Specialty Food Magazine

SUMMER 2014

Specialty Food Magazine is the leading publication for retailers, manufacturers and foodservice professionals in the specialty food trade. It provides news, trends and business-building insights that help readers keep their businesses competitive.

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& INDULGENT VEGGIES Dairy, snacks, and desserts are not the first place one would look for a daily dose of vegetables. A slew of new products are looking to change that notion, giving healthful produce a whole new appeal. Numi Tea's Savory Tea line, which includes varieties such as beet cabbage and carrot curry, hit the scene last summer; next came Blue Hill Farm's vegetable yogurts, in flavors such as tomato, parsnip, and beet (a 2014 sofi Award finalist). Now ice cream is the new muse. Picking up on popular chefs' usage of vegetables as a main ingredient in desserts, like golden beet sorbet at Detroit's Bacco Ristorante and celery root panna cotta at Thally in Washington, D.C., Haagen- Dazs has introduced to the Japanese market Spoon Vege, an ice cream line featuring fruit and veggie com- bos, such as tomato cherry (made with tomato paste and cherry juice) and carrot orange (concentrated car- rot juice plus orange juice, pulp, and peel). Ice cream has become a can- vas for flavor experimentation among several artisanal producers, such as Coolhaus with its maple sweet potato "marshie," Jacques Torres' seasonal ice creams like sweet corn and cucum- ber mint, and carrot habanero pepper from Steve's Ice Cream.—D.S. A look at the events, issues, and innovations shaping specialty food, plus store and restaurant openings, legislative and regulatory updates, and more. 14 ❘ SPECIALTY FOOD MAGAZINE specialtyfood.com Consumers that say animal welfare is important in choosing a product; 74 percent are willing to pay more for that product. Source: Humane Heartland Unexpected Costs Meats, java, and a ubiquitous nut butter are among the top products—in terms of cost increases, that is. The food with the fastest-growing price in the U.S. is bacon, according to a list compiled by 24/7 Wall Street. And it's not because of increasing demand: bacon was hit by the PED virus, killing off more than a million piglets since last spring and causing prices to increase by 53.3 percent in four years. Beef, which comes in second on the list, is the victim of extreme weather, while oranges, third, are under siege by disease and bugs. Coffee, chicken, and peanut butter made the list too.—D.S. trends happenings Politeness Counts in Reviews Courteous customers can be a boon for business: Accord- ing to a study in the Journal of Consumer Research, online negative reviews of a product or a business that are offset by a politeness factor (e.g., "It's great but...") actually can help sell products and services and boost brand percep- tion. In fact, when the negative review exuded gracious- ness, the brand being reviewed was perceived as more honest, cheerful, down-to-earth, and wholesome than the same review that was void of good manners. Best of all: consumers are willing to pay more when they read a review that was considered polite.—Denise Shoukas 89% PHOTO: BEN ALSOP TrendsHappenings_Summer14.indd 14 6/5/14 8:33 AM

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