NEW YORK — Consumer demand for simple ingredients has surged, and several brands exhibiting at the Summer Fancy Food Show are rising to the challenge.
Drawing 22,000 attendees, the Specialty Food Association’s 61st annual event, held June 28-30 in New York, features innovation in chocolate, charcuterie, cheese and more from 2,600 companies representing the $109 billion specialty food industry.
Packaged foods free from artificial flavors, colors, preservatives and sweeteners have long dominated the category, but new product positioning emphasizes the use of fewer and familiar ingredients. Organic Stoneground Flakes breakfast cereal from Back to the Roots, Oakland, Calif., for example, contains only three ingredients: organic wheat, sea salt and cane sugar. The company’s mission is to return food to its simplest, most pure form while making it fun and accessible.
A new brand featured at the show, New York-based Simply Gum contains only six ingredients, including chicle, organic dried cane juice, organic vegetable glycerin, organic sunflower lecithin, organic rice flour and natural flavor. Varieties include mint, cinnamon, fennel licorice, maple, ginger and coffee.
That’s It Nutrition L.L.C., Van Nuys, Calif., debuted its latest variety of two-ingredient snack bars, Apple + Coconut.
And Grains of Health L.L.C., Fremont, Calif., has introduced Laiki Black Rice Crackers, made only with rice, oil and salt. Says the company: “There’s simple boring, and then there’s simple-splendid.”
Click here for a slideshow of more trends spotted at the Summer Fancy Food Show.
