Tomato flour, legumes in chocolate, musical lollipops: the new products on display at Cibus

Green, healthy and even better if fusion, that is, the result of contamination between different food cultures. This is the identikit of the new products that will be exhibited for the first time at the 22nd edition of Cibus, the food fair that will open its doors in Parma in May. This year there will be around a thousand new entries among the stands. There’s something for all tastes.

Some novelties wink at the little ones, such as watermelon water, assorted jelly straws in strawberry, cherry, apple or grape flavours, and above all the musical lollipops, a mix of technology and sweets: while they tastes, an innovative integrated bone conduction audio technology plays catchy songs. Others focus on the theme of sustainability and the circular economy: tomato flour comes from the waste from the production process of purees, for example, while plant-based “tuna steaks” come from soya. All legumes, in general, are the masters: from the toasted ones covered in chocolate to the pasta with lupins and vegetable mince, up to the chickpea farinata which becomes a crunchy puff pastry snack.

Among the new ingredients, the most popular is collagen. We find it in mixed meat protein broth based on 100% natural ingredients, but also in high-protein, vegetarian and gluten-free bars or sugar-free drinks. And after the alarms raised last summer by clam farmers, the first blue crab meats are also making their appearance on the shelves of Cibus.

If there is a key word, however, it is fusion: the chutney – the famous sweet and sour sauce of Indian origin – meets the balsamic vinegar of Modena PGI, the pink Himalayan salt is flavored with the black summer truffle, the Taggiasca olive oil mixes with bourbon vanilla from Madagascar, mayonnaise is suitable for sushi, while ‘nduja is also made with Halal certified beef. The famous Moscow Mule cocktail becomes a condiment: based on vinegar, ginger and lime to enhance the taste of meat and fish tartare. From vegetal bamboo charcoal powder, however, comes black smoked oil

Then there is the chapter on unusual combinations: blue cheese with berries in Sicilian pomegranate puree, Genoese basil with colonnata lard, squacquerone di Romagna served with wild herbs, truffle salami with a base covering of Parmesan, truffle combined with carpaccio in sea water. There’s even red prawn butter from Mazara del Valloil and plum cake enriched with yoghurt and cricket powder.