How the Summer Fancy Food Show reflects the culinary times

This weekend, the Javits Center in New York City will once again fill show floors and pavilions with the tastes, sights and enticing aromas that flavor the $207 billion specialty food industry.

On Sunday, specialty food makers, importers, retail and foodservice buyers and members of the media will once again gather for the 69th Summer Fancy Food Show, one of two yearly shows hosted by the Specialty Food Association that bring together exhibitors and attendees from around the world.

SmartBrief has covered the Summer Fancy Food Show for the past decade, with the exception of 2020, when it was canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The following year, what was supposed to be a hybrid show became a virtual event amid the rise of a new variant of the virus. In 2022, the vibrant mix of trade show, educational and sharing sessions and networking opportunities returned as an in-person event.

The show has always reflected the times and been shaped by the trends affecting the specialty food industry, including the rise of ecommerce, pandemic-era supply chain challenges, and the growing importance of digital and social media marketing. This year’s show comes amid changing consumer appetites because of GLP-1 medication use, the ongoing effects of inflation on consumers’ shopping habits, and policy issues like tariffs that threaten more changes to the supply chain and new FDA rules on ingredients that could take some recipe developers back to the drawing board.

One enduring trend over the past 10 years has been the rise of entrepreneurial foodies turning their life stories into businesses, often with the intent of creating healthier and simpler versions of their favorite indulgences. One of the best parts of the show is always hearing the makers’ stories and learning how those tales translated into the creation of a new snack, condiment, beverage or meal.

SFA is a non-profit trade group representing more than 4,000 members, including 174 companies that joined last month alone. Earlier this year, the association hired former chef and Whole Foods Market executive Mary Beth Vultee to fill the newly created position of senior vice president for membership. Recently, we sat down with Vultee, who holds a master’s degree in food studies from New York University, to hear about her reasons for joining SFA, the challenges she aims to help members navigate, and what to expect at both Summer Fancy Food and the new Winter FancyFaire* event which will kick off in January 2026. The interview has been lightly edited for clarity and length.

SmartBrief: What was your job like at Whole Foods, and how did it prepare you for the new role at SFA? What attracted you to the new position at SFA? What are your responsibilities in the new job?

Mary Beth Vultee: I was there for a total of about 16 or 17 years, I left and came back. I was a chef prior to joining Whole Foods. I was a chef in restaurants and then a personal chef for a little while in New York and on Nantucket. When I discovered Whole Foods, that type of food was not as ubiquitous as it is today. My first job was in the kitchen in Charleston, South Carolina and, over the years, I had the opportunity to grow the culinary role into a merchandising and sourcing role. Then into leadership, where I oversaw large cross-functional teams [that included] operations and merchandising, and then onto local and emerging brands. My last job there was on the store development team. I was on the design team. When I was in leadership there, we were much more in a new store opening phase, growing through market expansion.

Probably for me, my favorite part of my role was working with emerging brands, helping them scale. That drew me to [the role] at SFA. It’s a nonprofit, but I’m still working very closely with emerging brands and makers. With over 4,000 members, the vast majority are makers and manufacturers, and our primary purpose is helping the specialty food industry grow and supporting makers from the beginning. The role really appealed to me. I had long admired SFA and the role came together at a perfect time for me.

SB: What will be new at the Summer Fancy Food Show this year?

MBV: I think one of the things that’s always new is our exhibitors. Over 600 of them will be new products, a 40% increase over last year. The summer show in New York City is the place to be, it draws people from all over the country and the world, so it’s very exciting. We’ve been growing a lot of incubator and accelerator programs. There will be like 90 brands participating there. And we’re going to have a membership HQ, so makers will have a place where they can come, charge their phones and learn more about their membership benefits. We’ll also have the sofi awards booth and the Winter FancyFaire* snow globe.

We also have two really awesome keynote speakers. We have the CEO of HungryRoot, Ben McClean. And then [chef and restaurateur] Michael Symon. We’re also really excited about [growing the focus on] foodservice.

My team is membership-focused. We oversee programming and education. I’m really keyed into programming. We also have our People Awards – we will be celebrating amazing people throughout the food industry.

SB: What are some of the challenges startup food brands face, and how can they overcome them?

