Cauiflower ‘superfood’ trend has room to run

With its snowy white color, crunchy texture, and mild taste, cauliflower seems an unlikely candidate to be the next great superfood. Yet that is where the vegetable finds itself today.

Superfoods come in myriad shapes, sizes, types, and colors. Sometimes they do not look the part. Cauliflower won’t win any beauty contests and lacks the exotic provenance of superfoods like acai, but this nutritional powerhouse is surging much like kale did a few years ago.

As a white vegetable, cauliflower has unusual health credentials. It contains the chemical sulforaphane, a sulfur compound which enhances the cardiovascular system. Cauliflower is also rich in choline, a nutrient which said to aid prenatal brain development and brain health.

Fresh off double-digit sales growth in UK supermarket chains like Tesco and Sainsbury in 2016, cauliflower sales growth is accelerating in 2017, aided by a glut of the cool-weather, cheap-to-grow vegetable in the UK.

These sales results mirror sales gains in the US. Vegetable grower Taylor Farms noted that cauliflower sales grew by 13% in 2015. More recently, Whole Foods Market has revealed that cauliflower sales expanded by double-digits in each of the last two years. Even Starbucks is a believer, just adding a Cauliflower Tabbouleh Salad to its Mercato lunch menu now testing in Chicago.

Cauliflower is winning because of its chameleon-like characteristics. This ‘blank slate’ vegetable can be consumed as a vegetable, but can also replace carbohydrate-rich staples like potatoes, pasta and rice. Serving versatility and a neutral taste that lets added flavors and seasonings shine could extend cauliflower’s growth run by a half decade or longer.

Cauliflower can even replace wheat, a boon to gluten-averse consumers. Cali’flour Pizza Crust from California-based Cali’flour Foods uses a combination of cauliflower, almond flour, and yeast to mimic the taste and texture of wheat-based pizza crust. The firm calls its low-carb, gluten-free creation “the new white flour”.

Versatility has made Green Giant Cauliflower Crumbles from California-based Growers Express a success. These recipe-ready washed and chopped pieces helped the product drive 44% of dollar sales growth for the US cauliflower category in 2016, according to Growers Express.

Recent product launches include cauliflower innovations that make rice and potatoes expendable. Green Giant Veggie Tots include a cauliflower variety pitched as a “great alternative to potato tots and fries” that delivers a full serving of vegetables. Cauli Rice Cauliflower Rice looks like rice, yet has 65% fewer calories. Sold in stand-up pouches, the product is shelf-stable for 12 months, unlike most cauliflower products that are refrigerated or frozen.

“The idea of cauliflower as a rice replacement started with the Paleo trend,” says Cauli Rice co-founder Jamie Harris. “But raw cauliflower only lasts for about four days in the refrigerator…it took us three years to figure out how to make it shelf-stable.”

That time may pay off because consumers are keen to avoid both carbohydrates and gluten. According to GlobalData’s Q3 2016 consumer survey, 39% of global consumers and 43% of Americans say they are trying to limit or avoid carbohydrates. 38% of global consumers and 36% of Americans say the same about gluten.

Pair these results with survey data showing that more than half of global consumers want to eat as many vegetables as possible, and it is easy to see momentum building for a near-term burst of cauliflower innovation in fast-moving consumer goods.

GlobalData report: Superfoods in FMCG