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Nuanced Heat
This year, the desire for boldness and intensity in flavor experiences will
increase as people continue to kickstart their lives or pursue new paths.
"What began in the hot sauce category is exploding into honey, spreads,
confections, beverages, and snacks, snagging new markets like younger
consumers, especially, and inspiring specialty food companies to
introduce heat and spice into existing product lines," says Cirkus. The
flavors are more nuanced, far from the days of hot or not, with food
companies using specific chiles to add flavor and heat across a wide
spectrum of products, from cheese to chocolate to chips. "Brands
are testing new flavors and combinations, increasingly in the form of
flakes or 'blends' and not just sauces, which brings a new application
into the mix to be able to use a little or a lot," says V. Sheree
Williams of The Global Food &
Drink Initiative and Cuisine Noir.
Packaging for New Forms and Functions
Trendspotters at the Summer Fancy Food Show in June highlighted
innovative packaging meant to provide increased portability
and decreased mess. Look for that trend to continue with
"a heightened emphasis on packaging design to communicate
sustainability, introduce creative ways to consume, and
decant well-established consumer products, and telegraph
aspirational consumer values and price point," says
Stan Sagner, founder, We Work for Food, LLC.
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Trends Still Going Strong
The following trends continue to gain attention and
evolve with new products and line extensions:
Foods from Africa. The diversity and complexity
of the cuisines of Africa are becoming more
accessible to the U.S. consumer, who is becoming
fluent in fonio, gari, berbere, shito, and harissa.
Cocktail culture. Ready-to-drink beverages like naturally
flavored seltzers, and elevated, unique cocktail mixers are
a continuing robust market for specialty food products.
Cleaner, broader plant-based. Plant-based options
continue to expand into all corners of the refrigerated
and frozen dairy and protein sections—seafood, poultry,
deli, cream cheese, dips, frozen treats, and so on. Some
are remarkably competitive with their conventional
counterparts, some still have a ways to go. Clean
ingredients will be a growing emphasis on products.
TOP FOOD TRENDS FOR 2023
Denise Purcell is editor of Specialty Food.
