Unexpected Pandemic Trends From SFA Trendspotter

As a member of SFA’s Trendspotter panel, Jonathan Deutsch, Ph.D., CHE, CRC, is constantly on the lookout for what’s new in the specialty food industry. As the director of the Drexel Food Lab, Deutsch helps student entrepreneurs and food lab clients develop and scale new and innovative products

Deutsch will participate in the virtual panel, Trendspotters Take on SFA Live! during next week's Specialty Food Live!, along with other Trendspotters like Melanie Zanoza Bartelme of Mintel. The panel will discuss the trends that will take us through 2021 and beyond.

SFA News Daily spoke with him about his Trendspotting process and what trends surprised him during the pandemic.

Describe your process as a Trendspotter for the SFA. Are there specific things you set out to find or do you go in blind when assessing products at SFA events?
I usually go through with multiple rounds. The first one is just to get the bird's eye view of what's happening without any specific targets or agenda. What am I seeing in terms of product mix, groups of products in a theme, flavors, and so on? After that, I typically hone in on a few things that I might identify as particularly interesting. For example, if I saw three or four functional ready-to-drink coffees that were new to me in the first round, I might dig deeper in the second round on what's happening in RTD coffees and teas. For example, I've been seeing a lot on seeds, so want to see how they're being used in various products. Then, later in the process, once I've defined a trend, I might look for targeted examples of themes I'm seeing—all the relevant products I can find offering restaurant-level products for home quarantine dinners, for example.

Which one of the Trendspotters official 2021 picks are you the most excited to see gain popularity?
Eating and cooking at home. For decades, we've been seeing a shift from home to foodservice in nearly every category—right up through the Winter 2020 Fancy Food Show, we'd been seeing on-the-go, grazing, office snacking, and so on. In an instant, the pendulum shifted to home cooking and eating. As we come up on a year of the pandemic, we've gone through phases from elaborate home-cooked dinners and comfort baking, to home cooking and supporting small food businesses becoming the majority of our dining.

How does your work with Drexel tie into being a Trendspotter?
At Drexel, I am a professor of food and hospitality management and run a food product development and culinary innovation lab called the Drexel Food Lab. It's important for my teaching to keep up on current trends and benefits our student entrepreneurs and food lab clients to see how their ideas may resonate in the market.

What is, in your opinion, the most unexpected or interesting trend to come out of the pandemic?
Affordable restaurant family meals, cocktails to go, and neighbors sharing sourdough.

More information on Specialty Food Live!

Related: Specialty Food Live! Preview: Q&A with Harry & David's Sarley; SFA’s Squatrito on January’s Specialty Food Live!.

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