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.
Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/83609
food trends This month we look at top Halloween treats, catering to male shoppers, lentils' new market and more. BY DENISE SHOUKAS H Move Over, Man Cave ere comes the Man Lentils Provide Probiotic Boost Aisle. Westside Market, a small super- market chain in New York, has cre- ated an aisle designed specifically for male shoppers. Debuted in one location on June 21, the response was so positive that it's since been rolled out to all locations. Inspired by an ESPN study that showed an increase in men shopping for their families—31 percent of gro- cery shoppers today are men, com- pared with 14 percent in 1985—chief operating officer Ian Joskowitz says, "We wanted to figure out how we could cater to the guys coming into the supermarket." The male-focused aisles currently carry 72 SKUs, including beef jerky, hot sauce, barbecue sauce, beer and deodorant. "People are lov- ing it," Joskowitz says. The added plus: women shop the area too. L entils are taking on a new shape. New research from Ontario's Carleton University in Ottawa shows that lentil powder is a powerful agent in promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria while also providing antioxidant benefits in fermented dairy products. With yogurt sales in the U.S. this year adding up to roughly $7 billion, according to market research firm Mintel International, this new finding may give yogurt even more of a boost in the supermarket. Additionally, the results demonstrated that green lentils selec- tively enhanced the number of probiotic bacteria in yogurt in the initial stages of storage and maintained overall microbial counts (starter cultures and probiotics) over a 28-day storage period, while de-hulled red lentil extracts showed high antioxidant capacity. F Coupons Going Viral acebook and Pinterest are already the top players in the social media market, but these websites are poised to be even more of a marketer's dream. Qples, a digital coupons provider, has become the first-ever coupon platform to integrate with these top social media sites. Since its launch in February 2011, Qples has generated more than one million users and two million coupons printed, with a 98 percent print success rate (calculated when a user hits the "accept Applet" button to download the coupon), a jarring improvement over the industry standard of 50 to 60 percent. What separates Qples from other digital coupons is its patent-pending social technology, which allows coupons to be shared instantly and spread rapidly, garnering greater reach for businesses and brands. Learn more about the service at qples.com. F Aftermath of the Foie Gras Ban ollowing California's recently enacted foie gras ban, some renegade chefs, like Adam Pechal of Thir13en in Sacramento, are finding loopholes such as offering the delicacy complimentary; others are just hoping the ban will soon be overturned. Meanwhile, foie gras producers are adjusting to the new market. "We have a responsibility to do our best to recover," says Marcus Henley, farm operations manager of Hudson Valley Foie Gras in Ferndale, N.Y. "But California has been 20 percent of our annual sales, or about $3.2 million per year. That is hard to replace." Nonetheless, the business has retained its employees and is evaluating options and trying out new product lines. But Hudson Valley isn't just waiting in the wings. "We have joined a lawsuit against California and are asking the judge to prevent enforcement of the law until the case is decided," Henley shares. "We feel very strongly that the law is an unconstitutional limita- tion on out-of-state farmers and does not provide us with guidance as to how to comply." As for the future of foie gras consumption, Henley notes, "When the issue is given a fair hearing, which did not happen in California, we are confident foie gras farming will be seen as acceptable animal agriculture." MORE TRENDS: BETTER-FOR-YOU BEVERAGES, P. 49 12 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE ❘ specialtyfood.com PHOTO: BIGSTOCK PHOTO: BIGSTOCK