MBV: We hear a lot of similar things that are unique to this group, and it often has to do with breaking into the highly competitive retail environment, and it’s getting more and more competitive. We make sure to have the best group of buyers at the show and also create opportunities to connect outside of that. Navigating the supply chain is also becoming more complicated, and managing resources for business functions like marketing and distribution. Decisions around that are a lot about where you are in scaling your business. [We can help on questions around] when is the best time to diversify distribution networks, for example.

SB: What are some of the year-round membership benefits SFA offers?

MBV: We have webinars and educational opportunities throughout the year. Community happens a lot at our trade shows, and we’re currently building a community engagement team. We have our two trade shows, but we’re also creating times throughout the year for members to be with each other.

One of the biggest things our members are asking for is connecting with others within their state or region. We can bring a group of people together who are facing the same challenges, and they can often help each other as much as we can help them.

SB: SFA retired the Winter Fancy Food Show after this year’s event, and next January it will hold the first Winter FancyFaire* in San Diego. What are some of the changes people can expect at the winter event? How will that show be different from Summer Fancy Food?

MBV: Our summer show is in New York, and there’s tons of energy around it. With Winter, we would like to create a new experience. It’s early in January, so it’s one of the first shows of the year, and the goal is to reinvigorate after the holiday season. It will be a place to get inspired. It’s a trade show, but it will also include other opportunities for culinary experiences. It will be in San Diego, and there will be ways for us to extend the typical trade show into the city. There will be a campus tasting trail and visits to restaurants and retailers across San Diego. We’re putting together a tasting table and bringing in chefs from the area for a taste of the place. We’ll be having our makers really showcase their products, there will be more cooking, more culinary demos going on, and more sampling to show how products can work in foodservice. We’ll be opening packages and getting to what’s in them in a deeper way.

[Attendees] will be setting up for the year and getting inspired. We’ll also be unveiling the trends of the year and celebrating our sofi award winners.. We’re taking applications now, and the 75 finalists will be announced at Winter FancyFair*. We’ve revamped the categories a bit, so they’re more closely aligned with how category managers and buyers think.

SB: Challenges for the specialty food industry in the post-pandemic years centered largely on supply chain disruptions and the resulting inflation. Much of the sales growth in 2021 was attributed to inflation versus volume growth, for example. Is inflation still an issue? Are there new supply chain challenges now related to tariffs or other factors?

MBV: I think it’s both. Inflation is still an issue. Yes, the pressures have eased a bit, but we still see a lot of cost sensitivity across the supply chain, including in ingredient sourcing, packaging and freight distribution. Tariffs and trade policy are definitely a concern. It’s the uncertainty. Think about specialty type brands, new and emerging brands, they’re on a razor’s edge. Everything has to go right for them to succeed. Fear creates volatility. I think supply chains will just be uncertain from now on. Things like climate change and weather volatility are not going away. Then, when I think about freight and transportation challenges, like driver shortages, I think we’re just in a new phase of food production, and it’s highly complicated. People like frozen food [for example], and that creates cold chain challenges. There are more chances of those things going down. It creates higher stakes and a volatile environment.

Then there are bottlenecks with manufacturing, especially for small batch makers [when scaling up from] their kitchen to a commercial kitchen to a contract manufacturer. [The challenge] comes from both sides, sourcing and demand. It’s the quintessential bottleneck and I think this will just be a new norm. Supply and demand – some of these are good problems to have. Consumers are seeking these items and our role at SFA is to try and navigate that by helping members to not make mistakes and to minimize the number of things that can go wrong when making key decisions early on.

SB: One of the hot topics in the food world lately is the rising use of GLP-1 drugs and the effect that’s having on the way people eat and the foods they choose. Is that trend affecting the way SFA members are developing and/or marketing their products? What about the rising concerns — and often confusion — around ultraprocessed foods?

MBV: It definitely will change consumer decision-making. It’s already started to, and it will continue to, and specialty makers are usually at the forefront of things like this. They’re responding to the changes in portion sizes and cleaner ingredient panels. Consumers are making more purposeful decisions around indulgence. If I’m having ice cream today, I’m having the best ice cream.

Ultraprocessed foods – that’s another complex topic. [For example], canned food is processed food. We lead lives where we need convenience, so it’s about how to find that balance. SFA can be a great resource for that.

Take a look back at SmartBrief’s coverage of the Summer Fancy Food Show over the past decade:

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