New food products, where do they all go

I'm not the person to understand why these things disappear. I understand why they are created. That one is pretty simple. People, ordinary people, either working for themselves or for big food industry giants, have great and not so great ideas about new food products. And new food-like products. They want to be the next Henry Reese and develop a new food product and become a household name. Think Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. So every year, new stuff gets introduced to the marketplace. The last year for which the USDA has numbers, is 2010. Near the bottom are the websites to go to, and the charts showing the numbers and categories from which I retrieved all this information.

In 2010, there were 21,528 new products introduced to stores and the unsuspecting public. I say unsuspecting for several reasons. One, if it doesn't sell well, someone somewhere might still have fallen in love with it and it won't be available to them anymore. And two, well, most of the stuff introduced into the food system every year are FOOD-LIKE products. They're not real food. They contain the standard tricks of the agrigiant food industry, cheap semi-toxic chemicals that enhance the taste experience and perceived flavor all the while they increase salt, fat, sugar and lots and lots of fillers, refined glutamates and preservatives. Don't believe me, well, think about it. Real food isn't new, it doesn't need new SKU numbers to go onto grocery store shelves. And even though the largest category of product introduction are categorized as "NATURAL", the FDA has no definition for the advertising word "Natural". Any one can use it, and it means nothing. NOTHING!!!!!!!  A much smaller portion of the new products were Organic. So that means that the vast majority of new products have been, well, crap. 

Where do they go? If no one buys them, they are removed from the product lines of the food manufacturers and they disappear into oblivion. The scary thing though is, not too many of them make it. Granted I don't pay much attention to the crap on the shelves at the store, but I recently took a trip there just to see what's what. Aisles and aisles of processed food and when you stop anywhere and pick up any item, chances are it will contain a huge list of additives. But most of the stuff on the shelves I recognize. They have been there for decades. A few things I had never seen, but certainly not 20 thousand new products for every single year for the past decade. 

The organic food industry has grown by leaps and bounds. 24 billion dollars in 2012. (ERS on organic) There has been double digit growth in the food AND the non-food organic products since 2000. DOUBLE DIGIT growth. The only traditional chemical packed product to ever achieve double digit growth and sustain it over several years has been Spaghetti-O's shaped like dinosaurs. However Annie's product, Bernie's O's organic pasta product for kids has outpaced the growth of Spaghetti-O's every year. 

Maybe this trend in people looking at what's in their food instead of just buying what's convenient and tasty is, growing. Maybe. 

I hope so. That's why I write this blog

http://www.ers.usda.gov/topics/food-markets-prices/processing-marketing/new-products.aspx

http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/us-food-imports.aspx

New food and beverage product introductions, by product type, 2006-10*

	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
New products (number)	19,883	23,838	22,561	19,029	21,528
Candy, gum, and snacks	29.7	29.3	26.6	25.5	25.8
Beverages	24.7	18.9	23.1	21.3	21.0
Condiments	7.5	11.2	8.7	9.7	8.8
Processed meat	7.9	8.7	8.5	7.2	7.8
Fruit and vegetables	5.1	4.9	5.1	6.5	6.9
Meals and entrees	5.3	6.4	6.6	6.7	6.2
Dairy	5.4	4.8	4.7	4.8	5.9
Bakery foods	3.7	3.5	3.9	4.5	4.4
Pasta and rice	3.1	3.8	4.0	4.2	4.2
Baking ingredients	3.3	3.4	3.6	3.0	3.1
Cereals	1.8	1.7	1.6	1.8	2.0
Desserts	0.9	1.1	0.9	1.6	1.2
Baby food	0.4	1.0	1.0	1.3	1.0
Soups	0.9	0.9	0.8	1.0	1.0
Meal replacements and special diet foods	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.4
*Percent of total. Source: Datamonitor.

Number of new product introductions in the top 10 product claim categories for 2003-10* Tag or claim** 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Natural 1,380 1,364 1,596 1,664 2,335 2,123 1,894 2,145 Premium 1,589 1,546 2,071 2,645 3,552 3,362 2,336 1,800 Private label 428 275 290 414 734 740 810 1,600 Single serving 1,127 1,103 1,264 1,399 1,553 1,523 1,344 1,462 High-vitamins/minerals 687 707 759 805 922 994 758 986 No gluten 159 175 239 250 397 466 552 876 No preservatives 578 547 545 586 850 807 758 870 Organic 559 533 668 738 1,110 1,042 775 822 Fresh 556 597 690 700 952 918 799 808 Low/no fat 656 607 639 608 683 620 543 709 Total new product claims 16,374 17,629 19,261 20,459 26,263 25,012 22,483 25,640 Source: Datamonitor.  yep