NEW
YORK, July 31, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- The
Specialty Food Association (SFA) hosted 10 students from the Drexel
Food Lab/Certificate in Food Entrepreneurship and Innovation
programs during the 2024 Summer Fancy Food Show, June 23-25 at the Javits Center in New York City. With Gen Z consumers spending
around 40% of their grocery budgets on specialty
items,1 insights from college-aged food
enthusiasts are a hot commodity as the industry looks to maintain
its growth into the future.
Insights from GenZ food enthusiasts are a
hot commodity for specialty food industry growth.
Following three days of snacking, walking, and talking with
vendors from 56 countries across the world, the Junior
Trendspotters determined five standout trends, listed below,
through a Gen Z lens.
Led by Drexel Food Lab Associate Director Chef Rachel Sherman along with Drexel University Professor Jonathan Deutsch and Chef Brooke Olasewere, this year's Junior
Trendspotters team included:
- Felicia Yan
- Belinda Faakye
- Zae'Onah Howell
- Adam Gladstone
- Victoria Sanchez-Galarza
- Alessandra Mora
- Alex Ly
- Gabe Thayer
- Jocelyn Leal
- DeAndra Forde
"We were so honored to be invited to the Fancy Food Show this
year. It is a great way for our students to see how broad the food
industry is and understand the impact of the work we do at the
lab," said Sherman. "I find it encouraging to see what products and
trends jump out to them. Each student found at least one highlight
that I missed. With such a big show it can be easy to overlook
something, and students have a great eye for finding standouts
amongst the excitement. We ran into multiple alums who were
showcasing this year, inspiring the next generation of food
professionals."
"The Fancy Food Show is something I always look forward to each
year. Visiting the booths is always a great opportunity to connect
with individuals in the field as well as to learn about new,
upcoming products. I personally love working as a Junior
Trendspotter because it allows me to look at the exhibits through a
more critical lens and analyze what is a new trend versus what is
something that continues to be popular from previous years," said
Victoria Sanchez-Galarza, Senior,
Culinary Arts and Sciences.
"It's really fascinating and informative to see the overlaps and
divergences between top trends identified by SFA's Junior
Trendspotters and those noted by Millennial and Gen X
Trendspotters," said Leana Salama,
SVP of Marketing and Communications at SFA. "Where inescapable
trends like global flavors or honey appear in both lists, the
Junior Trendspotter's callout of non-traditional flours speaks to
something essential about the Gen Z experience of and interest in
specialty foods. Thank you to the Junior Trendspotters team and
advisors for providing these invaluable insights and product
highlights to the SFA audience."
The Summer Fancy Food Show Junior Trendspotters identified
the following top trends:
- Beverage boom: Innovation in beverages continues—this
year, many were sparkling, cocktail-inspired, or had functional
attributes. Brands like Kombucharista combine multiple elements
with non-alcoholic, cocktail flavored, gut-healthy, prepared
drinks. Bluestem Botanicals, who use herbs in organic mocktail
kits, and Seraphim Beverages, who have pioneered a non-alcoholic
wine, display the market is ripe with non-alcoholic offerings.
Ceybon comes in with mushroom-infused aperitif and elixir
concentrates, which create the perfect backdrop for non-alcoholic,
wellness cocktails. Unity rounds out this category with natural
energy drinks with adaptogens for extra health benefits. The
growing trend is clean labels and additional health benefits
without compromising on taste. Finally, the dry beverage market has
also expanded. Pinky Up offers boba in a tea bag while Everydaze
Reset Kombucha has powdered kombucha in a variety of flavors.
- Crunchy snacks: If you ever wanted to make a loud
announcement when walking into a room, you now have endless edible
means to do so. In the snack category, there was great innovation
and experimentation that highlighted new methods of producing
snacks, ingredients, and flavors. Mr. Mushroom features
vacuum-fried vegetables such as mushrooms (shocker), tomatoes, and
lotus root. Similarly, freeze dried snacks are being brought to the
market by brands like Uptop Treats and Pocas. Brands like Bret's
Chips has expanded the classic potato chip into gourmet flavors
like camembert and summer truffle. Everyone is bound to find a new
favorite snack!
