The Intrepid Culinologist  

The Intrepid Culinologist, aka Rachel Zemser, CCS, has one foot planted in the artisan soils of San Francisco
and the other buried deep in the world of R&D, manufacturing and food science. She travels the world in
search of food-related industry trade shows, media and press events, and "local" Bay Area experiences, trying
to figure a way to bridge her two worlds and bring great food to the masses. She has a B.S. and M.S. in Food
Science, a Culinary Arts degree, and almost 15 years of food-industry experiece.

The NY Fancy Food Show was PACKED this weekend. I had to push my way through the rows and aisles to get to the food, and had to fight a crowd of hungry attendees to get a sliver of the award-winning American Artisan English Cheddar cheese from Fiscalini. All the usual players were in town: the gourmet popcorn, the beautiful chocolates, olive oil from every country, the foreign pavilions and all the cutsey mom and pop companies making various culinary kits. There were chefs, food scientists, culinologists and, of course, the usual slew of non-food-industry people that managed to trick NASFT into letting them register, even though they have nothing to do with the biz!

As a food scientist, I was especially interested in companies that have caught on to the fact that one can successfully sell industrial ingredients directly to consumers—if marketed correctly. For example, I tried this product called True Lemon that is basically cold-pressed crystallized citrus packed into tiny 0.8-gram packs (also sold in bulk 80-gram jars) with a little bit of citric acid, dextrose (bulking agent) and citrus oils. WOW. It’s totally natural, has no calories, no sodium, and comes in lime, orange and lemon. Finally all you food scientists out there can stop raiding the lab supply cabinet for citric acid, citrus oleoresins and dehydrated lemon powder—this company has created a bare-bones, rather basic, “flavor” that you can buy.

Nielsen-Massey is another company that has caught on, making their industrial vanilla powder available to the retail market in 2.5-oz. jars. Vanilla powder is no big deal to food scientists and manufacturers who see it as a way to save money (not shipping water) and maintain product color (liquid vanilla is dark brown can affect final color of a product) but for a non-industry home cook, it’s a fun and novel concept.

And it’s not just lemon and vanilla powders, retail buyers can pick up xanthan gum and citric acid in mainstream chain supermarkets, as well!

An added benefit to these “industrial ingredients gone retail” is it brings the retail buyer closer to our world, our secret world that normally scares or confuses them. Now this world is becoming a bit clearer with the introduction of these ingredients into the retail marketplace. ANYONE can be a food scientist now with their own dehydrated flavors and citric acid on hand! Maybe now when my non-food-industry friends start asking me what “oleoresins” are or are trying to understand what all those scary ingredients like maltodextrin and citric acid are, I can pull out products like True Lemon and vanilla powder to educate them on these matters!

Stay tuned for more Fancy Food Show coverage, including a list of American (who needs cheese from France and Italy when we have great stuff right here at home in California, upstate New York and Vermont ... let’s lower our carbon footprint and support our local farms ... let’s all do our part!) artisanal cheese, natural raw honey (don’t feed to infants ever!) and a few mentions of Serbian jam products that are made with fruits grown in the mountainous regions of Serbia and cooked on wood-burning stoves.

User Comments !

Rachel: The show sounds delicious, but actually companies have been doing that for years. Craisins and Montreal Steak Grillmates seasoning were two industrial ingredients that migrated to the retail shelf, quite sucessfully I'd guess. We had lab samples in the late '80s if I remember correctly.The interesting part is that they are selling lab basics like xanthan gum as "fancy foods."

Posted by: Joan | July 08 2009 15:16:04

I'd think the secret to success to the retailization of thee products is for the companies to avoid the word "industrial" at all costs. I'd be curious to hear what catch words are on these products so that they seem novel withou sounding "industrial."

Posted by: Steve | July 11 2009 03:18:57

Given that marketing "industrial ingredients" as such (i.e., by using that term) would not have much appeal in the retail market, do you find that these ingredients tend to get called "pure" (as in the vanilla extract in your photo) or "natural"? In short, can companies really bridge the industrial/retail divide without masking the industrial origin of the products they're selling?

Posted by: Steve | July 13 2009 18:40:14