DIY Crazy

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  In the past, I’ve shared crunchy nuggets that I’ve read about or seen from a pedicure chair.  And last Friday certainly had my brain bubbling as my toes sat in a foamy bath.  It came as I read through my mail and browsed the latest Williams-Sonoma catalog.  They now offer an “agrarian” (i.e., think WWFD — what would a farmer do) section, dedicated to helping customers DIY foods and make things at-home.  Well beyond cooking and into areas such as: gardening, beekeeping, chicken coops, as well as kits to make your own cheese, vinegar, sprouts, mushrooms, and kombucha (a fermented tea that is supposed to be packed with healthy properties).

Now…I wasn’t surprised (nor should you be) because all of this feeds into the larger trends of: slow food – knowing where your ingredients come from – gardening and growing your own – keeping things local.  But I was taken by the extensive selection Williams-Sononma is offering, along with resources for DIY’ing it, my goodness!  It made me wonder if DIY, cottage-industry-type behaviors are a new sort of status among a Williams-Sonoma crowd, which I would imagine is more high-end – ?  Are there bragging rights in serving cheese and vinegar that you made yourself?  Again, I would think yes.  What are your thoughts?  Is this just another fad or will we see DIY kits like these for the masses?  TASTY TREND:  Food and Flavor Trends; Slow Foods;  Keep it Real, Keep it Local

Food for Thought

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  I just read an article in today’s Wall Street Journal about food waste…what’s driving it, how much attention it’s drawing, how it makes people feel, and what marketers are doing around it.  I pulled the most nuggety bits from the article, fried them up with a few leftover veggies, and wish to share them with you now as a tasty brain-filling meal…

A whole lotta trash — Food waste is now the second largest component of waste among consumers.  Number one, surprisingly given recycling options, is paper.  Veggies are the most wasted food, making up 25% of food trash, followed by fruit and juices at 16%, grains at 14%, and milk products at 13%. And so I’ll bet you’re wondering…

Why so much waste — It’s been triggered by an increase in cooking-at-home among consumers over the past few years.  Some fears about sell-by dates and food-transported illnesses of late.  And a lot of over-estimating what’s needed to feed a family.  How are consumers feeling and marketers responding?

Guilty, looking for solutions — and filling these needs with product solutions — Consumers don’t feel good about all of this waste.  Research has shown that there is a lot of guilt associated with throwing out so much food.  Particularly as food costs have risen.  So marketers are appealing to this need to conserve and prolong and use-up with products such as:  portion size storage bags (Ziploc) to buy in bulk and then freeze/store; recipes for using leftovers and the “dregs” of products (Betty Crocker, e.g., bottom of the cereal box crumbs used in a cookie recipe); recipe books encouraging cooks to use the whole fruit or veggie in the making of a recipe.

Here’s the article’s URL if you wish to read.  It also shares tips for your own home food consumption: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304724404577293620871384492.html?mod=WSJ_LifeStyle_LeadStoryNA

Interesting, right?  You gonna eat that?!  TASTY TREND:  Food Facts; Recession Obsession

Trendy, Edible Nuggets

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  If you read my blog regularly, you know that this girl loves talking about food trends.  I’m not quite sure why…it’s not like I’m someone who loves to cook or eat.  But I think they’re fun, and interesting, and sometimes a little strange.  So when I read about the top 5 food trends coming out of this year’s Winter Fancy Food Show, I had to share.  How about adding to your grocery list…

“Ancient Grains” — I’m sure you’re familiar with quinoa and flax, but how about amaranth and chia (like the pet), and other “centuries-old” grains.  They were showing up in everything from pasta to side dishes to snacks.

Pickling — Not just cukes, but peas, beets, cherries, apricots, raisins — an array of fruits and veggies all jarred up together.

Nut Drinks — As a fan of almond milk I can relate…Almond water and oat shakes, and a variety of other beverages made from nuts and grains and seeds.

Gluten Free — It’s here to stay, good news for those with tummy troubles.  Lots of upscale choices were tasted at the show, like high quality flour and granola with dark chocolate.  And lastly…

Coconut — In waters and oils.  If you’ve ever tasted coconut water, it’s very different from the sweet coconut you may know.

