Condiment-wise, we’re all set. If the displays of jams, jellies, salsas, spreads and toppings at the Midwest Fancy Food Show are any indication, the world’s pantries will never run out of little jars and bottles.
Ground zero for all these dippables was McCormick Place, host for the second year of the spring version of the show, sponsored by the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. More than 30,000 new and familiar items from 700 companies were on display this year, most of them the kind of upscale products more likely to be found in specialty food stores than in supermarkets.
The trade organization, representing manufacturers, buyers and retailers from around the world, used to stage its exhibitions only in New York and San Francisco; an annual spring show was added in 1999. Not all of the goods are yet sold in the Chicago area; many exhibitors indicated they were still looking for local distributors.
But although the main purpose of the show is business deals, the exhibit floor is a window into the state of consumer tastes.
The allure of soy to a nutrition-minded public was evident in several new products, including a line of organic pastas made with soy from Eddie’s Spaghetti of Poway, Calif.
“There’s a lot of interest in soy and a lot of people buying it,” said Eddie’s spokesman Cliff Stout.
Soy burgers, snacks and drinks continue to be offered to consumers, and American Soy Products of Saline, Mich. have combined several health trends with its new Soy Fusion drink line, which combines soy milk with fresh juices and green tea.
The strongest drink news, though, was in tea, which showed up iced and organic from Harney & Sons; herbal and organic from Taylors of Harrogate; in bags of whole leaves from Honest Tea; and as a honey-flavored concentrate from the Virginia Honey Co. Tea also was used to flavor such non-potables as caramels and cookies.
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Preserves, of course, were prominent. New offerings ranged from such homestyle flavors as Apple Pie Spread from Diana’s Specialty Foods and Country Cranberry Relish from Dickinson’s, to preserved lemon and garlic mustard from Restaurant LuLu Gourmet Products and Vidalia onion fig sauce from Stonewall Kitchen.
Pasta sauces, salad dressings, vinegars and chutneys rounded out the condiment lines, flavored with everything from truffles to Meyer lemons. Snack items also popped up in a variety of flavors, such as the fried green tomato cornbread biscuits from Native South and the artichoke Parmesan biscuits from Seckinger-Lee.
Although the products featured at the spring show number about half those at the New York event, organizers said the Chicago exhibit space in 2000 grew 6 percent over last year’s show.
One exhibitor was impressed not only by the increased size of the current show, but by the interaction of attendees, a number of whom, from the Midwest region, were attending the Fancy Food Show for the first time.
“For us, last year was not that good,” said Ellen Meuse of the San Francisco-based Joseph Schmidt Confections. “People were afraid to come up and talk to us, and it was so frustrating that we were not going to come back. This year, it has been wonderful so far; people are very interested and are more aggressive about doing business.”
The show ended Tuesday.
