At the January 2020 Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, we tasted an abundance of new specialty foods and gifts (just part of the 80,000 on display), an overwhelm of Keto foods and too many oat milks to count as well as innovative plant-based foods and functional beverages. It seems like business as usual at the 2020 Winter Fancy Food Show.
Lots of incubators showing off fun new foods including a few CBD-infused items (soon to be re-labeled “hemp”). Tons of snackable sweets, meats and a plant-based porkrind for former meat lovers.
Even the folks I spoke with about tariffs seemed hopeful.
Tour the show and learn about 2020 good trends with a few of my food find photos…
Cheese and quince paste packed together for an easy appetizer and lovely dinner party house gift.
Thai drink mixes for easy exotic cocktails, made in Thailand with natural colors – perfect for the mocktail trend.
Organic kosher fresh shiitake mushrooms from Japan are grown outdoors, which is unusual.
Dairy free ice cream sandwich from Alden that I really could not tell wasn’t dairy ice cream. I checked twice to make sure I had my facts right, ha ha.
Truffle Shuffle makes Oregon truffle-I fused California honey and truffle salts. Very truffley.
Winners of the food service Front Burner competition: Incredible Edible Spoons come in a few flavors and are very durable for the duration of eating something liquidy. When I almost bit one of these very hard utensils, the founder warned I should use my molars. This danger makes me think the product line should be simplified and positioned as instantly compostable – especially as colleagues were saying they didn’t taste good. If zero waste is the point, forget the flavor angle!
I believe for the first time the country of Jordan has a presence at the San Francisco show. One or more of the bakeries that make knee-buckling, crispy, nutty miniature baklava pastries and cookies is looking for an importer.
Love the dark milk chocolate from Alter Eco make with milk from grass fed cows. It’s a first ! The crispy rice bar is simply addictive, a perfect 21st Century milk chocolate rice krispy bar.
Fun pickle branding from Yee-Haw Pickles of Colorado
Ivan.Bar was just one of many at the show. This category shows no sign of slowing down. Ivan.Bar nails texture, flavor and ingredients in this fruit and nut bar. You’ll just have to try it.
It’s rare to find great candied orange peel and lemon peel made in the US. Now Charles Chocolates of San Francisco has created chocolate covered orange peel and lemon peel in a format perfect for snacking and gift baskets.
I am told CBD in energy snacks (and in sugar which another company has) are not mutually exclusive.
Delicious Marshall’s Haute Sauce salsas from Portland using local farm ingredients. They hand pack the charming bottles — in a commercial kitchen attached to their house no less. The gift set is a perfect healthy food holiday gift.
Fabulous hearty gluten free sourdough and European style breads from Young Kobras are made at the Bay Area incubator Kitchentown. Hard to tell they were GF!
Highkey cookies are somehow keto friendly AND gluten-free AND delicious. Their mini chocolate chip cookies have thousands of rave reviews on Amazon. I loved them too. Perfectly textured — firm yet shortbread-soft — the chocolate chip and other flavor cookies are dangerously perfect for snacking. Apparently the chocolate chip cookie space continues to welcome great innovation!
on Amazon. (Yes it’s a crummy affiliate link for the Susie fund.) 
Rosti are like latkes stuffed with cheese. Heat and eat. Amazing with hot sauce!
Raaka chocolate bars are just lovely, made with unroasted cacao.
Upton’s plant based jerky bites have a fulfilling chew
Plant based pork rinds are like fun thick chips.
Pig Out’s plant based non pork rinds
The show featured small batch makers of nut-based dips, cheeses and sauces. Blum is an almond farm that came up with a totally new concept: They flavor almonds, pack them in plastic containers, and the consumer microwaves the container to roast the nuts. While one could argue it’s another waste of plastic, it’s pretty brilliant. I assume you could re-use the container for other nuts…which they should sell in bulk or pouches as refills.
More 2020 Specialty Food Trend Articles
- Food Business News wraps up their opinions and trends spotted.
- SF Chronicle report includes all the waters I avoided.
- Trendspotter panel offers predictions for 2020.
