After a season of mercurial weather that almost made it seem like we skipped spring altogether, summer is finally upon us! Among the many things that come along with this fine weather are outdoor festivals. Grace Kennedy Foods hosted its first annual Jamaican Jerk Festival in Washington, DC after much success with similar festivals in south Florida and Queens, NY. The event, which took up two city blocks in the heart of the nation’s capital, featured plenty of spicy jerk cuisine and a sound stage that hosted international and local bands performing a scorching mix of reggae, ska, soca and old skool. It was so busy that they had to start turning people away around 5:00 p.m. (the event went until around 9:00 p.m.) and exceeded the expected attendance count by 500-1,000 with approximately 6,500 to 7,000 people showing up. There are already plans to expand it next year beyond the two blocks. Congrats to Grace Kennedy on your first DC fete and a special shout out to Elda Devarie and her team from EMD Sales for the great work you did on setting up the VIP, consumer engagement, cooking demo, and product testing areas!
The Mid-Atlantic chapter of the Network Executive Women (NEW) hosted its annual summer “Crab-aoke” mixer at Kurtz’s Beach in Pasadena, MD. The casual get-together is exactly as it sounds: a crab feast with karaoke (plus some dancing)! It was such a success last year that NEW decided to make it an annual event. Among the attendees were people from Giant/Landover, Shoppers Food & Pharmacy, Utz, GlaxoSmithKline, Burris Retail Logistics and the Star Companies, just to name a few. A special MVP award goes to Kelli Hall of Giant/Landover for putting it all together and to Dorothy Johnson of Frito Lay for keeping the crowd engaged and getting the fun portion of the evening going!
As 3D printing has become all the rage in many trades, including the medical field (think stem cells) and the motor vehicle industry (google Olli, the electric shuttle bus), it shouldn’t be surprising that the realm of food manufacturing is no exception. And no, I’m not referring to parts used in making food – I mean the food itself. For all you sci-fi fans, this technology brings to mind the food synthesizers/replicators used in the Star Trek TV series to create their desired meals. However, this concept may soon no longer be under the category of science fiction as 3D technology is now on the path to making it a reality. A recent article in the Wall Street Journal put the spotlight on food 3D printing and how some chefs are trying to advance the field. According to the piece, Hod Lipson, an Israeli engineering professor and a pioneer in 3D printing (most notably with food), is the person at the forefront of this technology. His work has advanced the field tremendously, which still has a way to go if it is ever going to become mainstream. Presently, food printers use powders (mostly sugars) or pastes (comprised of pureed meat, grains or vegetables) and syringes that act much the way a printer cartridge would. And although the food has to either be cooked before or after “printing,” Lipson and other scientists are working to create a printer that cooks as it “prints.” The current technology has already been tapped to be a big help in nursing homes and hospitals, where there are several patients who can’t eat solid foods but frequently reject the pureed food they are provided based on aesthetics. I can’t wait to see how 3D food printing continues to develop – think of the possibilities!
Speaking of the potential for 3D food printing, a Dutch dairy farmer by the name of Michaëla van Leeuwen has already jumped on the wagon by selling printed cheese. Inspired by printed chocolate and looking to diversify her business because of falling milk prices, van Leeuwen figured out a way to print with soft cheeses. “I found out that nobody had tried to print with gouda cheese or fresh cheese. So I started a project and found that it was possible to print with fresh gouda cheese,” van Leeuwen explained. She has found that printing cheese created a niche product and allowed her to build a relationship with her customers while helping tell the story of the farm. I can see many people taking inspiration in this story by doing their own experiments using different foods and 3D printers to create unique culinary creations – it will be interesting to see what people come up within the next year or two.
City Seeds and the Baltimore Integration Partnership hosted its second annual “Made In Baltimore” food vendor fair at Lexington Market earlier this month. The event gives small food-based businesses in the Charm City area the chance to connect with organizations that purchase large amounts of foods including restaurants, retailers, hotels, hospitals and schools. More than 30 Baltimore-based food vendors, including local favorites Roseda Beef and Tessemae’s All Natural Dressings, showcased at this year’s fair. “Baltimore has a thriving food scene with businesses across the city producing great products,” stated Kurt Sommer of the Baltimore Integration Partnership, one of the co-sponsors of the mini expo. “Connecting these small, locally owned businesses…will help them grow, create new jobs and ultimately enrich our community.” The University of Maryland Baltimore (UMB) was one of the institutional buyers that attended this year’s event. “We are always looking for more ways to support the community, said UMB President Jay A. Perman, MD. “Purchasing food from local businesses is a win-win for us. UMB’s Local Food Connection Program connects UMB buyers with local food vendors in Southwest Baltimore, and we are encouraging all of the employees to think, buy, shop locally every chance we get.”
Ticker Tags, a company that monitors social media sites to identify trends by searching for words and phrases that appear together in social media content, such as tweets, has released data suggesting the growth of the fresh grocery delivery (particularly AmazonFresh) is imminent. According to Ticker Tags, “the grocery delivery market seems to be growing as organic social mentions this year of the popular New York delivery service FreshDirect and AmazonFresh were up 52 percent and 46 percent respectively year over year. While mentions of FreshDirect have historically been higher than AmazonFresh, mentions of the two services were even in Q2 this year. For the first time, mentions of AmazonFresh eclipsed mentions of FreshDirect by 61 percent in May and June.” Not at all surprising news, but as companies such as Wal-Mart and Harris Teeter partner up with car services such as Uber and Lyft to offer their own delivery options, and with Instacart (delivering for Whole Foods and Costco) and Peapod already established, it will be interesting to see who wins the consumers in the fresh grocery delivery wars.
While we are on the subject of grocery delivery, with the success of meal kit delivery companies such as Blue Apron and HelloFresh, expect to see retailers follow suit and develop their own meal kit delivery segments. The model, which allows a home consumer to make a home cooked meal without the hassle of having to figure it out the logistics or ingredients themselves, have become very popular particularly with the millennial set. Ahold USA already reportedly has this in the works as does Amazon (what a surprise) and even the New York Times. Kroger also has expressed an interest in this segment as CEO Rodney McMullen indicated during a recent conference call. When asked by an analyst whether Kroger would expand into that business and whether it would buy a company in the business or start a similar operation itself, McMullen replied: “Absolutely. We would look at any and all approaches. The thing that’s important is if we find somebody to make an investment in that would value the leverage that we bring to the party, as well. We would be very open to doing it on our own or doing it with somebody, and I think if you look at our track record, we’ve taken both approaches.”
And finally, as you probably already know, this month’s issue is our much anticipated Market Study, which contains much coveted market share info for our coverage area. I hope you get much use out of it as a lot of work went into it, especially from our publisher Jeff Metzger, editorial director Terri Maloney and our graphics and production team at eInk. Enjoy and use it wisely!
Until next month…
