Chips made out of broccoli, chickpeas and kale, and popcorn that didn’t quite fulfil its destiny were some of the alternate-universe products at the 61st annual Fancy Food Show in New York. Many of the products have limited distribution and aren’t easy to find, but could signal upcoming trends.
Buyers for places such as supermarkets milled about the trade show at the sprawling Jacob Javits Center, tasting the treats on display and stuffing bags with free samples.
“It’s like a secret wonderland of food,” said Louise Kramer, a spokeswoman for the Specialty Food Association, the trade group that puts on the show. The expo, which featured more than 100,000 products and was held at the end of last month, is not open to the public.
Here are three potential foods of the future that exhibitors were showing off:
Maple Water
Is maple water the next coconut water?
Drink Maple, based in Concord, Massachusetts, sells bottles of maple water, which it says is tapped from maple trees.
It’s the same stuff that’s boiled down into maple syrup, but don’t expect a thick and sticky drink. The clear liquid has the consistency of water and a lightly sweetened taste, with a 12-ounce bottle labelled as having 30 calories and seven grams of sugar. The product also seems to hit on all the prevailing dietary trends: the company’s website notes maple water is “low calorie, gluten-free, dairy-free and non-GMO”. It also says “no trees are harmed” in the collection process.
Half-popped kernels
Do you think those half-popped kernels at the bottom of the popcorn bag are the best part? Now two companies are selling bags of just those bits.
HalfPops and Pop’d Kerns offer the snacks in different flavours, with a one-ounce serving containing between 130 and 160 calories, depending on the flavour.
HalfPops, based in Bellevue, Washington, says it uses a proprietary process to cook the kernels. Six-ounce bags of HalfPops are available online.
Broccoli bites
A prevalent theme at the expo was snacks made from unusual ingredients: bags of roasted chickpeas, cheese puffs made of beans and chips made out of seaweed.
Another example that fell into that category was Broccoli Bites from Rhythm Foods, which also makes kale chips. Before they’re dehydrated, the broccoli is tossed in a dressing made with seeds, herbs and spices to add flavour and prevent crumbling. Each 1.5-ounce bag has 150 calories.
Even though kale has surged in popularity in recent years, Rhythm Foods chief executive Scott Jensen said he expects the broccoli snacks to be a lot easier to explain and sell to buyers.
And he’s already working on the next vegetable snack: cauliflower.