Top New Product Trends at Fancy Food Show
The 2018 Winter Fancy Food Show came to San Francisco this week, including a wide number of innovative new foods. Here are our picks for the Top 10 Food Trends spotted at the show.
1. Protein-Infused Everything. Protein is the new go-to healthy food ingredient for manufacturers everywhere. Many companies are trying to make their products appear healthier by adding a dash of protein. Some of the extreme examples of this include Bite Fuel cookies with protein and Protato – potato chips with protein. We may be getting to the point of over-kill, folks.
2. Edible Flowers. As higher end food companies run out of new flavors, many are going the floral route. Cypress Grove makes Purple Haze goat’s cheese with lavender and wild fennel pollen. Belvoir Fruit Farm has a line of fruit cordial drinks that includes Elderflower and Rose.
3. Fermented Foods. This was an emerging trend last year that has continued to get bigger, due to health benefits of fermentation. In addition to yogurts and yogurt drinks like kefir and lassi, which continue to grow, there is a whole range of regular foods offered in fermented forms. kombucha, fermented tea, continues to expand. The Pernicious Pickle Company offers a wide array of vegetables that have been pickled – including cauliflour, beans, carrots, beets and onions. KimChili offers a hot sauce made from kimchee.
4. Small Treats – While desserts and candy are on the way out, small bite-sized sweet treats that offer indulgence with portion control, are on the rise. Smash Mallow offers small packets of premium, snackable marshmallows is cool flavors like candy cane, cookie dough, mocha chip and root beer float.
5. Vegan Foods with Flavor – As more young adults adopt vegetarian or vegan lifestyles, vegan products are improving – offering great flavor with vegan ingredients. VanLeewan Vegan makes artisan vegan ice cream in a variety of tasty flavors, including salted carmel, chocolate chip cookie dough and brown butter maple pecan pie.
6. Seaweed – Seaweed is on the rise as a healthy snack and an alternative seasoning. GimMe Snacks introduced a line of seaweed snacks – seaweed wafers with nuts, seeds and brown rice in the middle.
7. Bacon – Will we ever get sick of bacon? This year heralds a whole new set of foods with bacon added. Stonewall Kitchen is offering a line of traditional condiments, such as ketchup, horseradish, jam and aioli – all with bacon added.
8. Roots – Root-based beverages have long been used as medicinals. Yoot is a new company that has just completed a successful Indiegogo launch to produce a line of root-based beverages based on ancient recipes. Products include Dandelion Root, Licorice Root and Prickly Ash Root drinks.
9. Hemp – Now that marijuana is legal in many states, Hemp is likely to continue to trend in the food space. Most food products use hemp seed oil and contain no THC – so they are sold based on the health benefits. Hemp 2O is one such product – a new water infused with hemp.
10. Gazpacho – Gazpacho is a Mediterranean favorite that is finally making its way to US grocery shelves. The Zumo Juice company of Dallas, TX, offers bottled gazpacho made with Mediterranean sea water.