Here’s where I read these fancy tid bits: http://foodspring.com/content/top-5-trends-from-the-fancy-food-show/

What do you think: any of these foods strike your fancy?  TASTY TREND:  Fun Food & Flavors

Smart Snacks

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  It’s 3:00 in the afternoon.  You’ve hit a wall.  You need more energy and decide that it should come in the form of a snack.  And so you head to the vending machine.  But instead of a traditional machine that takes your money, lets you punch in a combination of letters and/or numbers, you face a touchscreen on your regular machine.  Say hello to VendScreen.  I just read about this new technology in the Wall Street Journal’s MarketWatch.  This “smart” vending machine lets you:

• Know the nutritional information on your choice (for better or worse).
• Can serve up an ad or a promotion for you to watch or use.
• Eliminates the need for cash and coins with a host of paperless payment options (credit, online accounts, loyalty programs).

And for the manager of the machine, there are analytics available, a cloud-based system, inventory tracking, and other fancy items that enhance a traditional machine.

Testing will begin for a limited number of these machines and April, and continue to roll them out throughout the year.

Pretty cool!  I wonder how long before it links to social sites…so you can let your friends and followers what you’re nibbling on?!  Or let you pre-pay and send someone else a snack (giving them a code to use for payment).  Or link to your mobile?  Ah…the tech extensions can go on… Particularly as consumers have increased their snacking behavior (see 11/28/11 Snack Facts post). Hey, I do hope this post satisfied your brain’s craving for something new and interesting.  TASTY TREND:  Here and Now

Snack Facts

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  Well hello there!  I hope you had a fantastic holiday weekend.  I certainly did, despite needing stuffing detox, oofah.  Last week I put interesting eating habit facts away in an air-tight nugget container.  And I’m going to open them now and share…no worries, only your brain will feel full, not your belly…

Three squares?  Not so much – Only 5% of the population eats three, regular meals each day.  Rather, we’re a nation of snackers – eating un-traditional food selections at all hours of the day. That’s why…

You want to eat what, when? – 20% of the cookies and apple pies sold by McDonald’s are at breakfast.  Much of the Dunkin’ Donuts chicken salad sandwiches are consumed before 9am.  And yet McDonald’s sells more than 20% of its oatmeal outside of breakfast.  20% of Stonyfield yogurt eaters choose to have it instead of dinner; and one in three eat it before eating breakfast.  And according to Kellogg, more than 30% of all cereal is eaten for meals other than breakfast.

What this crazy eating has lead to are more on-the-go options, more “customized” options — letting customers eat what they want, when they want, as well as extended hours. Me, I’m a late luncher, so I get this eat -when-you’re-hungry mentality.  How ’bout you?  Already have your pre-breakfast yogurt?  Ready for your odd-hour-sandwich?  Note that if you need/want, these tasty tid bits were pulled from USA Today: http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/food/story/2011-11-21/weird-eating/51338542/1  TASTY TREND:  Food and Flavor Facts; Here and Now

Sweet Sweet Nuggets

FRESH FACTS:  *Ding Dong* “Trick or Treat!”  Well hello!  What are you dressed as?  Someone terribly curious about consumer behavior and interesting insights?  Wow!  Me, too!  Well you’re in luck…I just refilled my bowl of crunchy marketing nuggets today, thinking about Halloween.  Here are interesting facts about the food du jour:  candy.

Candy Corn Rules — Whether you love it or you don’t, candy corn is the top selling candy at Halloween.  Americans purchase over 20 million pounds of it each year.  It also happens to be the most searched candy term on Google.  And apparently, Southerners love to read about it most with Alabama, Kentucky, and Mississippi leading the Google searches by state.

Chocolates and More Chocolates — Behind Candy Corn is chocolate.  $1.2 billion is spent on chocolate candy just for Halloween.  Among the top sellers:  Snickers, Reece’s, Kit Kat, and M&Ms.

