On trend at IDDBA

HannahMax Baking served up nifty doughnut muffins. Billed as a “freshly baked cake doughnut, with a hint of nutmeg, dipped in sweet warm butter and tossed in cinnamon and cane sugar,” these sweets simply melt in your mouth. HannahMax also introduced their Cookie Chips at the show, which are designed to taste like a cookie but eat like a chip. They were a pretty tasty novel concept too.

At the Qzina Institute of Chocolate and Pastry booth, Bakers Journal sampled a yogurt mousse, another interesting concept that turned out to have a lovely light and summery texture.

Canadian based Create-a-Treat showed off a new Giant Gingerbread Man kit, which looked like all sorts of festive fun. Italian Home Bakery, part of the Toronto community since 1955, was on hand to sample their new stuffed bread bites. Delicious!

Ever progressive ACE Bakery showed us their new resealable packaging for fresh baguettes.

Over at Satin Ice, we saw the new retail packs designed for bakeries or grocery to sell to their customers, officially endorsed by the Cake Boss himself. Buddy Valastro was a fixture for photo ops at the show. He wasn’t the only celebrity, however; Bakers Journal’s national sales manager Stephanie Jewell snuck in for a snap with Paula Deen at the Springer Martin Farms booth.

On trend
The IDDBA highlighted some of the hot trends for us in the event’s Show & Sell Centre. In the United States, the new normal is how consumers define value and they want transparency. Retailers and their customers are into repurposing products to take sustainability to the next level. People are still buying pricey items but they are quieter about their purchases in deference to less wealthy friends or family.

Experiential shopping is heading in the direction of “unservice,” where customers make it, bake it, wrap it, weigh it, etc., themselves.

Carol L. Christison, executive director of the IDDBA, summarized many key trends in her seminar Leading the Food Parade: Consumers, Trends and New Products. Aside from emphasizing our increasingly digital world, Christison highlighted some interesting phenomena in the food world.

The American Culinary Federation’s surveyed 1,791 of its members for top trends. Here are the top five: Locally sourced meats and seafood, locally grown produce, healthful kids’ meals, hyper-local sourcing (restaurant gardens) and sustainability (full list available on www.iddba.org ).

The newest trend in food trucks is cocktail trucks, although Chrisison noted the Food Truck Association had a 70 per cent drop in membership this year. She noted that Starbucks used four shipping containers to create a mobile store and has applied for LEED certification; and that 7 to 9 a.m. is the new Happy Hour, with free coffee and two-for-one breakfast promos.

Around the world, she pointed to the expansion in various parts of the globe of subway/train station food kiosks. In her handout, she referenced marketing giant J. Walter Thompson’s 100 Things to Watch (complete list at www.jwt.com). Among them, antique eats and all things Heirloom, curbing food waste, screen dining and shopping (think self-order kiosks) and a reduction in mega-size/bulk products.

Characters of controversy
Speakers who’ve experienced controversy generally hook folks into attending. The IDDBA found two interesting stories in inviting Sarah Palin and Paula Deen to be part of their lineup for 2012.

Canadian based Create-a-Treat had Bakers Journal feeling festive in June.

Paula Deen talked more about her life than about food. Her 20-year struggle with agoraphobia, the moment her life changed when she accepted the truth in the Serenity Prayer, having a gun held to her head in a bank robbery, praying for years for a neighbour to love and eventually meeting her husband, who was her nieghbour. Deen started her career in food as the “bag lady” making bag lunches and having her children deliver them.

“Food is that wonderful vehicle that can get us in situations we want to be in,” said Deen of her primary desire to bring people and families back to the table. Food puts people in the room together, she added.

Deen took flak in the media for waiting three years to announce that she had Type 2 diabetes while still promoting her high-fat southern style of cooking. Further criticism was triggered by her simultaneous announcement that she also would be a paid spokesperson for drug maker Novo Nordisk’s Victoza, which prompted many to wonder why she appeared to wait until she had a paying endorsement before revealing her diagnosis, reported CBS News.

Sarah Palin, Tea Party promoter, and former vice-presidential running mate, is no stranger to controversy and opinion. Perhaps it is no surprise that her speech centred on determination, tenacity, and having the ability to ignore your naysayers and carry on.

“Life comes down to how we react to less than ideal circumstances,” said Palin. “Even the best runners get tired and real inner strength shows when no one’s cheering you on, on the thankless lonely miles…there is great joy in finding out what you’re made of.”