Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.
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Print and Apply Your Own Product Labels! ©2015 Primera Technology, Inc. Primera is a registered trademark of Primera Technology, Inc. All data and company names used in sample outputs are fctitious. 1-800-797-2772 sales@primera.com www.primeralabel.com not all caramel is created equal SANDERSCANDY.COM WINTER FF BOOTH #1388 SWEETS & SNACKS BOOTH #883 SUMMER FF BOOTH #1774 No Artificial Colors No Trans Fats No Partially Hydrogenated Oils No Artificial Sweeteners No High Fructose Corn Syrup No Artificial Flavors Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 551 Winter Fancy Food Show Booth 1388 new and different ways. It's not, "what are the new taste sensations?" but "where are those new taste sensations coming from?" [As for what's emerging now,] consider how hummus grew as a trend—and then consider what comes next: more quinoa, buck- wheat, and rice [products] as people seek similar healthy snack and meal options. And there are fascinating new developments like fruit sushi, chocolate-f lavored soda, and even bacon-f lavored vodka." Where do you see influences coming from specifically? One example I use all the time is bacon. I traced it back from an article that appeared in the Associated Press newswire in March 2011. The article was called "How Bacon Sizzled and People Got Sweet on Cupcakes." [The author] followed the trend back to a wine distributor in Southern California who, about six years ago, paired a Syrah with peppered bacon at a tasting. That somehow got out onto the blogs of the time and all of a sudden, boom! Bacon became hot. Everyone talks about Facebook and Twitter all the time, but it's a new kind of connectivity in terms of how we eat and drink and how we share and talk about it. Do you think celebrity chefs' influence has been strong enough to drive this industry? Huge impact. It used to take a new taste trend from a high-end restaurant five years [to filter down] and now it takes six months or three months or less because there is so much exposure. And another thing is food trucks. People can't meet the high capital cost of a new restaurant, so they roll out a truck. They're everywhere. You have people with obvious skills. They can now do what they want and get in front of an audience. And with television shows like the Cooking Channel's "Eat Street," it's a supernova that's moving faster than ever before. How do you differentiate between something that's going to be sustained versus a blip on the radar? You've talked about being nimble, but is there a danger to jumping too quickly? Too fast or too slow? When the low-fat and low-carb trends came along, by the time [companies] got a product to market, the trend had come and gone. One fascinating experience was when I was doing a talk for Reader's Digest's food and entertainment magazines on the same day Lehman Brothers went down and the stock market crashed. The focus of the conference quickly became the economic downturn, comfort food, and the fact that people would focus on more grocery shopping and less time in restaurants. That was the day that Campbell's Soup was the only stock that went up in value. The buzz around the room was that we, as a food industry, are not very fast or agile to respond to these fast-paced trends. WINTER 2016 95