Tilt

This is going to kick off our first Trend Report for 2011. CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD Our hope is to do this at least quarterly to let you know what is going on on a global level. We are heavily focused on the US and the UK markets as of late because there is so much going on!

What is going on in the industry? Well, two of the highlights for this month which fit our expertise are:

• Allergens
This month there were a number of articles centered around kids and food allergies. The consensus is 8% of kids under 18 have a major life threatening food allergy… and this is a rising number. Where is the root cause? It appears that much of it happens during processing and food production. Allergens are already heavily introduced into schools with kids that are 12 and under, but the pressure is mounting to make adjustments for many restaurant and convenience chains. This is one of TILT’s areas of expertise and we are working hard to come up with solutions.

• Snackfood
With a recent report on dietary issues in America, it was deemed 60% of Americans consumed snacks on a regular basis accounting for more than 570 additional calories a day. Most of these calories were determined to be empty or bad calories. Strides are being made by many retail convenience chains to start introducing fresh, healthy and affordable solution. This is an area TILT is moving into as we have been working with several retailers in the last few months on innovation and NPD.

The Top 10 International Trends in 2011 Retail Food are:

1. Health food surge (at all income levels)
2. Portability
3. Super snack foods
4. Bridge between dining in and dining out
5. Allergen conscious
6. Grass roots style marketing
7. Own brand products
8. Freshness perception
9. Breakfast increasing
10. Smaller portions = more sales

Check out our Own Brands Workshop from May!

“We cannot be free if our food and its sources are controlled by someone else. The condition of the passive consumer of food is not a democratic condition. One reason to eat responsibly is to live free” this little quote taken from the collection of essays by famous farmer and academic, Wendell Berry, misses something important, because food is not only about someone else, but also the somewhere else.  By advocating a personalized view of food, it overlooks the key fact that it is not when food is controlled by someone else that problems necessarily arise, but when food is controlled from ‘somewhere else’. This is because if food is controlled from outside the immediate locality then vital knowledge and skills are lost along with empowerment. Indeed most consumers today have little knowledge of where their food has been produced, and are ill-informed about its nutritional value and environmental footprint; this is something which can be addressed through re-localising food, and in-turn educating the general public.

Currently Britain’s citizens rely on imports for 60% of their food, and this perilous situation is a far-cry from the food security which is currently being pursued by the British Government. One group, Growing Communities, based in Hackney, London created the model shown above, to present a vision for an alternative food culture, in which, food imports are gradually decreased and the cities food is sourced from a more ‘local’ vicinity with the majority of the food coming from the rural hinterlands.  This model demonstrates a greater understanding of the role which food has to play in society, and an appreciation of the importance of empowerment, knowledge, and skill deficient. However, whilst following this model would increase food security, it fails to comprehend the complex myriad of relations which comprise even the most simple of food networks, and as such, this system has the potential to be subjected to a local hit. Thus to create local food security, international and international food security must be considered, and we must look to improving the food security of impoverished nations such as those in East Africa which are currently facing the World’s Worst Food Security Crisis. As such an act will ensure Britain is able to develop and maintain its own food security.

From this we can see that, in our increasingly globalised world, food – and its security -has moved beyond the remit of local. Yet local food projects and alternative food cultures are vital in educating the public in making informed decisions about the food they buy and the diet they follow. So it is important to actively support projects which focus around local food, such as CSA’s and Urban Agriculture schemes, and to live free through becoming a conscious consumer of food.

Food waste in the western world has reached phenomenal proportions, with the average UK household wasting £480 per year on food. When totaled up this equates to over 18 million tonnes of edible food being thrown away every year with a staggering value of £23 billion. Food waste issues are prone to the shortfalls outlined by Meadow’s et al (1972) Human Perspectives model, which plots the decreasing human concern relative to the increasing temporal or spatial distance. Overcoming this shortfall of human perspectives is essential to ensuring suitable action is taken to reduce food wastage, and one such way is being explored by the Welsh based group ‘This is Rubbish’.

