With Halloween over sights are now firmly set on Christmas. It seems every year it starts earlier and this year we were asked to provide Christmas samples back in June which felt rather strange when the sun was out and Christmas was the furthest thing from everyone’s mind. But that’s forward planning for you !. The Great British Bake Off finished this week too with the winner being named on Tuesday. The programme has continued to be popular as every year a new bunch from all corners of the UK try and bake up a winning cake. This year it has been critcised by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall who says that it should lead the way in promoting recipes with less sugar and that cakes should use more vegetables in their ingredients.
He also went on to say “We have just raised a generation overwhelmed by what psychologists call hyper-palatable food, endless ingenious recombinations of salt, sugar, fat, starch and refined carbs into endless biscuits, cakes, doughnuts” concluding that there should be a sugar tax to stop the obesity crisis in the UK.
It looks like sugar rather then fat has now become the new enemy contrary to the advice that many of us grew up with. There are a number of great chains now, especially in London, that are offering, and have been for sometime, healthier options using super food ingredients with less sugar and salt.
Trends also show that consumers are tending to go for smaller premium quality treats so instead of a large slice of cake consumers may instead opt for a small gourmet brownie or artisan dessert. So changes are already happening in the industry and those well positioned to take advantage would do wisely to follow the trends