Today’s consumer landscape is diversifying, and in turn, there’s been a shift in consumer expectations around international and regional flavors. 

Prepared Foods talks Mexican food and flavor trends with Gustavo Arellano, a Los Angeles Times columnist who covers “Southern California everything and a bunch of the West and beyond.” 

Prepared Foods talks beverage flavor trends with Jared Smith, vice president of business development at Stratus Group Duo LLC, a Los Angeles firm developing and marketing functional, convenient beverages.

Although most of today’s new plant-based dairy alternatives are cold—displayed in the dairy case or the freezercase—they constitute one of the supermarket’s hottest and fastest growing segments.  And it’s no surprise market observers are scrutinizing every element behind who’s purchasing these products—along with what’s selling, when, where and why.

Cheese and dairy remain as popular as ever with consumers and retain their reputation for versatility among menu makers. It highlights just how ideally positioned this food category is for the near term, when the world is still dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic.

Nearly every Old World cuisine holds the keys to building flavor, not only through indigenous ingredients but also through its cooking techniques. While batch production often necessitates shortcuts, it is possible to lose sight of the fundamentals that make culinary creation worthwhile.

Every industry has their terms that become horribly overused. This can happen in an incredibly short period of time; think “pivot” or “new normal” during the last pivot months. For food, I think it’s safe to say “comfort with a twist” has been used to the point where it has little real meaning in marketing or innovation discussions.