Trends takeaways from the 2024 Summer Fancy Food show

The Fancy Foods Show in New York City is like an endless charcuterie board and feast of indulgent products. It is also a window into a world where consumers no longer have to make a choice between healthy and delicious.

The new food revolution of specialty products also takes into consideration that generations to come are and will continue to buy products that care about downstream effects to our bodies and the soil. As consumers’ relationships with food and experiences continue to evolve, many specialty products on the trade show floor demonstrated healthy indulgence for all.

Here are a few of the standout products from the show floor, and a little about each of the growing market trends that they represent. From novel formats to causes that resonate with us all, these brands and products put the fun in food, and showed us thoughtful (and delicious) ways to choose what we vote for with our dollars and sense (not a typo!).

TREND: Inclusivity and a celebration of diversity represented with ingredients, education and artistic/playful branding that is difficult to resist.

Standout Brand: Flour and Olive
Not just a cake mix using Olive Oil! This powerful, female-led company invites consumers on a shared experience. Designed to be paired with extra virgin olive oil, the brands’ simple baking method, and its interactive International Collection of more than 70 recipes from all over the world, Flour and Olive unites people through a shared love of cake!

Standout Brand: Universal Yums
Kits with snacks and regional ingredient stories about why certain flavors are more popular to specific communities. A tasty way to learn snack history and develop young palates, while also fostering curiosity about other cultures. People can’t help but imagine a future where a snack experience creates world peace!

Standout Brand: BeTruffle
Fun and inviting products to expand the applications for this gourmet mushroom and help consumers feel like magicians in the kitchen. Inviting for youngsters too—another product to get your picky eater to try a new taste outside of the traditional.

TREND: Innovation that accounts for diet sensitivity without complexity or compromise.

Standout Brand: Felicia’s Pasta
An inclusive approach to more positive nutrition for people and planet. This B-Corp crafts its products from 100% organic ingredients naturally rich in nutrients such as buckwheat, oat, spirulina, brown rice, chickpeas and red lentils. Felicia’s does not add stabilizers or other ingredients, just colorful superfoods. People can enjoy pasta several times a week by switching up which Felicia product they use: Red Lentil on Monday and Brown Rice on Wednesday … no problem!

Standout Brand: Goodie Girl
The author first met founder, Shira Berk, at a Nutrition Capital Network event around seven years ago and knew she would follow through on her promise of amazing taste, integrity, and fun in the gluten-free category. She continues to innovate and provide flavor, pizazz and new variety pack sizes so that every retailer, mom, human can enjoy Goodie Girl wherever life takes them. No compromises here.

TREND: Functional formats

Standout Brand: Purpose Fuel
Founded by healthcare workers who know the value of ingredients that protect, energize, heal and calm the body, in a format that is easy for daily use. Plant-based ingredients and foods that are celebrated for their functional, medicinal and nutritional value can taste awesome and Purpose Fuel has proven it!

Standout Brand: Royo
Using apple cider vinegar as its preservative, this line of bagels and breads satisfies the need for more fiber without a huge amount of gluten, added sugar or other bloaty ingredients in a format that is easy to have on the go!

Standout Brand: Tongue & Cheek
These aloe-infused mouth strips were invented to help soothe away bad breath, lingering flavors and general mouth malaise. Some of these ingredients would not fly at natural retailers but, the concept is right on to soothe the occasional ‘cat tongue’ or provide a better way to freshen up your mouth!

TREND: Sustainability stories prevail.

“Less bad is over.” Many examples of products and companies that exist to cure something bad in the environment (hello, regenerative ag!) or protect something these entrepreneurs love and don’t want to see destroyed.

Standout Brand: Libellula
So much to love! Father-daughter duo founded this collective to support family farmers in the hills outside of Rome where groves were abandoned due to the challenges of climate change. Collectively, the knowledge and resources can regenerate these groves, the community of farmers … and provide extra virgin olive oil with three to six times more polyphenols and antioxidants than standard EVOO.

Standout Brand: Sea Tales
Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Teach a community how to fish sustainably and you enjoy seafood, now and forever. Only the most responsible, local fishing communities invited. Once invited, fishing communities are guaranteed a market and long-term commitment from the Fish Tales Foundation.

Standout Brand: Seal The Seasons

‘Early adopters’ doesn’t capture the whole story here. These change-makers started cultivating a better world for everyone early in the packaged food scene. Locally grown makes for resilient communities but is hard to do in the CPG world. This team keeps at it so we can all eat local all year round without quality of our earth compromise or quality of ingredients compromise.