There’s something about reaching the top of the steps of Hall 6 at SIAL in Villepinte, Paris that makes you smile. Perhaps it’s the bright lighting, the rainbow of colours of the stands laid out before you, or the Trends and Innovation zone beckoning you with ideas for every food sector. I guess that most of all, it is the anticipation of being bombarded with wonderful ideas for packaging, food concepts, new psychologies, original brand identities and the chance to meet with passionate people who are keen to export their product out into the wider world.
The first great conversation of the day was with Sokhy Sandhu, managing director of Samosaco – a blending of Samosa Company. His idea is to meet the needs of vegans and vegetarians with samosas and other Indian snacks that are baked, not fried, and that meet all the criteria of the increasingly large group of non-meat eaters. Beautifully packaged, with an ‘about to be launched’ gluten-free variant of these, along with some ‘light as a feather’ gluten-free lemon cookies, these products are made, surprisingly in Pontclun, South Wales – not at all what you might expect!
We were pleased to meet with Rebecca Evans, the deputy minister for farming and food for Wales who explained how 170,000 people are employed in the food and drink sector there – from farm to fork (including retail) with an ambition of making annual sales of £7 billion by 2020. We talked about the 17 Welsh companies at the show including Clarks UK Ltd with its decadent but ambient chocolate mousse – no problem with transport chill chain problems here; Lizi’s the good carb food company and Purple Moose Brewery to name just three. I spoke with Gilly Barber of Welshpool based Sidoli, who produce luxury ice cream, bakery and confectionery products – and was introduced to sparkle cake – in fact there were more sparkles on some of these luscious, multilayered cakes than in ‘Strictly come Dancing’ which gives you a clue to one of the new trends at the show.
Moving on, we came across a brand new beverage launch for Europe – Bberri, a natural, organic and Fairtrade Blueberry juice which is not from concentrate yet has an amazing 400 blueberries in every bottle. Sharp and tart it is a refreshing change from many oversweet drinks. Available in Chile and the USA these organic blueberries com from Entrerios Farm in Linares, Chile and are certified organic and Fair for Life, Fairtrade by IMO, Switzerland.
Our favourite taste of the day though has to be the premium Wagyu Beef from Mollendo – also based in Chile. Served hot by two excellent chefs, the smell wafted through the hall drawing visitors to the stand.
On a lighter note, Yoligur is a yogurt made using olive oil. Made by Casaametller, a Catalan food company, from Spain, these yogurts have the saturated fats substituted with olive oil giving them a surprisingly creamy taste. They also incorporate unusual flavours such as figs with thyme, peach with persimmon, orange with pomegranate and apple with pear and cinnamon.
Quinoa seems to be the biggest new trend of all at SIAL with numerous snacks, cereals, energy bars and baby foods appearing at every corner. However it was the packaging of the Quinoa Way Company from Peru, which caught our eye most, with its clean lines, bright white and colourful packaging and wide range covering everything from cookies, to quinoa burgers.
More beautiful baby food in pouches included the Good Gout (Good Taste) range of foods from France. Co-founder Julia Perroux was keen to talk about this pouch packed range with its fantastic photographic packaging, making vegetable purees into a highly desirable product. Finally some cute drinks for kids also from France, check out the AquaKid range in fun, character bottles. Look out for more SIAL news tomorrow.
Claire Phoenix is FoodBev Media managing editor – magazines. This is a personal blog and views expressed are her own.
© FoodBev Media Ltd 2024