The Institute of Food Technologists' Annual Trade Show 2005
I spoke at this year's IFT
show. I also walked the trade show floor.
IFT in The Big
Easy
I just returned
from sticky, sweaty New Orleans and the annual Institute of Food Technologist
convention. I haven’t been to IFT in 6 or 7 years, so you could almost
consider this an outsider’s
perspective.
I’m
always shocked at how much money companies will spend on food show booths and
then show up…without food! Come on. It’s a food show! The people
walking the show are food technologists but they -- most of them anyway-- also
happen to be human beings. And humans love to sample food. If you want
attendees to stop at your booth, I have 3 words for you: free food samples! If
this phenomenon isn’t clear to you, spend this Saturday at your local
Costco. Amidst the 78-packs of toilet paper and $799 leather couches,
you’ll have to fight with your fellow shoppers for that last sample of
raspberry chipotle sauce. It’s human
nature.
Beyond
appealing to humans’ baser instincts, here’s another suggestion. If
your company offers a unique ingredient, don’t tell us. Show us. And if
your products aren’t unique, why are you spending money on a trade show
booth!? That’s where applications come in. Humko was promoting a
nondairy cheese that had me initially turning up my nose. But after a sample of
it, I was intrigued enough to take some sales information. We’re not
selling intangibles like insurance, or mortgages. We’re in the food
industry lest you
forget!
Here are
other observations from the
show.
Sweet
Heat
I give a flavor
trends presentation that has been touting this combination for quite some time.
It’s now about to explode. By adding a tiny bit of jalapeno, chipotle,
cayenne, pepadew, or just plain capsaicin, it is possible to turn
one-dimensional sweetness into something memorable. (Try Jolly Ranchers’
Lime & Chile lollypops!) At IFT, ADM was serving bread pudding with a chili
chocolate sauce. I love this contemporary twist on the New Orleans classic. It
was a great way to differentiate ADM cocoas from everyone else’s—not
to mention a great way to get people to stop at your
booth.
Whole
Grains
Those in the
grain business should add the term “whole” to all communications
immediately! I listened to someone from USDA report that less than 20% of the
grain products we eat today comes from whole grain. USDA recommends we get 50%
of our grains from whole sources. We’ve got a long way to go, and this is
going to be front and center in the next few
years.
ConAgra’s
done a great job promoting their Ultragrain finely-milled whole grain flour. I
expected more suppliers to be offering similar “no trade off”
ingredients that help companies work whole grains unobtrusively into existing
products.
Sugar
Substitutes
Our
industry has relied heavily on sucralose in the past few years. At the show
there were many alternative sweeteners being touted. There are 3 main reasons
for the interest in these ingredients:
1) The skyrocketing number
of diabetics in the US
2)
Demand for ingredients accepted by Whole
Foods
3) The lingering
effect/interest in low carb products and the associated growing interest in low
glycemic index ingredients.
I tasted Oh! So
Sweet® a sweetener derived from citrus which is labeled as a natural
flavor. Shugr®, a blend of erithritol, maltodextrin, and tagatose, comes
in bulk as well as table-top packets. Isomalt, aspartame, ace K, and every
polyol known to man were all out in
force.
Hispanic
Flavors
It’s
clear we are seeing just the tip of the Hispanic food iceberg. Almost every
savvy supplier was demonstrating some sort of latin application. I loved
Wild’s Tequila Lime and Chili Salsa Trail Mixes, and Tortilla Soup (not to
mention their Chocolate Balsamic Vinaigrette which isn’t Hispanic). David
Michael was featuring exotic tropical fruit flavors like Acai, Mamey, Tamarind,
Lulo, and Guanabana.
These next
observations are compliments of Samson Hsia, Mattson EVP of
Technology.
Functional
Foods Are Center
Stage
There were lots
of products and ingredients on the exhibition floor and lots of discussion on
the topic in the technical sessions.
For example, there
were over 70 exhibitors were offering fibers from every source imaginable
including bamboo! Omega Protein, Omega Source, Omega Pure, Martek, & Ocean
Nutrition were all in attendance. They’re all talking about the purity and
lack of fishy flavor in their Omega-3 supplements. Ocean Nutrition expected
30-50 attendees at their breakfast symposium, but ended up with close to 100!
Ultra High
Pressure Processing
(UHP)
A Spanish company
brought their UHP production equipment to the show. A U.S. company has already
purchased this particular equipment. This up-and-coming process is used to
extend the shelflife of refrigerated high acid
products.
The
Chinese Are Coming!
As
in every other area, China is quickly making its mark on the food ingredient
business. Over 50 Chinese ingredient producers were exhibiting. Most of them
are still selling commodities primarily on price (acids, phosphates,
emulsifiers, conditioners, antifungal agents, etc.). We expect to see the
Chinese move into higher margin ingredients like flavors in the next few years.
Posted: Sat
- August 13, 2005 at 03:33 PM