Innovation at Specialty Food Live!
Simmer sauces, seasoning blends and other cooking tools are trending.
One city, one sauce
Big Fork Brands
Why take the time of assembling the seven ingredients of a classic Chicago hot dog when you can just use “The Original Chicago Sauce?” Making its debut at Specialty Food Live! 2020, the sauce was developed by Lance Avery, owner of Big Fork Brands, Chicago, the maker of bacon sausage, pork jerky, meat sticks and flexitarian sausage. He combines yellow mustard, chopped white onions, green sweet pickle relish, dill pickle, tomato, pickled sport peppers and celery salt into a single shelf-stable condiment sold in 8-oz jars.
New York-inspired salsa
Dreams Aren’t This Good
Dreams Aren’t This Good salsa and tortilla chips are infused with the essence of New York City. The new one-of-a-kind salsa flavors include The Fighter (garlic cilantro), Just Dance (jalapeño pineapple), Now or Never (avocado pepper) and Girls Girls Girls (blueberry coconut). Focused on flavors, not heat levels, all salsas and tortilla chips are gluten-free, vegan and contain no preservatives.
Bold flavor cocktail garnishes
Old Salt Merchants
Berkeley, Calif.-based Old Salt Merchants is rolling out The Cocktail Kit. Each pack contains six 1.3-oz glass jars of cocktail garnishes. The sweet and savory rim topper flavors are black lava salt, chili lime salt, lavender sugar, rose sugar, extra bold smoked salt and whiskey sugar. The kits include recipes and inspiration cards filled with pairing ideas.
Seasonal honey cream
Bumbleberry Farms
Bumbleberry Farms, Somerset, Pa., a honey farm located in the foothills of the Laurel Mountains, now offers limited-edition Pumpkin Spice Honey Cream. The autumn spread is made with honey, butter, whole milk and pumpkin pie spices. The flavor was a new product winner of a 2020 sofi Award from the Specialty Food Association in the nut, seed and confectionery butters category. It was one of 148 winners selected by a panel of specialty food experts from nearly 2,000 entries across 39 product categories.
Adding spice to fruits and vegetables
Keep Life Tasty
Bettye’s Seasoning Blends from Keep Life Tasty, Bellevue, Wash., are all about real-ingredient flavorings that are not too spicy or too intense. The newest addition is Smoked Watermelon Salt, which is designed to enhance the flavor of fruits and vegetables by adding a savory, tangy and slightly spicy taste with a smoky finish. It is a combination of sea salt, red pepper, sumac, parsley and watermelon. Other unique seasonings include Elote Love, which is a savory, tangy and spicy blend of lime, garlic, hickory smoked sea salt, cumin and chipotle peppers to be sprinkled on corn. The Shakshuka Shaker is a savory, tangy and slightly spicy blend of garlic, cumin and chile peppers and replicates the flavors of a Middle Eastern vegetarian breakfast.
Cashew-based cheesy sauce
Core and Rind
Core and Rind, St. Louis, was founded by two culinary nutrition experts who yearned for a non-dairy option that would satisfy their cheesy cravings. After years of development and more than 150 variations, the friends finally landed on the perfect recipe known to cheesy aficionados as Core and Rind Cashew Cheesy Sauce. The plant-based condiments come in Bold & Spicy, Rich & Smoky and Sharp & Tangy varieties. The product recently rolled into Midwestern Whole Foods Markets. The duo plan to introduce a non-dairy white sauce variation soon.
A New way to eat
NuEats LLC
Less than a year old, NuEats LLC, Carlstadt, NJ, is about enhancing the quality of life with one healthy food at a time. The company’s growing range of specialty food products now includes organic ground coffee that’s roasted in New York City, mixed nuts, organic chocolate products, honey, maple syrup and savory snacks, such as organic 100% grass fed beef jerky, Shiitake mushroom chips and crunchy seaweed.
African-influenced salty snack
Yolélé Foods Inc.
Fonio is a gluten-free African grain and the basis for the innovations from Yolélé Foods Inc., Brooklyn, NY. The company’s purpose is to transform communities across the West African Sahel by providing a fair trade, global marketplace for this sustainable ancient grain. The company used Specialty Food Live! 2020 to roll out its first snack chip line. Made from whole fonio grains, fonio flour and cassava, the chips come in flavors inspired by the ingredients and tastes of West Africa. Yassa, for example, was inspired by one of Senegal’s most iconic dishes that features bright habanero chili, sweet caramelized onion and zesty lime. Afro-Funk combines spicy ginger with dawadawa, a fermented locust bean with a powerful umami flavor. Greens is seasoned with the nutrient-dense moringa leaf and bright, citrusy baobab fruit for a zesty, earthy bite.
Tea with benefits
3 Mountains
Ashville, NC-based 3 Mountains was founded by Sara Stender Delaney, an activist and entrepreneur. She is growing the carbonated tea Silverback brand with Keto Green Tea with Hibiscus and Pure Platinum White Tea with Ginger. They join sofi award-winning Classic Silver Tea with Lemon and Harvest Gold Black Ceylon Tea with Apple Juice, which debuted last year. The organic nonalcoholic beverages are designed to offer immune support, antioxidants and ingredients that support resilience.
North American grown tea
Yaupon Brothers
Yaupon holly is a naturally caffeinated plant grown in New Smyrna Beach, Fla., and the basis of the teas from Yaupon Brothers, Edgewater, Fla. The newest addition is Revive Mint, a cool, invigorating tea sold in natural fiber sachets, with each sachet able to brew about three cups of tea. That’s because yaupon is tannin free, so it’s naturally sweet and impossible to over steep, according to the company.
Subscribe to Our Newsletters
Current Issues
Popular Galleries
-
Unilever's new frozen treats for 2021
Company unveils 25 new products. -
New on the shelves
CPG companies innovate under their staple brands.