Sea Salt Helps Create Premium Foods
Subheading: Premium food sales are rising so manufacturers should look to ingredients like sea salt to help elevate their products.
Premium Food is a multi-faceted category for consumers. Foods labeled as”premium” doesn’t just mean better flavor or 100% natural; it can mean a variety of things to different segments of consumers. It can mean higher quality ingredients, uses real herbs and spices, minimal processing or familiar ingredients. This broad consumer perception of “premium” really opens up opportunities for food manufacturers.
The Specialty Food Association, a group that understands premium foods, states that “specialty food sales at retail grew to $94 billion in 2015, a 19.7 percent jump since 2013, driven by product innovations and wider availability of specialty foods through mass-market outlets.”1
“Cheese (and cheese alternatives) remains at the top and has grown 14.7 percent, but frozen and refrigerated meats, poultry, and seafood as well as chips, pretzels, and snacks have inched up to the number-two and -three spots,” for top selling specialty food categories in the past two-year period. 1
Better ingredients that are touted on packaging or through advertising and promotion can exceed the importance of other key elements that contribute to consumers' perception of high-quality foods. The statement “Made with Sea Salt” can elevate the quality of foods in the eyes of consumers.
Indeed, product launches that include sea salt in the ingredient list, continue to rise. The chart below illustrates data from Innova Insights. The chart shows product (SKU) counts by half-year that include sea salt in the ingredient list. The number of products containing sea salt continues on an upward trend.2
Cargill Sea Salt is produced in California, very similarly to older sea salt pond evaporation methods of sea salt production. Sea salt is made by capturing sea water in shallow ponds, where it is allowed to evaporate.
Cargill’s portfolio of food grade sea salt ingredients is designed to meet the needs of premium food producers. If you need bulk sea salt or bagged sea salt - with or without additives – Cargill can be your sea salt ingredient partner.
1 https://www.specialtyfood.com/media/filer_public/c8/f7/c8f79048-0861-4175-8939-0aeb7b55a015/2016_soi_8pg.pdf
2 Innova Insights Database, 2016,