Four days to go — Just picking up your treats today last minute?  Well hopefully there’s something left as you missed the most popular purchase day for buying Halloween candy:  October 28th.  In fact, the top five candy selling days are all in October.  When you compare sales versus other holidays: 90 million pounds of chocolate candy are sold during Halloween week, versus 65 million pounds during the week leading up to Easter, and 48 million pounds during Valentine’s week (that’s a lot of pounds, people). And $44 is the average spend per US household on Halloween candy (didn’t say whether that was to distribute or to self-indulge).

Here is the bowl from which I scooped up these fun-sized candy tid bits: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/28/halloween-candy-facts-statistics_n_1062687.html#s438105&title=Candy_In_Weight

*Nom nom nom*  That was your brain chowing down on the stats.  Enjoy.  TASTY TREND:  Today’s Consumers; Small Treats

Sweet Stuff

TASTY TRENDS:  It’s a good day when I get to live vicariously through my own blog topic.  So of course you know I’m talking about food today.  And not just any food, but desserts and the hottest trends in the treats being created and served in restaurants.  According to Food & Wine, the newest trends tasted in the pastry menus include:

Pepper is the new Salt — Salt has been a sweet-salty add to desserts for a bit now, and so pepper is having it’s day, kicking up the heat.  You’ll find pepper in tuiles (which are really thin cookies often used to garnish desserts or to make dessert cups), sables (which is a fancy word for a french shortbread cookie), and cheesecakes.  Pepper gives that sort of unexpected bite to a food, and so this trend is bringing on that surprise, delight — without being too, too hot.

Brown sugar in the spotlight — Although a common ingredient, it’s now being given top-billing on menu items.  Particularly for cakes and cookies.  This ingredient trend feels like a feel-good, comfort-food-ish, almost safe direction for desserts consumers.

Chocolate crémeux — Creamy chocolate pudding.  Side note: the Food & Wine article links to a recipe for a chocolate crémeux that gets topped with olive oil – huh! OK, so I’m terribly sure where this trend fits in the overall mix.  Other than it’s a new spin on things people love most.  Hey, the next one I’m not into, but judge for yourself…

Duck fat, lard, and foie gras — Added to cookies, cream puffs, and, yikes, s’mores .  Um, s’no thanks.  It’s supposed to add a savory element. It feels like an infusion of indulgence…permission to just be bad if you’re going to be bad, and live a little in the moment.  And lastly…

Upside-down cake — This one feels like a retro-comfort-food of a comeback.  My Mom always made a pineapple version in the 70′s.

So there you have it.  Use as inspiration for your weekend cooking — or menu ordering.  Or good cocktail party chit chat, e.g., “speaking of cake, did you know that upside-down cakes have made a come-back…” In any case, hope your weekend is like a good dessert: sweet and satisfying (and filled with chocolate, if you so wish).  TASTY TREND:  Food and Flavor Trends; Feel-Good Foods

Ketchup Catches Up

CRUNCHY NUGGET:  Today’s crunchy nugget is to-go, served up with a new, Heinz Dip and Squeeze ketchup packet.  In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, there was an article about the introduction of Heinz’s new fast food ketchup packet.  And what I thought was so very interesting about it was the real-life research that went into making it.  Two-thirds of all fast food revenues come from drive thru orders.  Where there are fries, burgers and nuggets (chicken, that is), there is a need for ketchup.  So for the past three years, Heinz has been developing a better, more convenient version of the ketchup package to replace the tear and squeeze.  Heinz not only did their own “in-mini-van” studies, but they also set-up mini-van seating in a focus group setting to get at how consumers use, and want to use, ketchup for to-go foods.  The new packet is easier to open; and as the name implies, you can choose to squeeze it on, or dip from the wedge-shaped package.  Dairy Queen, Smashburger and Chik-Fil-A all have the new packets in place.  Wendy’s is rolling it out later this year.  And McDonald’s and Burger King are both testing it out, too.  The novelty seems to be attractive as ketchup-hoarding consumers are pocketing extras at some of the fast food places.  Here’s the article if you’d like to to give it a dip or a squeeze (or just a read, actually):  http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904194604576578691502178606.html?mod=WSJ_business_LeftSecondHighlights

