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Side Dish, Food and Beverage Industry Trends: Center for Culinary Development
SIDE DISH - CCD's Monthly Compilation on Food and Beverage Industry Trends
Agave

NEW PRODUCT LAUNCHES

July 2008

Chocolate lovers can find comfort and healthy living…Kraft has launched new South Beach Living products geared to healthy indulgence: Pudding Cups, Dark Chocolate Fudge Covered Wafer Sticks and Microwaveable Pizzas. (Yahoo Financial News, 6/3)
  • Cadbury to introduce chocolate-flavored chewing gum…Trident Sweet Kicks Chocolate Mint gum will launch this month in the U.K. The sugar-free gum is a hard pellet filled with a chocolate liquid center. Other innovative Trident gums include Fresh Mouth Watering Gum in Oooh Peppermint, Aahh Spearmint and Coool Lemon. (Food Business Review, 6/17)
  • Finding your TrueNorth in the snack aisle…Frito-Lay points consumers to a new nut experience with 100% natural nut snacks. The TrueNorth line includes nut clusters, nut crisps and nut runches, each in a variety of nut flavors and combinations. Each 1-oz serving offers 5 g of protein. (Yahoo Financial News, 6/18)
  • New chips offer a surge of caffeine…Engobi, short for Energy Go Bites, are infused with caffeine and come in Cinnamon Surge and Lemon Lift flavors. Produced by Ohio-based Rudolph Foods, a pork rind producer, each 1.5-oz bag contains 140 mg of caffeine, more than typical energy drinks. (Chicago Sun Times, 6/18)
  • Isabella’s Healthy Bakery unveils Activate, a new probiotic muffin fortified with GanedenBC30 probiotic…This raisin bran muffin offers both the benefits of fiber and supports the digestive track with a special bacterium that is resistant to heat and shelf life challenges. (Yahoo Financial News, 6/3)
  • American Indian energy bar mixes traditional flavors…Tanka Bar, made by Native American Natural Foods, is the newest energy bar on the market. It is made from a traditional recipe featuring buffalo meat and cranberries. The sweet, chewy bar is packaged with a unique card that keeps the bars fresh. (USA Today, 6/8) I tasted these bars at several recent food shows and liked them very much; each bar only has 70 calories!
  • Kashi Company introduces their first vitality cereal…Kashi U helps promote vitality of five body systems with a blend of Kashi grain flakes, fruit clusters and walnuts that helps support the heart, bones, immunity, mind and digestion. (Business Wire, 6/10)
Tomato

FOOD AND BEVERAGE INDUSTRY HEADLINES

July 2008

Strange fruit…Exotic fruits like goji berries and mangosteen are more common place now, just in time for the arrival of even more exotic and rare fruits to the marketplace. Keep your eyes open for citrus fruits like yuzu, baboon lemon and ugli fruit; sea-buckthorn berries; and noni berries. (Food Product Design, 6/3)
  • Organic To Go expands beyond West Coast into Washington DC area…The nation’s first fast casual certified organic café chain will expand to 170 locations, including four East Coast cafés and one catering business. The chain also partners with 14 universities, a sign of increased interest in organic wholesome foods among Generation Y. (Yahoo Financial News, 6/2)
  • The Most Innovative Product 2008 … Food Ingredients South America awarded gelatine manufacturer GELITA with the prize for RTE-ICE®. It is a specially developed ingredient that produces a jelly texture coating on ice cream. The low-fat, low-calorie topping creates a unique mouthfeel, combining soft jelly with creamy ice cream. (NPI Center, 6/6)
  • More options for part-time vegetarians…”Flexitarian” is the term used to describe consumers who eat mostly vegetarian meals but sometimes dine on meat or fish. Twisting the concept are omnivores who are opting for occasional vegetarian meals. Restaurants offering interesting and flavorful vegetarian options will win over both. (Florida Today, 6/11)
  • Local food for local eateries…Eat Local Eat Natural is an Ann Arbor, Mich. business that will deliver local, organic foods to area restaurants. The company will eventually have a distribution warehouse, café and small market. The goal is to connect local farmers with local restaurants by selling only food grown naturally or meat raised organically from a 150-mile radius. (MLive.com, 6/18)
  • Chipotle to buy locally grown produce…. The Denver-based chain will buy 25% of at least one of its seasonal produce items for each of its 730-plus units from small and mid-sized local farms; items include romaine lettuce, green bell and jalapeño peppers and red onions. (Atlanta Business Chronicle, 6/30)
  • CROPP and Dakota Beef partner to meet organic demand…The U.S.’s largest farmer-owned co-op will join forces with Dakota Beef to expand the nation’s organic beef supply to meet growing consumer demand. CROPP, with 1,200 members in 32 states, sells some organic foods under its own labels, Organic Prairie and Organic Valley. (Natural Foods Merchandiser, June)
  • Commercialization News: brought to you by Jan Matsuno, our Director of Commercialization,"Who knew the seeds used to grow “hair” on those funny Chia pets is actually super nutritious? Nuchia Foods Corporation has developed a process to produce Chia seed flour which performs similarly to bleached wheat flour, but provides a full day’s supply of omega 3 fatty acids, 9.4 grams of fiber, and a wide range of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants – all gluten free! Move over Spelt and Quinoa, Chia is here!" We started discussing the chia seeds trend in 2006 in our Baking Report and we’ve been tracking it ever since. Salba, a Canadian company, has a patented white chia they are growing, however, not under the chia name.