It’s always a joy to see new products appearing from start-up companies at food shows and none more so than at Food Matters Live 2014. The selection was wide-ranging with a focus on novel ingredients and health. You could argue that hasn;’t changed much since the IFE show at the Excel Centre in London, venue for this event too but it illustrates a continuation of some hopeful themes for the food industry.
First off, Savse, a brand from Veg & City drinks Ltd. have produced a range of high-pressure processed fruit juice smoothie based drinks using a combination of vegetables and juices with other ingredients which would normally die in an thermal processing. High pressure processing can pasteurise a beverage effectively enough to extend shelf-life making any product viable. It’s the retention of flavour and the ability to extend the range of ingredients that’s important here. The taste was fresh and invigorating and the choice of ingredients for such products exceptional. The beetroot variant and the broccoli version were both exciting prospects given that liquid vegetables are difficult to consume at the best of times but these had a palatability worthy of any conventional fruit juice. Worth the slightly extra pricing given the product quality !
Coconut water is still a major innovative ingredient for other beverages and the ranges are being extended with the use of other ingredients. A dairy free coconut milk in chocolate, chai or green tea flavour was offered from Rebel Kitchen. These products had a similar consistency to milk in terms of smoothness although the flavour was coconut. Coconut can be polarising in sensory terms but such products are cleverly using fruit ingredients to make the right impact.
Baobab is now coming into the market place with a great back story in terms of sustainability and its role in the environment in Africa. Aduna offer the fruit as a powder for reconstitution in beverages and bars. They also have a Moringa powder for teas and bars as well.
The Welsh Food & Drink area was represented by Plas Farm offering a range iof frozen yoghurt ice-cream which had alight, smooth texture and perfectly suited to more warmer days that we experienced earlier this year. It makes for an interesting alternative to more conventional diary products.
Conscious Foods Ltd was offering SugaVida™ as their natural sweetener with the extra provision of it being a plant based source of vitamin B12 along with a host of other B vitamins. It would be highly suited to a vegan diet or for children. The sap or jaggery from the Palmyra plant is the source of the sweetener and offers a novel alternative to other natural sugars.
I’m adding further thoughts to this post as I review the very many different products that I received
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