The Private
Label Manufacturers Association hosted its annual PLMA Show from November 12-14,
2017 in Rosemont, Illinois. Over 1,500 companies from more than 50 countries
exhibited at the show. In this article, I will highlight noteworthy trends in
foods and drinks that I saw at the show – cauliflower “rice” and pizzas,
seaweed snacks, premium fruit snacks, coconuts everywhere, cold brew RTD
coffee, and functional coffee.
Cauliflower Was the “It” Vegetable at the Show
Cauliflower
was the star vegetable at the show as companies used it in multiple formats to address
consumers’ desires to reduce carbohydrate consumption and eat more vegetables. The
vitamin C-rich, cruciferous vegetable is also naturally gluten-free. Health
conscious consumers have been transforming cauliflower into “rice” by using a
food processor and making pizza crusts out of cauliflower. Offering cauliflower
“rice” and pizzas allows food companies to provide a quicker option for
shoppers. At the show, Italy’s Emilia Foods SRL offered Via Emilia Riced Cauliflower,
Cauliflower Risotto With Parmesan Cheese & Sea Salt, Mashed Cauliflower
& Garlic, and Cauliflower Veggie Tots in a frozen format. Venice Baking
Company is one of the largest suppliers of gluten-free pizza crusts to the
restaurant industry. The company offered gluten-free Cauliflower Pizza Crust
and a Broccoli Pizza Crust. Roncadin S.p.A., an Italian frozen pizza maker,
offered up Monteli gluten-free Cauliflower 4 Cheese Pizza and Cauliflower
Margherita Pizza. Italy's Topan offered Cauliflower Pizza Kits that contain 400g of cauliflower based dough, 300g of tomato sauce, and 100g of mozzarella cheese to make a pizza for two people. Columbia Fruit offered frozen Organic Multi-Colored
Cauliflower that contains four different colors of USDA Organic cauliflower.
Belgium’s Crop’s Vegetables NV offered Rice Vegetables that include
cauliflower.
Seaweed Snacks
Having
been born in South Korea, I have been eating seaweed my entire life. Koreans regularly
eat gim (dried seaweed sheets that
are flame/pan-roasted and seasoned with oil and salt) as a side dish with rice
at meals. In contrast, Americans rarely eat seaweed unless they are eating
California rolls or other rolls wrapped in seaweed. Things are changing as kids
in Generation Z (born 2001 – present) are embracing ethnic foods including
seaweed as a snack. Numerous South Korean companies offered seaweed snacks at
the show as a healthy, low-calorie snack. Yemat Foods offered USDA Organic
Roasted Seaweed Snacks that only contain organic seaweed, organic sunflower
oil, and sea salt with 30 calories for a 0.18oz single-serve pack. Under its C-Weed Snack brand, Yemat Foods also
offered 20-calorie packs in Bulgogi and Wasabi flavors that are “Great for Kid’s
Lunch Box”, Seaweed Crunch With Almonds, and Seaweed Crunch With Coconut. Gim Factory Inc
promotes its TrueSea All Natural Premium Roasted Seaweed Snacks as gluten free,
vegan, kosher certified, and non-GMO. WooBo offered Artisan Crafted Onion Sea
Tangle Crunch made with glutinous rice flour, seaweed, rice bran oil, onion,
sea salt, and turmeric powder with 120 calories per 0.88oz serving. Companies
are also incorporating seaweed in other snack products. Snak King offered Nori
Sesame Cassava Popped Chips.
Premium Fruit Snacks
There is
growing demand for snacks that are minimally processed and contain no or minimum
added sugar. Exhibitor SunOpta promoted premium fruit snacks with a sale sheet
that stated that the $116 million premium fruit snacks category has grown by
14.7% over the last five years according to Nielsen data. SunOpta offers fruit
strips, fruit twists, and fruit bits that contain no artificial flavors, no
synthetic colors, or high fructose corn syrup.
Multiple
companies offered premium fruit snacks at the show. Pocas International Corp
sampled Pocas Premium Dragon Fruit Chips in White and Red varieties. Pocas
states that dragon fruit is a superfood that can help with digestion, speed up
metabolism, and reduce inflammation. Natural Sourcing International, LLC also
offered white and red dragon chips. Baobab Foods offered BaoBites Superfruit Snacks that are
made from organic African baobab fruit. The company says that the baobab fruit
is more nutritious than other dried fruits in terms of antioxidant ORAC value,
vitamin C, total fiber, and potassium. Ecuador’s Produtankay Cia. Ltda. offered
Golden Sweet Sprit Natural Superfood Berry Snack featuring Golden Berries. The
company states that Golden Berries are higher in fiber than raisins, dates and
blueberries; contain more antioxidants than green tea; and more potassium and
vitamin C than most dried fruits. Continuing with the superfruit theme, You
Love Fruit Inc offered You Love Fruit Handmade Fruit Leather in Pomberry Acai
that uses organic acai pulp and organic pomegranate juice, in addition to
organic mango pulp. The USDA Organic Fruit Leathers contain 2g of fiber in a
0.5 oz serving through the use of organic artichoke fiber.