Innovation through insights, gotta live.  I’ll take mine to go, thanks! TASTY TREND:  Forward Thinking

Nom Nom Nuggets

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  You know, you just shouldn’t read about food trends when you’re hungry.  It makes me want to eat the photo I just uploaded *gah!*  Anyway…Food, glorious, food!  Today’s post shares trends in consumer eating habits: what people are munching most at-home and away, what’s being eating less now, more now, and so on.  Go ahead and grab yourself a big ol’ bowl to hold all these crunchy nuggets…

Less missed meals – The cook-at-home, prepare food-at-home trend that we’ve been seeing over the last few years has continued, and is driving consumers to miss fewer meals.  So that means more fresh foods, right?  No…

Less fresh, more supplements, and more salt – And although more meals are being made at home, less consumers say that they use “fresh” ingredients, finding convenience in pre-prepared and semi-prepared foods.  Consumers are making up for less fresh by taking more vitamins and supplements.  And despite how CPG companies have been cutting back on salt, today’s consumers haven’t been eliminating salt.  In fact, consumption of low-sodium products is down 60% from the early 90′s.

Away & At Home – In terms of the actual foods people are eating most when they’re eating out, and what they’re choosing to eat at home, here are the top five picks…

At a restaurant (of any size, of any type) people are ordering:  Breakfast Sandwiches, Hot Cereals, Snack Burittos, and Iced Tea.  And at home, they’re making and eating:  Pizza, Fruit, Salty Snacks, and Yogurt.

Given the increase in places serving breakfast and the oatmeal boom and cheap sweet teas, makes sense.  Same for convenience-food pizza and the growth in different types of yogurts (e.g., greek).  Fruit, though?  Who knew?

I seriously had to go and make myself oatmeal mid-post to contain my hunger.  Sure wish it was that pizza in the picture!  By the way, these trends were shared by NPD Group on CSPnet.com.  Here is the URL, in case you need:  http://www.cspnet.com/news/foodservice/articles/latest-us-food-trends.  Hope your brain feels full and satisfied!  TASTY TREND:  Food and Flavor Fun

Something New

CRUNCHY NUGGETS:  The bride and groom cut the cake.  How about the bride and groom give you a whoopie pie instead?!  Ah food trends…you know I love ‘em.  And of course, food trends are making their mark on today’s weddings.  These trends are extensions of everyday, consumer food trends making their way as the “something new” at receptions.  Do you want to hear about them?  Go ahead and say it:  “I do!”

Food Trucks – I can’t even imagine thinking about having a so-called “roach coach” at my wedding reception 14 years ago.  But today, favorite food-to-go-mobiles are now acceptable and available as part of the fare.

Picnics & Casual – Today’s couples are making their events into much lighter, more relaxed atmospheres, including the food offerings.  And so picnic receptions are now popping up.  As well as a trend for casual food, which includes lots of comfort food choices — from popcorn to popsicles!

Ethical food choices – Much like the everyday, food selections for weddings are now being given much more thought around their origins. Brides and grooms are considering local choices with ingredients found close to home, as well as vegetarian menus for their guests.

Mini menus – In general, food manufacturers and food retailers have moved to offer more smaller, portion-controlled options (e.g., Starbucks newest menu selections).  So it’s no surprise that little bites are showing up at wedding receptions.  Think sliders and hors d’ouevers centered menus.

Cupcakes – Yep…this long-loved food trend is there for better or worse (I say better!).  And whoopie pies, too.  To make these treats more appropriate, they’re being displayed all together in tiers to look more wedding cake-like.

And lastly…Farm fare – Hosting the reception on a farm where the featured produce is part of the menu.  Very locavore!

You know what trends I was surprised didn’t show up?  S’mores (popular among the fire pit set), Pies (the “new cupcake”), Poptarts (fancy ones — maybe that’s a comfort food), and other Nutrition Need Choices (a gluten-free cake or alternatives, vegan, etc.).  Oh well…only a matter of time before the catering biz catches up the everyday consumer pantry and pallet preferences.  How about you?  See any unique wedding food trends lately?  TASTY TREND:  Slow Food; Food & Flavor Fun