Human Perspectives Model from Limits to Growth (1972)

Three weeks ago, I attended an event at Hay Festival in Wales, called Green Dragons Den in which every day five projects pitched for £10,000 from the Welsh Government to support their venture. One of the most exciting projects which featured on the day dedicated to food projects, was ‘This is Rubbish’ and their waste food tour ‘Feast’. The project which gained a lot of attention at the festival, aimed to communicate the preventable scale of food wasted in the UK, through policy, community and arts led public events, highlighting the fact that supermarkets and pre-domestic waste are responsible for over 60% of all food waste. The campaign observes the success of other similar schemes such as WRAP: Love Food Hate Waste campaign, in tackling food waste in the home. But aims to build on these successes in combating the 60% of food wasted before it reaches consumers, within the supply chain itself through lobbying government and campaigning for the establishment of an independent commission responsible for annual auditing and publishing of waste.

Check out their website (http://www.thisisrubbish.org.uk) and pledge your support and to play your part in fighting off the impending food crises.

Two weeks ago, the USDA launched with the new nutrition/dietary recommendations in a graphic called My Plate to replace the very dated 15 year old My Pyramid graphic. Take a look below at the previous marketing material. This evolved from the original fruit & veg image-based pyramid graphic from the 1990s.

The new My Plate graphic has been a very visible topic in the media for many reasons, but mostly because it has changed the mentality of how we think about food and put it into a basic infographic. Controversial is putting it lightly:

• See Grist’s take here
• See Patch’s response
• See a compare and contrast review here
• See a poll of opinions here

Perhaps the fresh interpretation of the food pyramid is so basic as to not leave anything out. But things have definitely been left out [hello, sugar and sweets where have you gone?! Oh, wait the USDA says, "Oils are NOT a food group, but they provide essential nutrients. Therefore, oils are included in USDA food patterns." This is confusing since many of the products given to our schools contain an exorbitant amount of Corn Sugar or High Fructose Corn Syrup]. From my point of view, I understand the extinction of the sugar category is meant to assume that we will leave that portion off of our plates and out of our diets, but that is going too far. Who doesn’t have a craving for sugar if not more than occasionally? The plate is too simple, too bland, too basic.

Why not show what is a protein? It is far too vague, especially when some only understand protein to be from animals. Dairy is only available in a glass? I would think that the now “simplified chart” is far more confusing, especially for children. Instead of a helpful iconic pyramid, full of choices and visualizations of food complexity, the new chart is forming ideas that are slicing our diets in half, removing all variety and the fun in eating.  What, apparently we are supposed to be eating…gradients?

This plate is going to leave people questioning their plates rather than embracing their choices. We live in a customizable culture where we can mix n’ match according to flavor and taste, texture and craving, but in this graphic the tangible menu items are removed and options are left out of this new system. Have we truly boiled ourselves down to color blocks? If this is the case, why not just make everything only two since the primary colors ingested in the Western culture is an unnaturally shiny orange and a basic unsaturated light-brown.

Now agreeably, a change was desperately needed and we are in support of making a drastic change to the institution of My Pyramid. While there might be a lot of opinions on how it could be better graphically designed, the system is change, change is good and we embrace it. Now we just need to show how it can help you to improve upon Eating the Complete Meal. Below is our solution on what we think should be integrated into the system… a daily menu, not just one plate. Keeping along the lines of what My Plate has initiated, this system offers a spectrum of meal offerings. We still think going back to using actual foods, instead of gradients or graphics is preferred. What do you think? Share your thoughts.

Growing culinary herbs on your desktop or windowsill couldn’t be easier: this clever repurposed wine bottle contains everything you need.

Simply follow the easy included instructions, and soon you’ll have fresh culinary herbs that grow virtually anywhere, using simple hydroponics. With regular watering and care, these will continue to produce year ’round, and are fully reusable.

