For 17 years, Worlds of Flavor in Napa Valley has been considered by the industry to be America’s most influential professional forum on world cuisines, food cultures and flavor trends. This year’s event didn’t disappoint.

The trend to Asian tastes and techniques has been growing exponentially in the United States for years. It never came together with such enthusiasm and promise as it did at the 17^th Worlds of Flavor® International Conference and Festival, held in April on the Greystone campus of The Culinary Institute of America in Napa Valley in front of an audience of more than 700 culinary, foodservice and hospitality professionals.

“The vastly varied cuisines of Asia are deeply rooted in traditions that have evolved over millennia,” said Greg Drescher, vice president of strategic initiatives and industry leadership at the CIA. “Today, American chefs are embracing and experimenting with what once was considered exotic. These foods and flavors are poised to continue their ascendance and become ever-bigger players in our national dining scene, whether it is in small independent restaurants, high-volume operations, food trucks or university cafés.”

According to Mintel research, more than half of U.S. consumers think organic labeling is simply an excuse to charge more, and more than a third regard “organic” as a marketing term with no real value or definition.

Organics would seem tailor-made for shoppers seeking foods and beverages that are healthier for them, their families and the planet, but new research from Mintel reveals that Americans appear confused about the benefits of organics, with many perceiving the organic label as nothing more than an excuse to sell products at a premium.

Overall, the biggest selling point for organics is the perception that the products are healthier (72%)—much more so than any environmental or ethical reason. In fact, only 29% of consumers recognize that organic products are highly regulated, and 51% agree that labeling something as organic is an excuse to charge more. While sales of organic products are on the rise, actual consumer penetration has plateaued.

Organics Are Healthy, Right?
Overall, 72% of U.S. consumers purchase organic food and/or beverages for health or nutrition reasons, while slightly fewer (69%) factor environmental or ethical reasons in their purchase decision.

When looking specifically at female shoppers, this consumer group appears to choose products that avoid certain characteristics: 43% purchase them because they do not contain unnecessary ingredients or chemicals, and the same percentage do so to avoid food made with pesticides.

Serving a term of 18 months, Carroll is joined by John Sloane of Macau as vice president of the global organization serving 10 million chefs from more than 105 nations.

Charles Carroll, CEC, AAC, executive chef of River Oaks Country Club, Houston, was recently named president of the World Association of Chefs Societies, or Worldchefs.

Worldchefs, founded October 1928 at the Sorbonne in Paris, is a global network of chef associations dedicated to maintaining and improving the standards of global cuisine. An elected executive committee and a board of continental directors that oversee the regions of Asia, Europe, Africa, Pacific and the Americas govern the organization.

“Worldchefs spans over 105 countries and 10 million chefs, and I am proud to be a part of this great team,” said Carroll. “The board is focused and excited about the next 18 months and we are dedicated to all our members around the globe.  I encourage everyone to visit www.Worldchefs.org to learn more about what we are doing and our next congress in Athens, Greece, September 2016.”

Hot sauce is becoming ubiquitous in homes and at foodservice outlets, according to recent NPD Group research. And while the classic Louisiana type still rules, it’s by far not the only hot seller, evidenced by spreading-like-wildfire sales of fruity habanero and chipotle varieties.

Hot sauce, the hotness of which is often ranked by quantity of flames or symbols of hell, is, well, hot right now, says The NPD Group, a leading global information company. Fifty-six percent of households have hot sauce on hand in their kitchens, and Sriracha, a relatively new Asian hot sauce, is already stocked in 9% of total U.S. households and 16% of households headed by someone under age 35, according to NPD’s recently released audit of U.S. kitchens.

The popularity of hot sauce also extends to away-from-home dining experiences. Cases of hot sauce shipped from foodservice distributors to restaurants and other foodservice outlets increased by double digits over the past two years, reports  SupplyTrack^®, a monthly tracking service that tracks every product shipped from major broadline distributors to their foodservice operators.

Classic Louisiana-style hot sauce is still the leader in terms of case volume shipped from distributors to U.S. foodservice outlets, but shipment growth has tapered off because of the wide variety of hot sauces now available, finds NPD. Case shipments of some habanero hot-sauce flavors, particularly habanero with fruit flavors such as mango, grew triple digits in the year ending December 2014 compared to same period a year ago. There were double the cases shipped of chipotle hot-sauce flavors and Sriracha in 2014 than in the previous year, finds SupplyTrack. 

The 10 best-selling categories have shifted since just 2013, and today, cheese is still tops, but refrigerated pasta, functional beverages and nut and seed butters show big gains. Why should we care? Because foodservice is an increasingly important sector to that industry, with growth of nearly 31% since 2012.

The specialty-food industry is a bright spot in the U.S. economy. In 2014, sales of specialty food topped $100 billion for the first time, with retail and foodservice sales reaching a record $109 billion.

Retail sales of specialty-food sales grew 19% from 2012 to 2014 versus a tepid 2% increase for all food. The industry, fueled by small businesses, now boasts 15 segments that exceed $1 billion in sales, including cheese; coffee; meat, poultry and seafood; chips, pretzels and snacks; candy; and yogurt.

These findings are from a new report from the Specialty Food Association produced in conjunction with research firms Mintel International and SPINS/IRI. The report, “The State of the Specialty Food Industry 2015,” tracks U.S. sales of specialty food through supermarkets, natural-food stores, specialty-food retailers and foodservice venues. Specialty foods are broadly defined for the report as products that have limited distribution and a reputation for high quality.