Innovation shines through at Sirha 2017

Sirha Lyon is as a melting pot of inspiration for foodservice and provides a marketplace for the latest innovations available across Europe.

In 2017 the Sirha Innovation Awards identified the best innovations in terms of products, equipment and services with two separate juries of experts determining the products and another for equipment made up of chefs and professionals from the catering trades, nutritionists, designers and journalists from the professional press.

The results, announced on the 22 January 2017, the second day of the 2017 show included a Special Award of the Jury 2017 for Vite Fait Bienfaits for their smartphone and website app dedicated to catering in oncology departments, the new fruit couverture ‘Inspiration' from Valrhona, the revolutionary Séquencia Technology cocoa roasting process which uses alternate temperature and roasting cycles duration to bring out previously removed aromas from the cocoa and Woow E-Motion which is an augmented reality embedded edible chocolate code pasted into chocolate tablets and shapes that appear as interactive scenes via an app.

Francois Blouin, CEO founder of Food Service Vision, who works alongside the organisers of Sirha, also revealed seven trends identified and presented to visitors of the show.

The areas identified in 2015 have been refined and detailed, with the trends organised in the three main dimensions of Pleasure, Service and Wellbeing.

The Pleasure trend is divided into three areas:

1. Playfood - which describes the products, recipes or ingredients which contribute to gourmet pleasure, such as a larger bun or steak for extreme pleasure, or a playful hybrid between products such as the croissant and the doughnut; essentially anything elaborately excessive.
or unusual associations such as pepper and chocolate crisps or the latest combination of quinoa with Nutella now dubbed 'Quinutella'.
3. Made in Excellence - the third sector within Pleasure identifies the pursuit of excellent products, and service. This includes the concepts of provenance and traceability such as 'bean to bar' in the word of chocolate. This is about the story telling, and the art of explaining a story that has become increasingly complex and important to the end-user.

The Wellbeing Trend is booming with a particular growth in:

1. Into the Green - which includes natural products and free-from, green, local and vegan products.
2. Body Care - goes hand in hand with Into the Green in the wellbeing category and includes products produced and required for body care such as gluten and lactose free, but also seeds. Seeds are going to be big in 2017.

The third trend of Service, is also divided into two areas:

1. Optimum Support - or the optimisation of movement and productivity for chefs, such as high-speed cooking equipment and rehydratable pasta
2. Maximum Experience - is made up of products and services designed to enhance the customer experience with equipment, food, drink and technology created to maintain plate temperature, improve atmosphere