SIAL 2022 first day. Innovation award and more.

• First day at SIAL 2022.
  First of all I would like to mention the two nice mascottes Obelix & Asterix of our hotel.

Then arrived at the SIAL the biggest surprise is that there are no surprises.
Many stands that claim to have the best vegetable substitute for meat. Everywhere the words vegan, gluten-free, vegetable, sustainable, pure, true, ...

The trend is for "healthy" food: I always wonder people using this word.

"why healthy? ... would we have wanted to sell food that is bad for you?". 

Nobody talks about clean labels and eliminating additives anymore. In fact, every plant substitute for meat must have additives or unorthodox unnatural solutions. A pink soy burger like a beef, a vegan sausage that is red (meat) and white (fat) sourced from green fibers. That it stands up only thanks to emulsifiers, binders, dyes, with unnatural aromas that give the bean the flavor of a steak.

Or the vegan buffalo milk mozzarella!

Instead of promoting them, they should be banned. It is true that there is a growing micro market that demands them. But if we want not to eat meat, fish, eggs, cheese, let's eat salads, vegetables, fruit and everything that the Lord has given us. And we honor the Mediterranean cuisine that has always found its balance between foods of plant and animal origin.

The truth is that I am also a bit disappointed with the innovations. Maybe even bewildered.

The two only color note? One is a product that combines algae with seeds and the other is a the fermented fruit snack.

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It seems to me an interesting, if not innovative, combination.

Only selected in the innovations that is meat based is a  flavored dried meat bar with fruits and spice from Bulgaria.

Anyway, later is a series of photos of some other products.

I took refuge in the quiet tradition offered by the Van Drie stand. Here we meet a lot of nice people from different European countries and spend our time together talking about various things. 

 In a traditionally gourmet way we ate excellent fine veal: sweetbread, fillet, cheek and shoulder blade interpreted by the great chefs led by the excellent Edgar Buhrs.

It is interesting to note the analysis of the trends identified which confirm the movements that have emerged in recent years.

 Here is a series of interesting screenshots:

Note that the only file without source is the one telling us that worldwide "35% people stopped eating meat or ...".

Should we trust it or not? I have some doubt about it. 

Now the day is coming to an end and we are about to go there to enjoy a well deserved dinner, without substitute foods, only what mother nature gave us.

A cordial greeting from Paris.

P.S.  enjoy if you are interested in these other photos of products that I would define "strange" and that I have seen in the windows of the innovation department.