3 Quick Takeaways From The Fancy Food Show

I’m just back from the Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco and am still getting my notes in order.  I got lots of great material that I’ll share in the coming weeks after I have a chance to get myself reorganized and catch up on sleep.  In the meantime though, I wanted to share with you some of the things I noticed while I wandered amongst the 2000+ vendor booths:

1. Sweetly Hot is the new big flavor trend I saw emerging – things like tabasco-flavored jelly beans and shortbread with cayenne pepper.
2. There were fewer ‘artisan’ food businesses at the show than I’ve seen in prior years.  That being said, there was one macaroon baker who was launching her product at the show and it was honestly the best thing I tasted at the show (and as soon as I unpack my bags and find her business card/company name I’ll share it).
3. I would be willing to wager that non-GMO is going to be the new ‘gluten-free’ trend in the next year or two.  There was more and more emphasis in vendors sales pitches that they were made with non-GMO ingredients, more non-GMO labels on packages, and I heard a lot of buyers asking questions about ingredient sourcing and supply chain.

I promise I’ll be back with much more so stay tuned!