- Global flavors: With the summer months here, everyone
seems to be going somewhere. Can't afford a plane ticket but don't
want to miss out on the fun? No worries! Travel the world in less
than 80 days with sauces and spices from Watcharee (Thailand), Perfeito (Brazil), HOXY (Korea), and Brundo
(Ethiopia). Kasé's dashi soy
sauce, Pink Salt's Nam Prik Pao, and Auria's hot chili sambal can
brighten up a meal. Prepared foods like Xinca's pupusas, Doro's
Cheesy Korean Rice Cakes, and snacks like HBAF's impressive flavor
library like tteok-bokki almonds or cheeseburger popcorn exhibit
how global flavors have popularized across the industry.
- Flours beyond whole wheat: As gluten-free snack
innovation continues, we see a wider variety of featured
alternatives. Diggables strays from the traditional with buckwheat
puffs. In the same vein, Sorghum Symphony's puffed snacks include
global flavors like churro and curry while Yuca Balls offers a crunchy cassava snack.
Ieialel offers dehydrated fermented millet flour while Local
village has ready to eat sorghum grain in brine along with their
sorghum, teff, and tiger nut flours. For Good granola features
buckwheat in their oat free granola. Yolélé has expanded fonio to
the American market with chips made from the African grain.
- Honey everything: Honey is having a moment. From hot
honey to honey tea and sauces, you could not walk more than an
aisle or two without tasting a honey product. Explorer has a honey
chai concentrate, Savannah Bee Company launched a honey hot sauce.
Fresh Fizz sweetens their sodas with honey. Casa Folino's set out a
wide array of flavored honey like bergamot, lemon, and balsamic.
Bumbleberry farms featured their peach vanilla cream spread. Zen
Bear has a selection of honey teas. Honey B has a sparkling honey
drink and the list goes on. But of course, purists could always
choose one of the many honeys brought by vendors from all over the
world.
A full Trendspotter Panel report from the Summer Fancy Food Show
can be found online.
The next Fancy Food Shows are the 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show,
January 19-21 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, and the 2025
Summer Fancy Food Show, June 29-July
1 at the Javits Center in New York
City. Open only to food industry professionals, journalists
and influencers, the Fancy Food Shows require registration and
qualification. For additional information visit
specialtyfood.com.
About Drexel Food Lab
Drexel Food Lab in Drexel's College of Nursing and Health Professions
at Drexel University in Philadelphia is a food product design and
culinary innovation lab that applies culinary arts and science to
improve the health of people, the planet and economies. We do this
through research and programming that help us understand consumers,
develop new food products, and introduce new products to market. In
doing so, we not only develop new food products and menu items with
entrepreneurs, industry, non-profit, and government partners, but
also develop our flagship "product," graduates across disciplines
who are poised to improve the food system. Students in the lab also
enroll in the Certificate in Food Entrepreneurship (undergraduate)
or Certificate in Food Innovation (postgraduate) to develop the
skills they need to bring their own ideas to market.
About the Specialty Food Association
The Specialty
Food Association (SFA) was founded in 1952 and is the
not-for-profit trade association of the $207-billion specialty food industry.
Representing more than 3,600 businesses worldwide, SFA champions
industry participation and success for a diverse community of
makers, buyers, importers, distributors, and service providers by
developing resources, information, education, and
events that celebrate innovation and inclusivity. SFA owns and
operates the Fancy Food Shows as well as
the sofi™ Awards, which have honored excellence in
specialty food and beverage annually since 1972. SFA also produces
the e-newsletter Specialty Food News,
the Trendspotter Panel annual predictions and Fancy
Food Show reports, the State of the Specialty Food Industry
Report, and Today's Specialty Food Consumer
research. Find out more online and connect with SFA
on Facebook, X, Instagram, LinkedIn,
and TikTok.
1 According to data in SFA's
Today's Specialty Food Consumer, 2023-2024 Edition.
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SOURCE Specialty Food Association