Last week I spent two days walking the Winter Fancy Food Show, a gathering of hundreds of vendors from around the world, each showcasing their newest specialty food offerings to the trade. While a lot of my search was focused on the beverage category (a current project I am working on), I did have the chance to taste test lots of great new introductions from crackers and cheese, to chocolates, oils, and snacks.
As part of the show round-up, the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade (NASFT) which puts on the show, gathered a panel of food writers and journalists to pick the top five food trends for 2013. Here is what they found:
Botanical Beverages
- Numi Organics: Broccoli Cilantro Tea
- Wild Poppy Juice Co.: Blood Orange Chili Juice
- The Republic of Tea: Moringa SuperHerb Tea
Oil Nouveau
- Arette Foods: Organic Tea Seed Oil with Sundried Tomatoes & Chili Pepper
- Culinary Imports: Stöger Cherry Seed, Chile Seed and Tomato Seed Oils
- La Tourangelle Artisan Oils: Organic Coconut Oil
Blue Cheese Redux
- Bissinger’s Handcrafted Chocolatier: Point Reyes Blue Cheese Wine Grapes
- Rogue Creamery: Blue Heaven Blue Cheese Powder
- Mt. Sterling Co-op Creamery: Smoked Sterling Bleu Goat Cheese
So Many Seeds
- Enjoy Life Natural Brands: Crunchy Flax Chia Cereal
- K.L. Keller Imports: Dukkah
- Lundberg Family Farms: Hemp-a-Licious Organic Rice Cakes
Top Banana
- Vosges Haut-Chocolat: Wild Ophelia Peanut Butter & Banana Milk Chocolate Bar
- PB Crave: CoCo Bananas Peanut Butter
- GoodPop: Frozen Banana Cinnamon Pops
Other trends identified included fruit-infused vinegars, chips with a healthy glow such as fuji apple chips, peppery sweets such as cayenne shortbread, agave and single-serve sizes.
I also noticed a lot of products from beverages to yogurt in which the goodness of cherry and coconut were added. Lots of tea, lots of oils and tons of chocolate are just a few of the benefits of visiting the show.
Here are a few products that represent only a small fragment of products soon to hit the market. Keep and eye open.
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