Packaged in a hand-crafted recycled wine bottle tied with a ribbon made from recycled plastic bottles, this makes a great gift which needs no wrapping.

GrowBottles are available in five varieties – Oregano, Chives, Basil, Parsley, and Mint — and are sold individually. Please select from the pull-down menu below.

Biomimicry is defined by mimicking nature. Derived from the greek words ‘bios,’ meaning life and ‘mimesis,’ meaning to imitate and it is now a quickly evolving concept, making its way into many of the future-focused packaging. Biomimicry is not a new concept… it has been around since the beginning of time (some 3.8 billion years estimated), but it is gaining momentum with our need to streamline processes and to reduce our waste from packaging.

Almost everything in life comes with a % of waste. We would guestimate something found in nature should have apporox. 5% dedicated to waste. Some more than others – like a pineapple as an example which has roughly 20% of waste, but the protective shell keeps the healthy juice intact while it hangs from the tree during heavy rain fall. All of the waste, however goes back into the soil and helps to sustain the nutrients of the land. So, the purpose of biomimicry is to produce a product which follows the following concepts:

1. Reduces waste
2. Mimics a pattern or design found in nature
3. Uses an alternative material
4. Aids in the experience of the product
5. Provides an afterlife for the product

Take a look at the peapod above. This pod captures the each of the peas perfectly and holds them in the right spot for transport. The shape of the container mimics the interior perfectly. In essence this is one of the things biomimicry does – it mimics the shape of the intended need and captures the contents in the right way with minimal waste. The material used is the right texture, shape and properties for safeguarding the interior, and also can be consumed. The answers are already here for the travel food sector in creating quality packaging for ‘on the run’ dining. Our article on the snackpart showcases this as a strong and viable opportunity in the marketplace and it should not be ignored. In using biomimicry to challenge the design, we are offering the opportunity to reduce waste and increase sales in a platform which is both fitting and necessary.

Above is a more direct context of this with the scale and texture of a gecko’s foot shown in a human form of the Vibram shoes. These shoes have become all the rage because of their natural feel and their organic nature. The model works in this case because the shoes grip the earth like an animals foot would. They are being used for climbing, biking, hiking, running and the like. Check out a full article on biomimicry, highlighting the gecko feet in a different way at Design Boom.

CONTINUE READING

The Produce Report May/June 2011 from Andreas Georghiou at Andreas’ Fruit & Veg

We know Andreas from The People’s Supermarket and his energy and humor around growing, picking and selling food makes us want to hug him. He is just so enthusiastic about a fabulously ripe tomato or a beautiful aubergine. He shares our passion for life and love of the fruit and veg.

“May’s flavours reveal with subtleness akin to the glimpse of a stocking top”
The weeklong delay in revealing Mays wares is due to many a factor mostly caused by the Sun… no not the red top the weather! Which has caused havoc with mother natures time keeping she apologises!

So here we have it…

Vegetables
The unprecedented glut of the finest of English Asparagus has made it possible for all of our bowls to be purified with this most joyful of gorgeousness. There be many grades all are of intense flavour and incredible value with Mr and Mrs (not so) Jolly (see blog) being the bestist. We also have some very interesting Isle of Wight grown in seaweed and sand. White and purple varieties also help make our Asparagus experience complete.

Other springadellic flavours include the pulse-racing Borlotti and Broad Beans, Sweet Peas with also the first European fine Haricot vert. Summer Fennell from Italy is stunning as are giant Globe artichokes green and Purple…baby too. Peppers (we also have stunning Italian), Cucumbers and Aubergines are now from the Franco’s excellent Coronation Farm. Early season Sweetcorn is delicious. Swiss chard, Spring greens, giant Savoy and Spinach are the pick of the leafy greens, sweet bunched English Carrotts, Courgette flowers and Beetroots (including golden and candy) plus fabulous French red and white grelots and navet conclude things veggie.

