Food Business: Trends, Emerging Brands & Disruptive Innovation
Eating at a Meeting Podcast Episode #155
How the Latest Food Business Trends Translate to Event Menus
Do you believe your food and beverage purchases have an impact on the environment?
Do you follow a diet or eating pattern (clean, plant-based, mindful, calorie-counting)?
Do you seek out “natural” foods to avoid artificial ingredients?
Do you choose your beer to get more out of the price (higher ABV) or to reduce alcohol consumption all together (zero ABV)?
If any of these apply to you, then you’re part of the latest trends in food and beverage.
In this episode of Eating at a Meeting, chats with Monica Watrous, managing editor for Food Business News, about the business of food, including the top food and beverage trends she’s is seeing right now, examples of emerging brands to watch for and hopefully incorporate into event menus.
Monica Watrous
As the managing editor of Food Business News, Monica Watrous covers the latest trends, innovations and developments in the food and beverage industry. She is lifelong foodie and a champion of startups and disruptors in the consumer packaged goods landscape.
What do safe, inclusive & sustainable food and beverage experiences look like to you?
Affordable, accessible, wholesome nutritious foods that are plant-forward and free of the top nine allergens
Do you have an example of a situation that negatively effected you and/or other individuals or groups’ food and beverage experience?
I was at a client dinner at a premium steakhouse, and a guest at my table, who has a peanut allergy and called the restaurant ahead of time to inform them, ordered a dish that in fact contained peanuts, though it was not disclosed on the menu. The manager at the restaurant offered to call an ambulance and comped the individual’s meal. The server didn’t even know there were peanuts in the dish.
What do you wish people knew about what you do?
A lot of people think my job involves tasting and reviewing food, but I actually write about the business of food. Tasting optional.
What is a best practice you use/or have seen to create safe and inclusive F&B experiences?
I really love the upcycling movement spreading in consumer packaged goods. More and more innovative brands are reclaiming food waste and creating delicious, nutritious products using previously overlooked ingredients, which benefits the health of people and the planet.
Just for fun…What are your favorite food and drink?
Donuts and coffee. I rarely eat donuts these days, but I can’t go a day without coffee.
Links:
Connect with Monica: Website | LinkedIn
Check out other featured guests on the Eating at a Meeting podcast
Eating at a Meeting is part of the Nitty Grits Podcast Network.