Targeted towards
children was Denmark’s Scandic Foods A/S offered Robinson’s Fruit Shoot Fruit
that can count as one of a ‘5 a day” fruit or vegetable. The product is aimed to
appeal to children by licensing Robinson’s Fruit Shoot, the number one
children’s soft drink in the UK, while reassuring parents with no added sugar
or artificial colors, flavors, or sweeteners. Other
premium fruit snacks at the show included Freeze-Dried Fruit Crisps made with
Fuji apples from Brothers International Food Corp., Paradise Meadow Organic
Premium Dried Cranberries from Decas Cranberry Products, Inc; and Sweet Valley
Organics Tart Cherries Organic Dark Chocolate Snack Bites from Mount Franklin
Foods.
Coconut Everywhere
Coconut
was everywhere at the show in food and beverage formats. Laughing Giraffe
Organics LLC offered Snackaroons in multiple flavors including Chocolate and
Salted Caramel. Snackaroons are dehydrated coconut macaroon styled cookies that
are USDA Organic, non-GMO, gluten-free, and kosher. ONA Cookies from Tribe 9
Foods uses organic coconut oil in Certified Paleo cookies that are free of
gluten, grains, dairy, and soy. Coconut
oil sales have increased in the U.S. and benefited from the growing popularity
of Bulletproof coffee and butter coffees that combine brewed coffee with ghee
(clarified butter) and coconut oil or MCT oil. Beneficial Blends, LLC offered
Kelapo Extra Virgin Coconut Oil that is USDA Organic and fair for life Fair
Trade. The Kelapo Coconut Oil and Ghee single-serve 0.5 oz packets are designed
to be mixed into coffee “For Added Energy & Focus”. Carrington Farms offered USDA Organic Coconut Oil and Coconut Oil & Ghee as well as a Premium MCT LIquid Coconut Oil designed to be mixed into coffee and smoothies. The company states that medium chain triglycerides (MCT) are efficiently utilized by the body for energy production and helps in calorie burning". Exhibitor Mementa Inc focuses
on coconut and natural food products by selling everything from USDA Organic
coconut oil to coconut flour, coconut sugar, and toasted coconut chips to
coconut milk and coconut water.
Numerous
companies offered cold brew RTD (ready-to-drink) coffee at the show to
participate in the fast-growing cold brew coffee category. Demand for cold brew
coffee is rising because the process of steeping coffee grounds in cold water
for 10+ hours creates a coffee with a smoother, less bitter taste. Heartland
Food Products Group offered its JAVA HOUSE Cold Brew Coffee Co. in both shelf-stable
concentrate and RTD bottle formats. The JAVA HOUSE RTD bottles came in
Colombian Black, Coffee Cold Brew Frappe, and Vanilla Cold Brew Frappe
varieties. At the Trilliant Food & Nutrition, LLC ’s booth, its Horseshoe Beverage
Co. division offered a variety of shelf-stable RTD coffees including cold brew,
latte, and energy beverages. Berner Food & Beverage’s shelf-stable RTD
coffee included cold brew, iced lattes, coffee energy, and coffee nutrition.
Gehl Foods, LLC and Steam Punk’d Roasters Ltd. both offered shelf-stable cold
brew coffee. On the concentrate end, Synergy Flavors, Inc offered a wide
variety of options to meet different price points including a premium 100% Cold
Brew Coffee Concentrate and a Standard Cold Brew Coffee Concentrate with
Synergy Pure Coffee Concentrate and coffee solubles. For the do-it-yourselfer, Pod
Pack International, Ltd offered Cold Brew One pods that contain ground coffee
in a micro-mesh filter. The Cold Brew One pods are designed to make a single
12oz serving at home with no mess in a glass in 8 to 12 hours.
Functional Coffee
The popularity
of RTD coffee energy drinks such as Java Monster (from Monster Beverage Corp.) and
Starbucks Doubleshot Energy Coffee Drink that blend coffee with energy-boosting
ingredients like guarana and ginseng has led companies to offer private label
varieties. Berner and Trilliant Food & Nutrition offered coffee energy
varieties while Strategy & Execution Inc offered a 15oz RTD Espresso that
contains 13g of protein. NuZee, Inc fused cold brew and functional benefits in
its new line of Coffee Blenders shelf-stable RTD Cold Brew coffees – LEAN,
THINK, RELAX, and ACTIVE. The THINK variety contains 200mg of American ginseng to
enhance mental clarity and concentration while the LEAN variety contains 400mg
of green coffee bean extract to promote weight loss. Coffee Blenders also offered
its line of functional coffees in a Drip Cup Pour Over format and whole bean
coffee format.
Trilliant Food & Nutrition’s Wellnova Consumer Healthcare division offered functional coffee
packaged in capsules to be used in the single-serve coffee Keurig Brewers. Wellnova’s
functional coffee pods are designed to offer health benefits without the
disadvantages of taking pills or vitamin gummies. Its Café Complete Coffee
& Protein variety is a 2-item pack, with a coffee pod and a separate protein
packet with 10g of collagen protein. Other functional coffee pods in the line include
Immune (with Wellmune immune support), Fiber (8g of prebiotic fiber), and
Vitamin (12 vitamins and minerals).
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