While residents of the Bay Area are reeling from the NY Giants defeating the San Francisco 49ers for a chance to play in the Super Bowl, we are back from the Fancy Food Show held January 15-17th at the Moscone Center.
The Show encompassed 2 1/2 halls of foods from around the world. The emphasis is on small producers and importers, so you won’t see the monster booths from the big CPG houses like at the National Restaurant Show or FMI. The typical booth is a 10′ front with an average of 3-5 products.
The trends we saw included an ocean of olive oil, most of it bearing all manner of fancy (and fictitious) labeling, including:
- All Natural
- Vegan
- Trans Fat-Free
- Garlic-Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil (as well as countless other spices)
- Italian Olive Oil (even though the bottle showed “grown & processed in Spain”)
Of course, anything including metal and wood could be considered all-natural, and olive oil is by definition vegan and free of trans fats. Labeling laws forbid calling anything that isn’t 100% olive oil as “olive oil,” but who’s going to enforce the laws? As for Italian olive oil, the country can’t produce enough oil to satisfy its own consumers, so Spanish (and other) olive oil can be “repackaged” there and exported as “Italian.”
Other trends showed vegan candies, many organic products, and a glut of small producers hoping to catch lightning in a bottle.
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