It was great to see old and new faces at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Annual Meeting & Food Expo 2010 in Chicago. Even better was the fact that they had added the Process Expo with the IFT Food Expo at McCormick Place – as it provided more interesting things to see all under one venue.

The top themes that seemed to dominate the show floor:

• trans-fat options
• fibre in all shapes and forms
• inclusion of fruits

The “regulars” were omnipresent in several booths: probiotics, natural colours, antioxidants, acai and stevia. Even though stevia is old news, it was interesting to see a new version that does not need any masking agents (i.e. flavours) for its lingering sweetness. For a few of us observers, GNT won hands down for having the most attractive booth.

Other notables included puff snacks with purple corn extract and therefore high in antioxidants. Quinoa is becoming mainstream. The pistachio booth offered a quinoa salad with pistachio slivers and goat cheese which was delicious. The Innova booth is always an interesting one to visit – I hope they remember to send me the information they had promised! Here’s a couple more pictures:

This is a quick note to mention that we’ll be at the 22nd annual Canadian Institute of Food Science and Technology’s (CIFST) suppliers night next Thursday, April 15 in Montreal, Quebec. Everyone and anyone in the food industry can attend this free event. It’s a great opportunity to network, and find out what’s new. You do not need to be a CIFST member to attend and no pre-registration is required – all you need is a business card to get in! If you would like, you can download the invitation.

The show runs from 2:00 pm to 7:00 pm at Place Forzani, 4855 Louis B Mayer, Laval Quebec, H7P 6C8.

View Larger Map

To find out what’s in store for 2010, here is a handy and quick guide to this year’s events and trade shows that are related to the food industry.

If you like, you can also download the list!

Here is the latest schedule of events to find Ingredent Suppliers serving the Canadian food industry.

• Nov 17, 2009      International Centre, Mississauga, Ontario  (2-6 pm) 
• Feb 2010             British Columbia 
• April 15, 2010     The Place Forzani, Laval, Quebec

May 20-22, 2009 McCormick Place, Chicago

The All Candy Expo was a great show to see.  The show featured manufacturing companies for mostly confectionery products with some participation from snackfood companies.  The snackfoods and confectionery segments are some of the few items that continue to see sales growth despite the economic turmoil.

Some of the highlights were mostly for chocolate products, these included:

1. Higher percentage of cocoa content = dark and darker chocolate
2. Functional inclusions: probiotic, omega oils, antioxidants, fibre
3. Exciting flavours geared for adults: wine flavours, spices
4. Frutis in chocolate: air dried or powders etc.
5. Peanut butter

Most innovative: Le Whif  (Each cylinder contains 1 calorie of chocolate taken in two puffs.    Drawback: plastic packaging and messy when opened. 

Overall, it was a great show but the loot bag was too small to hold all the freebies!  

View from McCormick

Airport

 June 6-10, 2009   – Anaheim Convention Centre

The trip to and back from the IFT was more eventful than the show itself.   It started at the security area of the airport.    People were lined up when I got past customs.    There was a suspected security breach and people had to wait for more than 30 minutes.

The IFT at Anaheim was predicted to have a lower turn-out compared to last year’s show in New Orleans.   The actual show was indeed smaller with fewer booths.   However, it seemed there were more attendees or “walkers” rather than exhibitors.  The booths were also more modest with minimal samples given out.

The themes from the various booths were on antioxidants (yum berry anyone?), the use of fruits (purees, powders, air-dried etc) and nuts -   Natural, natural, natural was still the overall theme!  

The most interesting for me was the booth of Garden Protein International from British Columbia in Canada.   They were selling meat analogues that looked and tasted like chicken!    I thought that they offered something healthy and delicious with a great texture. 

On my trip back, I was bumped off my flight.  Instead of landing at 10 pm that night, I took the red eye and came home at 6 am the following day.