probably deserve their own trend category.) Then there is Smari Yogurt from Iceland that is “super concentrated” and made from organic milk. The Greeks are also being challenged by the Aussies with Noosa Yogurt made from the milk of grass eating cows in small batches in Colorado.
- Turmeric: There are many health benefits attributed to Turmeric from being an anti-inflammatory to digestive relief to fighting cancer, preventing diabetes, and improving cognitive function. This year at the Fancy Food Show there were turmeric teas from Rishi Tea and Numi Tea, turmeric brown rice and a turmeric beverage series from Health Verve, turmeric ginger ale from Bruce Coast, turmeric almonds from Navitas.