Specialty Vegetables and Herbs
Available generally to order only include…Parsley root, Salsify, micro Cresses, Seaweeds, Pea shoots, Angelica, Absinthe, Bronze Fennel, Hysope, Pimpernel, Pineapple Sage and Verbena.

Tomato
Our range of Tomatoes is the best we have ever had with stunning varieties from France, Sicily and Sardinia which include Camone, Cote de Boeuf, Cherry Vine, Datterini, Large Round, San Marzano, Roma and Heritage.

Saladation
We are loving old uncle Harrys Mixed Salads, Lambs lettuce and Roquette from Surrey and fabulous baby Spinach from Maitland farm in Lancashire. We also have fabulous succulent salad heads from Kent, genuine Belgian “Diamond ” Chicory Pearl du Nord and Escarolle. Fabulous Radishes both Cherry and Breakfast are in store.

Taytos
Jerseys and Cornish new are thriving and Charlottes are blooming loverly, we also have pink Fir, Ratte, Violette, Cherry, Yukon Gold, Lovers and Cyprus Champions.

Fruit
Well it’s all here so I will just list it Apricots, Alphonso (King) Blackberries, Blueberries, Cherries, Cherantais, Melons, Figs, Gooseberries, Peaches (white), Nectarines, Raspberries, (Tulamine) Redcurrents, Nespole, Strawberries … English (Hereford) French Garaguette, Clery, Mara du Bois from the Loire valley, frais du bois Sugar loaf and Victoria Pineapples and Plums.

Well that’s all folks !

Recently, the term ‘snackpart’ has been thrown around as a kind of new of meal. In the restaurant industry, we write menus based on different dayparts – such as breakfast, lunch and dinner. Now we are starting to design menus by including a mid-morning, afternoon and late evening snack. The snackpart is now becoming our main meal.

60% of Americans eat snack food regularly, consuming about 20% of their calories from snacks, most of these are not being good calories. We recognize the need for healthy food to be incorporated into this ever-increasing daypart. It is being consumed like rapid fire and the snack food industry is making billions on unhealthy and over-processed and/or GMO/GM subsidized foods. Our kids are already being brought up on canned fruits and vegetables and barely recognize raw fruits and veggies (check out Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution) and they think a complete meal is a burger, fries and soda.

When we see the increasing discussions on food deserts and convenience-only areas this is where the snackpart truly comes into play. The corner stores with the traditional non-packaged and bulk ingredients has now changed into an enlarged candy aisle. It has begun to carry the complete mealpart with a wide variety of packaged food. Literally these are often the locations where NOTHING other than boxed food sits on the shelves and kids are being brought up on the smallest of the food groups – tasty, unhealthy, saturated fats. This moves into lengthy political and food justice debates on food labeling which requires much supporting documentation on healthy eating vs. unhealthy and of course our favorite – GM/GMO based ingredients. It is a mess, but one that you can see with a light at the end of the tunnel.

Our well-traveled lives are taking us farther away from the dinner table and we are getting more and more adept to eating on the go. The food sector is trying to keep up and has been developing new items which are well-designed for ‘on the run’ eating, but have yet to adopt a healthy food outlook. There are a few companies, mostly in snackbars (like granola bars and supplement bars) who are doing a good job of creating natural products, but this is just the tip of the iceberg. What about pineapple fries or veggie sticks (see the TILT KITCHEN pineapple fries above)? We promise your hands won’t be more disgusting than from the grease and salt of a french fry. Nuts are one thing, but do they have to be deep fried and rolled in a powdered sugar? I think my favorite product on the market is the take away or snack chip bag from Burger King; our fast-food travel restaurants are not fast or convenient enough for us… we now need a prepackaged option so we can have them with us at all times.

