Fermented foods are finding artisan, regional and chef-driven takes. Their authenticity is rooted in hundreds of years of craft preparation and artisan pride. Regional preparations of fermented foods, like craft pickles and small-batch whiskey, are being elevated in the preferences of consumers looking for artisan foods. In addition to growing artisan appreciation of these foods, more consumers are preferring foods that contain ingredients geared toward wellness. The probiotic goodness of some of these foods, such as kimchi, lactic-acid fermented craft pickles and miso, are appealing to those looking to boost digestive health. Propelled by culinary interest in umami flavor, also known as the fifth taste, fish sauce and dried shrimp are seeing larger roles as ingredients in the kitchens of popular restaurants and foodservice operations as they carve their path toward consumer homes.
Packaged Facts’ new report explores seven different foods and beverages that encompass thematic avenues of opportunity for food businesses. Fermented Artisanal Foods: Culinary Trend Tracking Series charts how current lifestyle and demographic shifts open up fresh menu and packaged food opportunities related to foods fermented with care, which extends the potential for innovation deeper into meal, snack and beverage territory.
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CuTTS - Fermented artisanal foods
1. CuTTS
Trends in Motion
You may have the ingredients. We bring you the
analysis, insights and perspectives for a successful
recipe in food development.
5. Our data-driven approach and food industry expertise provides an opportunity-scape
summarized in Category Relevance and Trend Application tables.
Retail Food Trends Menu Trends
Opportunity-scape
Consumer Drivers
• applications grounded
in foodservice sectors
• menu data tracking
• examples & images
of chef manifestations
• context for drivers & suggested
applications
• unique Packaged Facts
consumer insight data
• demographic & psychographic
trends and targets
• analogous product
trajectories
• mass & specialty
sales tracking
• new packaged
product introductions
emerging
penetrating
integrated
6. CONTENTS August 2014
10 Executive Overview
13 Profiles
13 Profile: Kimchi: Spicy, Authentic, Fermented Food Delivers
24 Profile: Craft Pickling: Flavor Drawn and Food Preserved
35 Profile: Fermented Preparations: Asian Fish Sauce and Dried Shrimp and Shrimp Paste
49 Profile: Whiskey Goes Small: Whiskey Benefits From Easing Laws, Small-batch Appreciation
61 Profile: Japanese Miso and Tempeh: Fermented Soy Products Leverage Adaptability
72 Datassential
Our analysis features data from Datassential MenuTrends.
For details on MenuTrends, see page 74.
Culinary Trend Tracking Series
Publisher: David Sprinkle, Packaged Facts
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10. Spotlight on Fermented Foods
Calling fermentation a culinary trend
would be like calling language a
communications trend. Fermentation
is hardwired into the
history of food, and
thus into the story of
civilization: African
sourdoughs predate the
city of San Francisco by
at least three thousand
years. Add cheese,
chocolate, cured meats, pickles, vinegars, yogurt—along
with tea, coffee, beer, wine, and spirits—and you’ve gone a
long way towards stocking the hall of fame in the history of
gourmet foods.
So the question becomes: why are so many fermented
foods trending now? Most of the explanation lies in the
perpetual quest for better flavor, as must be the case with any culinary
trend with legs. Whole salami last weeks at room temperature, yes, but
(give or take extreme backpackers) few of us go many hours without
opening up a refrigerator door. Greek yogurt is higher-protein, yes,
and more of us are eating for our microbiome, per our recent Boomer
Wellness (January 2014) issue, but what really kicked things off was
the rediscovery of classic yogurt’s pure tangy flavor and extra-creamy
texture. So fermentation is largely much ado about flavor, as attested
to by its role in brewing umami into iconic condiments across the globe:
fish sauce, gochujang, miso, and soy sauce in the East, and ketchup,
vinegar, Tabasco, and Worcestershire sauce in the West.
At an ideological level, moreover, fermentation helps us harmonize our
conflicted attitudes toward processed foods. Along with the natural and
organic food industry, a sometimes savvy, sometimes naïve ambivalence
towards processed foods has entered the consumer mainstream,
such that “processed food” is often uttered dismissively even as
we flock to chocolate bars with bacon or the Kentucky Bourbon
Trail. Fermentation helps smooth out the cognitive dissonance
between our preference for the natural and our reliance on the
pre-cooked or pre-packaged, because nature retains the starring
role in the food processing process. In this context, the human
industry involved gets elevated to the status of craft, to the
deepest end of the food processing pool.
With a focus on the craft of flavor, then, this report on Fermented
Artisanal Foods profiles the following foods and beverages—
all trending on menus and store shelves, and pointing to
opportunities for brewing up new dishes and products that will
connect with foodie and mainstream consumers alike.
• Kimchi
• Craft Pickles
• Fish Sauce and Shrimp Paste
• Small-Batch Whiskey
• Tempeh and Miso
David Sprinkle,
Research Director, Packaged Facts
Publisher, Culinary Trend Tracking Series
David Sprinkle
Research Director, Packaged Facts
Publisher, Culinary Trend Tracking Series