Last Wednesday Marie, Jan, Clare and I attended the International Food Exhibition at the Excel Centre in London. For myself and Marie, it was our first time attending IFE, so we were especially excited.
We prepared an IFE trends bingo card – which we all promptly forgot to complete as soon as the excitement of the day took over. But here it is so we can reflect back next year on which ones took hold!
Marie, our resident Parisian, made a beeline for the French area without even waiting for the rest of the team to arrive. She wanted to speak to the exhibitors there about their innovative projects…and finally, get her paws on some authentic French produce as there isn’t a lot in her hometown of Market Harborough and it’s been a while since she was across the channel.
As well as brioche and baguettes, we sampled some delicious kombucha, which should be hitting the UK shelves very soon!
It was great to see that fresh produce was back at the show, leading the charge were our friends at Fresh Produce Consortium. It was here that we also managed to taste the world durian – which we at first mistook for a gas leak and were all ready to evacuate – though smelly, it was delicious. Possibly not one of the packed lunches though!
Some other sampling highlights from the day were vegan salted caramel chocolate, olives, pizza, Lithuanian cheese and Japanese mayo. It is safe to say I was in my element both talking about food and drink whilst also getting to try it!
It wasn’t until the end of the day that Clare, our director took to the stage to discuss some exciting new AI technology we have developed in-house to support our clients with their NPD funnels. We used examples from Oddbox, Glebe Farm and Fairfields Farm – on how we brought the qualitative commentary to life for marketing managers, chefs, technologists and insight leads.
If you want to know more about how AI can assist in food and drink insights and research, please get in touch.
On the whole, it was a fun and factual day for the team and I think I can talk on behalf of us all when I say I cannot wait for next year!