When one travels, comfort-food is the food of choice and since we used to travel relatively irregularly. Going to a McDonalds or picking up a sandwich on the run was a special occasion. Same with cookies and sweets – as a child, I was never allowed sweets until I had finished my entire meal and now the average teen has about 34 teaspoons of sugar in a day. We need to start adapting our diet to the ever-moving lifestyle and eat accordingly. Since convenience is truly our customers ‘restaurant of choice’, we – in the restaurant industry – need to start looking at how to better adjust our ‘menus’ to include healthy offerings as well as educating ourselves – as in the consumer – to make better decisions.

We – as a world – are basically at rock bottom, but this opens the door to HUGE opportunities for positive change. How about snacking on a raw capsicum/pepper? What about the latest $20m ad campaign from the Baby Carrot Farmers? Can you imagine creating a line of healthy, good and whole foods that fits into the complete meal category of the snackpart? Instead of eating a traditional breakfast, lunch or dinner, what if you had 4-5 smaller snackparts? This industry has legs and the opportunities are endless for quality travel food and now thinking strategically about this category.

This past Wednesday was our second Hackney Pirates Food Event and we made our own Cafe’s. We kicked off with a strawberry smoothie snack and had the kids help us to perfect the different taste profiles that interested them. We ended up with a Banana, Date, Grapes, Apple, Strawberry Smoothie – a ‘Straw-ape-nan-aplate” made from all natural ingredients. Dylan was not a huge fan of the green bits from the strawberries, so we blended them an extra two minutes to make it nice, smooth and creamy.

Straw-ape-nan-aplate
For portion servings of 4–8 oz glasses
1 Punnet of full Strawberries – works best with the tiny strawberries
1/2 Banana or 1 full banana (to taste)
1 Apple
6 green or red grapes
5-8 dates (to taste)

Then blend, blend, blend. Make sure to blend the dates and strawberries first so the big chunks are removed.

The kids – Lou Lou, Dylan and Ali were hesitant at first to the concept of the cafe idea, but later got into the experience by incorporating their personal tastes and interest into their designs. We first gave them grab bags full of ‘stuff’ from around the office and the Farm:Shop and then we got the kids to start working on developing a concept and theme that interested them. The volunteers were very encouraging and assisted in a huge way with coaxing and collaborating on the concept. We asked for a menu design (with at least 3 items) and for a name for their cafe. Half way through, they decided there were not enough materials (music to our ears), so we hustled around the office and found some scraps of wood which really aided in their space development.

Individually we took them upstairs where we had prepared sweet and savory bases for little personal raw pizza’s, the idea to test out the TILT Kitchen menu and offer the opportunity for the kids to get into the concept for menu development. The bases were not desired by the kids, but the volunteers were huge fans! We have a lot of work to go in development… that was evident.

Dylan’s Skateboard Cafe came equip with a full customized pizza menu – sweet and savory – and a skate ‘essential’ shop for the basics. Skateboarders had to skate up the quarter pipe to get to the pick up for their meal.

Ali’s Red Beard Cafe had Mr. Red Beard behind the counter. There are 3 seats at the counter for sitting, or patrons could enjoy his Hawaiian themed coconut drinks on the regular 2-top seating tables. The light pillars were a nice touch for ambiance.

Lou Lou’s Sweet Shop was the perfect balance of creative mechanics with her black candy tower, all the way through the construction of her counter. The pick n’ mix was the highlight of the experience and it was dedicated a lot of space!

Our Rachael Tottingham put together these two beautiful samples of Sweet and Savory Pizza Treats. The left is made from a linseed and honey crust with fresh pears, dried apples, goji berries and raisins. The savory on the right is made from a veggie and almond crust with hummus, chickpea, nuts and a tomato salsa topping.

Nathan Myhrvold has invented a new type of cooking method. Using his physics background and an entrepreneurial attitude, he has coined a term called Modernist Cuisine and he is taking the world by storm with his new ideas.

The Economist ran a great little chat with with Nathan. You can view that here:

Check out the website here.