In new food products hybridisation of tradition, global tastes and healthiness

The boundary between the enhancement of gastronomic traditions, attention to the functional qualities of food and pleasure for the palate is becoming increasingly thin and exposed to global contamination. This is the idea that matures when reviewingthe more than 1,500 new products that companies will present at TuttoFood.

"The market does not need new products that are similar to the previous ones, but new product logics that favour the meeting of different worlds," says Riccardo Caravita, brand manager of TuttoFood. "The modern consumer is looking for a synthesis between health, experience, practicality and identity, orienting his or her choices towards food models that are consistent with the values he or she considers fundamental for his or her future.

According to the organisers of the fair, which opens next Monday in Milan, there are four trends that are redefining the world's food supply.

On the one hand, there is an increasing enhancement of traditional products that are reinterpreted and become more premium. Any examples? Jams and compotes are being transformed into gourmet products through combinations with spices and pairing with cheeses; or bay leaf liquorice, Dutch, vegan and gluten-free, or cured cheddar with Welsh whisky and natural cane sugar. "These are traditional reinterpreted products,' Tuttofood points out, 'in which the raw material is the master. The transformation of products such as jams and derivatives in a gourmet key reflects the centrality of origins, territories and knowledge. This is not nostalgia, but reinterpretation: tradition becomes infrastructure for the future, exactly as indicated by the Food Manifesto (see other article on this page, ed.)'.

On the other hand, there is the 'Global Street Food' trend where, for example, the ramen and noodle trends bring Asian cultural identity into everyday life, again with hybridisations, e.g. with Western cheeses. 'These are quick, ready-to-go solutions,' they say from TuttoFood, 'that maintain a strong cultural identity accompanied by very modern packaging. This trend highlights an open, curious consumer: food becomes a shared language and a space for cultural contamination, helping to build connections between different communities and food models'.