Fine Foods Quarterly - October '22

Americans are making great strides in adopting a healthy lifestyle, the cornerstone of which is a significantly healthier diet.

I spend a fair amount of time traveling through Europe to acquire the knowledge and information that are imbedded in the pages of our publications.  In most of these countries, you seldom see a person that looks like they weigh more than they should, which is unfortunately the opposite of the observation you would make in the good ‘ol USA.  I attribute a good part of this phenomena to the fact that they eat differently than we do, utilizing a lot of fresh produce and consuming less fattening protein in a typical meal.

I can sense that the “tide is turning” in this country, as evidenced by the fact that our country is currently supplying over 30% of the world’s organic products, and it is showing no signs of slowing down.  It is predicted that the world demand for organic foods and beverages will continue to grow by a factor of 4x or 5x over the next four years.

Some may attribute this demand to the “wake up call” that seemed to come as a result of the Pandemic, which allowed many to rethink their life and well being.  I am here to tell you that this positive trend is many, many years in the making and is thanks in large part to a group of specialty food companies determined to make the foods available to the American public more nutritious and utilizing much better ingredients.  The amount of healthier, clean-label, organic, plant-based, superfood ingredient, all-natural is truly impressive these days.

I want to extend my gratitude to these companies for their hard work to achieve some amazing foods that are really good for us too.  I am sure at times it seemed like pushing a rock up hill, but their perseverance and dedication to improving the texture and flavors of the foods has certainly helped the category become main stream.

Finally, I am excited to welcome a new addition to our editorial team, Marilyn Hirsch, whom has contributed some excellent research and writing to a number of our issues this year.  I think you will appreciate the contribution she has made to this issue, and will look forward to following along as we move ahead into a new year.