Better-for-you products, crunchy snacks and alcohol-free adult beverages were among the trends discussed at the first day of live coverage from the 2023 Summer Fancy Food Show.
The live coverage, conducted by the Food Institute in partnership with the Specialty Food Association, also featured visits to various area of the show floor, including the First Time Exhibitors section, the Deli Pavilion and the Morocco Pavilion, as well as interviews with SFA leaders and show presenters and exhibitors.
After an hour perusing the Show Floor, SFA Trendspotter Jonathan Deutsch, director of the Drexel Food Lab at Drexel University, said the better-for-you trend jumped out immediately, and was particularly prevalent in snack foods.
“Almost every snack I have seen today has some additional wrinkle,” he said in an interview with Susan Choi, digital media director, Food Institute. “It’s not just a chip, it’s a chip with good fat; it’s not just a puff, it’s a puff that’s coated in ashwagandha or has some other functionality.”
Great flavor is always essential to the success of specialty foods, however, he said.
“First and foremost it has to be delicious,” said Deutsch. “There are many products that lead with the messaging—it’s better for you, it’s sustainable—but if it’s not delicious, you have one sale, and it’s your last sale.”
Secondarily, consumers are looking for messaging around health and sustainability, such as ethical sourcing or the use of upcycled ingredients, as well as the brand’s back story.
Consumers have also become much more familiar with the specific properties of chilies and hot sauces—where they impact the palate, for example, and how they may have been fermented, Deutsch said.
“[Hot sauce] has been a busy category for the Fancy Food Show, but it’s always been more of a branding play,” he said. “What you are seeing now are traditional recipes and traditional chilies being brought to the market in different ways—ways that have some soul and ways that have legs.”
Denise Purcell, vice president of resource development at SFA, also noted that the better-for-you trend has become increasingly important in the snack category, which continues to surge in sales overall.
In fact, chips, popcorn, and snacks have become the top specialty food category in retail sales for the first time, according to the SFA’s 2023 State of the Specialty Food Industry report, she said in an interview with Choi.
“We are seeing that crunchy snacks are huge,” said Purcell, citing as an example the proliferation of flavors and varieties in the pretzel category.
Other trends include convenient meal solutions, such as frozen and refrigerated entrées, and non-alcoholic adult beverages, which are arriving in an increasing variety of forms. These include home kits where consumers have the option to make either mocktails or cocktails, and other products such as alcohol-free wines and faux mimosas that closely mimic the alcoholic products they are replacing.
Purcell also highlighted what she called “breakfast with benefits”—products that include some additional nutrients, such as frozen waffles and pancake mixes with vegetable bits, for example.
Anjarae Hamilton, head of retail sales at Faire, a digital wholesale marketplace where retail buyers and product suppliers can connect, said her company’s search data confirms these trends.
“Consumers have really become much more attuned to what they are putting on and inside their bodies,” she said, in an interview with Brian Choi, managing partner and CEO, Food Institute. “That is a big shift that is coming out of the pandemic.
Specific products that have shown significant gains in terms of search frequency on Faire include tinned fish, which has increased 130 percent year over year, to become one of the top food and beverage categories on the platform. Searches for non-alcoholic beverages grew 450 percent from 2021 to 2022, and searches for beverages with adaptogens were up 85 percent. Searches for snack products containing seaweed have also been a big gainer in terms of search, she said, doubling in the past year.
Interactive Experiences at the Show
This year’s Summer Fancy Food Show also includes more opportunities for interactive experiences on the show floor, Purcell said. The Pavilion Pop Ups, for example, offer attendees the opportunity taste products, hear retail buyers talk about what they look for in specialty foods, and engage in other networking and educational activities.
“We are a specialty food community, so the opportunity for networking, interactivity and even an element of fun — that’s all what our audience wants, and what we’re seeking to provide at the show,” said Purcell.
She also highlighted the Taste It Live! stage, where chefs will demonstrate dishes from around the world, reflecting many of the 60 countries represented at the Show, including Italy and Morocco, this year’s sponsor country.
“The show’s in-person events are incredibly important,” said Bill Lynch, president of SFA, in a separate interview with Choi. “There’s nothing that replicates being able to see the products, taste the products, smell the products—it really invigorates all the senses when you come to the Show.”
He said the Fancy Food Show has rebounded from the pandemic, with attendance tracking up in double-digit percentages, plus more than 300 new exhibitors.
“We are back to pre-pandemic status in terms of the outpouring of community support,” said Lynch. “We have exceeded our goals by quite a bit in that regard.”
He described the Specialty Food Association as being “an umbrella for all of specialty,” and the Fancy Food Shows as a “one-stop shop” for retail buyers to peruse products from some 48 different categories, from plant-based to organic, halal, and more.
“Buyers can experience everything,” said Lynch.
One of those retail buyers, Ernesto Otero, director of category management for MOMs Organic Market, said he is looking at products from around the world at the show to support the company’s new international set, which launched last year. In addition, he’s excited to check out the Show’s offerings in cheeses, breads, and antipasti, among other categories, he said in an interview with Susan Choi.
“And of course, there are always opportunities to meet with our current brand partners, to see what’s new and innovative in terms of flavor profiles, if there are line extensions, and things like that,” he said.
Otero is scheduled to speak at a “How I Buy” session at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday on the Plant-Packing District stage in the Plant-Based Pavilion, part of the show’s new Pavilion Pop Up series.
Touring the Show Floor
The Fancy Food Show Live broadcast also visited the First Time Exhibitors Pavilion on the show floor, where Ron Tanner, a reporter for SFA, interviewed representatives from companies including:
• Krill Arctic Foods, which is introducing krill meat at the show. The meat is light and nutrient dense, and can be used much like crab meat.
• Hive to Table Honey Farms, a vertically integrated honey farm that has some 50,000 beehives, mostly in Texas, that are used for pollination in other areas, as well as a wide range of honey products.
• Arya, a maker of Indian roti bread that recently won a sofi New Product Award for its Methi roti, which includes turmeric and fenugreek leaf.
The Fancy Food Show Live cameras also took viewers to the Deli Pavilion, vising the booths of Lakanto, a supplier of monk fruit sweetener and products made from monk fruit, and Balfour Farm, an organic farmstead dairy and creamery operating “off the grid,” generating most its energy needs from solar power.
At the Morocco Pavilion, Tanner met with several of the 35 exhibitors from this year’s sponsor country, including Atlas Olive Oils, which not only produces high-quality oils rich in polyphenols but other related products, including a smoke-free charcoal made from pruned branches, olive pits, and olive pulp.
Susan Choi also took viewers to the booth of Atalanta Corp., Platinum Sponsor of the Fancy Food Show Live coverage, where Tom Gellert, president, gave a tour highlighting the importer’s diverse range of specialty foods. These included products from the company’s most recent acquisition, Sonoma Creamery, as well as products from its De Medici division’s exclusive import partnership with Cipriani Food.
Related: How I Buy: Q&A With Ernesto Otero, MOM’s Organic Market; Member Anniversaries Celebrated at the Show.