Top food trends for 2012: Regional, local, South East Asian, bite-size and craft cocktails

April 17, 2012 - PRLog -- Jill Houk, consulting chef and thought leader in culinary research, recipe development, and consumer engagement addressed a diverse audience of manufacturing and food professionals in a webinar titled Food Industry Trends 2012: Exploring the Relationships between the Hospitality and Consumer Packaged Goods Industries hosted by i2live of Industry Intelligence Inc. on March 22.

During the interactive 60-minute webinar, Chef Houk highlighted 12 top trends for 2012 that will influence the hospitality, service and packaged food sectors. Many of these trends will be making their way into home kitchens as the packaged food sector seeks innovative ways to introduce new products into the home kitchen. Chef Houk’s top trends include: local and regional influences; natural, fresh and unprocessed foods; South East Asian flavors; smaller and bite-size portions and craft cocktails with fresh ingredients and interesting flavor pairings. To request a full recording of the webinar and get a copy of the presentation with sides, please go to http://www.i2live.net/contact/

Chef Houk will participate in a follow up webinar on April 19 titled Social Media Strategies for Food Companies: How to use brand advocates to evangelize about your products discussing how food companies can use social media and brand advocates to spotlight and market their products. Houk will answer questions such as: The type of information that is most important to get across in using social media. And ways the food industry can use all the available social media options.  To register for this webinar, please sign up http://www.i2live.net

About Jill Houk

Chef Houk is principal of Jill Houk Culinary Consulting. Originally Ms. Houk pursued a career in information technology and later honed her culinary skills as a professional catering chef and cooking instructor. After becoming a chef, Houk combined the two disciplines into culinary consulting. She is a consultant on food-related strategies and tactics for such household names as Sara Lee, Ajinomoto, Applegate Farms and Driscoll's Berries.

About i2live

i2live is the events unit of Industry Intelligence Inc. i2live brings together business leaders to address issues that cut across industries and market sectors especially forest products, packaging and food and beverage. Through online events and interactive conference programming, i2live helps businesses make sense of industry trends and capitalize on emerging opportunities. For more information visit http://www.i2live.net

About Industry Intelligence Inc.

Industry Intelligence Inc. grew from Forestweb, which began in 1999. Through the years, we have provided market intelligence to more than 600 companies worldwide from independent startups to Fortune 500 companies in the forest products, packaging and food and beverage industries. Our clients use our market intelligence to get a high-level view of their industry as well as access in-depth data to create sales reports, generate competitive analysis and make informed business decisions. Our innovation comes from our industry experts using our patented technology to deliver relevant market intelligence that helps companies like yours succeed.

If you'd like more information about Industry Intelligence Inc., visit http://www.industryintel.com, or for a demonstration of the company’s service, call 310.553.0008 to speak with a client care specialist.