Food Week February 2, 2024

Welcome to Food Week February 2, 2024. Lots of stuff, including trends worth following: another weight loss drug, digital wallet growth, changes to tipping culture and green energy lowering chicken prices. Some things, like cod, are not sustainable: cocktails that taste like sandwiches and deep fried toothpicks! Enjoy

MACRO

• American’s are suddenly catching on that the economy is strong, thanks to a hot jobs market, the stock market and falling gas. And eggs.

• I think it is rather late in the cycle but the Biden Administration is pressuring grocery stores over prices.

• The weight loss drug Zepbound expected to be best selling drug of all time.

RETAIL AND CONSUMER

• Sprite goes naked: creates a stylish bottle with no label.

• Digital wallet users spend 31% more than other consumers.

• COVID really helped the Ikea Swedish meatball – sales in 2023 reached 54 million worldwide.

• Breakfast wasn’t always dessert in disguise. Here are some things that people used to eat in the morning.

• We don’t think about water enough when we cook. And salt too, kosher versus conventional salt. What’s the difference, when to use it, how to substitute.

• Wooden utensils won’t last if you put them in the dishwasher. So stop it.

RESTAURANTS AND FOODSERVICE

• Menu items Chefs won’t order.

• Cocktails that taste like sandwiches? A trend I feel no urgency to participate in.

• Inflation drove sizes down in retail but now fast food is experimenting with bigger sizes to drive sales.

• Momentum to change tipping culture grows. But if there’s a problem with the restaurant POS system, don’t worry the server’s tip will cover any shortfalls.

• How 70’s counter-culture fixed British dining.

FOOD SUPPLY CHAIN

• Florida legislator proposes a ban on lab-grown meat.

• Most cod fishing is not sustainable and some is but determining sourcing is quite difficult.

• Green fuel helped to lower chicken prices.

• Walmart knows it’s supply chain is its strength and so values its truck drivers, paying them more than $100k per.

• Move over mezcal. Bacanora is a Sonoran agave spirit that was outlawed for decades by the local government. Not anymore

FOOD WEEK LAGNIAPPE

• South Korean government: Please stop eating fried toothpicks. (!)

• The role of vitamin C in gut health.

• Plantation is a spectacular and reasonably priced rum. But that name… Oops. fixed it. The overall weirdness of Victorian drinking cups. You know, like the Stanley Cup. Not not those, the other one. Finally, Storing liquors – how long will they keep?

• Canned corn beef because…

• Do these foods help with happiness?