1/14/09 Marketing Trends in Food Service

Market Trends In Food Service. I'm Greg Martin with today's Line On Agriculture. One of the areas where potato growers see a lot of their products going is into food service. In fact the number one use of potatoes in the food service industry is  French fries. According to Shelley Roth, manager of Ketchum Food B2B, there is a great demand for new and innovative uses for potatoes. ROTH: One of the things that I thought was really exciting is that potatoes made the list of hot vegetables this year and it really has much to do with specialty potatoes. The fact that Yukon Golds, Blue potatoes, Fingerlings are very, very exciting to chefs. And I think that's going to have a halo effect on the whole industry. The restaurant industry is seeing a surge in the ethnic market and authenticity is important to the consumer but Roth says there are some wonderful opportunities in the ethnic market for potatoes. ROTH: We're seeing the return of fusion cuisine and there are a lot of different items out there like wasabi mashed potatoes that are a part of that movement. Latin American and Mediterranean round out the top 3, really new and exciting menu cuisine and that's great news for the potato industry because both of those cuisines, the potato is very essential to. Convenience is a key issue for food service especially when 61% of the restaurant meals are take out with 33% of those eaten in cars. The economics of late have also had an influence according to Roth. ROTH: Updated comfort foods are also back. With this economic problem people really want to be comforted by what they are eating but it's really comfort foods with a twist is now scalloped potatoes with asiago and ricotta cheese. Roth says that it has become important to not only the consumers but the chefs have taken an interest in where food comes from. ROTH: In terms of food safety consumers really want to know what's happening with potatoes from the source, from field to table. And a couple of the programs we are doing with the US Potato Board we're really getting farmers in touch with the chefs at some of these leading chains and it's just been amazing to see that because believe it or not, chefs are the new rock stars out there in the culinary world and they want to learn about the process and they want to meet the people who are growing the food. Shelley Roth spoke during a processed potato breakout session at the 2009 Potato Expo in San Antonio, TX. That's today's Line On Agriculture. I'm Greg Martin on the Northwest Ag Information Network.