Today, sauces and condiments are making bolder statements, taking more daring and expressive directions and asserting themselves as stars in their own right. Even basic tomato sauces are no longer generic but tout the tomatoes used, such as heirloom tomatoes.

A big part of this best-use-of-resources movement is prominently expressed in the plant-based revolution. Plant-based meat and dairy analogs have been hitting shelves as fast as ingredient technology can make them happen, with expert mimicry of their animal-derived counterparts the “brass ring.”

As 2019 opens its doors, the race to provide protein as both a nutritional enhancement and a primary formulation component will become more heated.

While the media are abuzz with news of meat and dairy analogs from sources such as such as algae, insects, microbial biomass, and cultivated animal, plants still rule the meat and dairy substitute kingdom.

Multiple trend reports have pointed to a rapidly expanding interest in the cuisines of North Africa and the Middle East. For product developers wishing to serve this consumer trend, the key to an authentic experience is to unlock the taste and flavor through the ingredients and spices that bring accuracy to the flavor profiles that define these cuisines.

With each cycle of these shows, we’re privileged to encounter the vanguard of the trends in food, ingredients, and food tech. You could look at those as sort of the breadcrumbs along the path of where we’re heading in “Food World.” But sometimes, everything converges so that you also get a look at the substance of the path itself.

The pendulum has swung the other way, and fats and oils are not only no longer under a hot light, they're in the limelight.

Last year, the focus was on teens. This year, our inestimable experts, Dr. Keith-Thomas Ayoob (clinical professor emeritus of the Department of Pediatrics at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NYC) and Jill Litwin (founder and CEO of Peas of Mind LLC, award-winning makers of foods for little ones) swing their attention to the other side of the playground and take a look at babies and infants, the 0-2 age group, in "Building Better Babies."

Trends in food oils happen at a slower pace. That's because it can take years to develop, grow, and cultivate oilseed (or other sources) and bring the final product to market.

Although green might be the symbolic color of nature, red is definitely the color of the Back to Nature flag. This has nothing to with leftist politics; natural reds have been at the forefront of the tidal shift from artificial to natural colorings in foods and beverages, pushed ahead to replace the now-spurned Red Dye #40 and bug-derived cochineal colorants.