Fine Cheese & Charcuterie August 2016

Culinary Tourism, the term associated with a group of travelers that chooses their holiday destinations based on the quality of their anticipated food experience is on the rise. I think this trend also has had an impact on the demand for international foods, and has played a big part in the rapid growth of the specialty food industry in this country. 

Often when we are dining in our foreign travels, we see diners taking out their phones and taking photos of the presentation of the food that is served to them to share with friends and family on social media. We are often guilty of this photo taking too, but I am usually too eager to get my fork in it. The impact of all of this “food porn” is to spread the interest and awareness of a wide variety of foods, even with those who haven’t traveled to the destination at all. 

When the traveler returns home, they don’t just cast these food experiences aside either. The food becomes etched in their memory. Some will go even further, and nd a way to recreate the dishes they love at home so that they can share them with friends and family. That’s where we come to the rescue, providing them with the ingredients and tools necessary to replicate their food passion. 

For the retailers in our industry, all of this food awareness is great for us. It means there can be built in demand for interesting food products that we never realized existed until the products are introduced to the American market for the rst time. But, in order to tap into this awareness, I think we need to do a better job of calling attention to the special attributes of new products being introduced into the assortment. 

My point is that the specialty food industry is not only about providing artisan or local products. It’s also about fueling the passion for extraordinary food experiences. And foods that have a great story, if the story is told at the point of purchase, will always y o the shelves. To illustrate my point, consider retailing wine. When you're in a store that is selling wine, and they have a sign on a wine explaining the location of the vineyard and the taste characteristics of the wine, isn’t it more likely to sell than if there is no information at all? 

I see so many extraordinary products on the grocery shelves today, but there is usually no information at all available at point of purchase to describe what makes it special. If it’s a high priced item, the problem is magni ed because an uneducated shopper is not going to pay signi cantly more for a product when there is one next to it that seems exactly the same for a lower price. We can’t just rely on the label to explain what makes it special in the limited space available, assuming of course, that consumers take the time to read them at all. The retailers should take the time to promote these products through signage, at least for a period of time, while their customers have the chance to sample them for themselves. Taking the extra e ort will give new products the greatest chance of becoming mainstream, and potentially developing into top sellers. 

David Spencer 

Publisher, Fine Cheese & Charcuterie 

dspencer@gourmetbusiness.com