Following last night’s program on BBC Two, Clean Eating: The Dirty Truth, commenting on the impact of the growing trend towards denigrating all “processed” foods is timely and sadly necessary.
As most professionals working within the FMCG sector will be aware, the health claims of following a strict diet of uncooked plant stuffs and lean proteins, avoiding grains, dairy and a myriad of other products on the shelves have been shown to be completely unsubstantiated by science. What has not widely been considered is the potential contamination implications of home and kitchen cooking that eschews commercially preserved and processed foods.
Part and parcel of many of the clean eating trends is the suggestion to accompany this with clean living by raising and preserving your own foods. The difficult truth to swallow here is that without a sound understanding of food science, creating your own cashew nut cheese, raw fruit and nut bars or preserving kimchi may not just be faddy, but fatal. Without adequate levels of preservative substances found naturally such as salts and citrus (again, forbidden to may clean living diets), these treats could potentially be hazardous to the health of home cooks, particularly without the guidance of best before labelling.
However, with all dietary trends, comes an opportunity for established brands to create new products for the market. One example of this from Holmach’s portfolio recently has been CauliRice, a new cauliflower-based rice substitute for the “free from” market which has already proven to be hugely successful with consumers. While the snack food market has already seen a range of new brands emerge toting raw credentials, opportunities to expand dairy-free, alternatives and nut products based on increasingly popular home recipes have yet to be commercialized. Given the intensive nature of home-cooking required to follow in the steps of bloggers like Deliciously Ella, where convenience options can be offered with credentials that are acceptable to the market, these are bound to prove popular.
To speak about your ideas for innovative new products with a member of the team, get in touch on 01780 749097.
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