The latest innovations in specialty food and beverages were on display at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York recently, where 2,600 exhibitors featured more than 200,000 products. Specialty food now commands a nearly 16% share of the total food market in the USA, led by strong growth in fresh, refrigerated, frozen and plant-based categories.
The top five specialty food categories with the highest dollar growth in the USA from 2015 to 2017 were water (up 76%), rice cakes (64%), refrigerated ready-to-drink tea and coffee (63%), jerky and meat snacks (62%) and shelf-stable creams and creamers (62%).
Beverages as a collective category appear to be growing even faster than food categories and new sparkling beverages and functional beverages were especially noticeable at the show.
Cucumber mojito, pumpkin gnocchi and roasted pistachio oil were among dozens of food and beverage products recognized as this year’s top innovations in the US$140.3 billion specialty food industry. The 2018 Specialty Food Association’s sofi (Specialty Outstanding Food Innovation) Award winners were selected from 2,650 entries across 39 product categories, including best chocolate, cheese and savoury snack. The finalists were announced after a blind tasting judged by a national panel of chefs, culinary instructors, recipe developers, food writers and specialty food buyers.
What’s for dinner in 2034?
Seaweed spaghetti, cultured bacon bits or drone-picked fruit may be on the menu in a few years from now. These were among the 31 product concepts imagined at The Future Market, a pop-up exhibit created by Alpha Food Labs, featuring at the Summer Fancy Food Show.
Alpha Food Labs may commercialize some of these conceptual products, such as Crop Crisps, a brand of crackers in hard red winter wheat, lentil, white winter wheat and chickpea varieties. The product is designed using crop diversity methods. This means crops are planted annually in a four-year cycle to help restore nutrients to the soil.
For more information visit https://www.specialtyfood.com/shows-events/summer-fancy-food-show/
