LAS VEGAS — Specialty Food Association (SFA) president Bill Lynch answered Supermarket Perimeter's questions on the upcoming 2025 Winter Fancy Food Show to be held Jan. 19-21, 2025.

The Winter Show is just over a month away – what are you most looking forward to?

I just love that our Winter Show comes at the very beginning of a fresh annual cycle in food and beverage. Often, the start of a new year can bring about mixed emotions—excitement, of course, but maybe some anxiety or stress about long-term goals, high expectations, and things like that. The role that I see the Winter Fancy Food Show playing is almost like a secret weapon for specialty food buyers, distributors, and brokers to counteract those stressful feelings. By providing community, inspiration, and a curated showcase of products designed around emerging trends, our Show sets an amazing tone for the year ahead each January.

What is new and different this year as compared with past Fancy Food Shows?

The 2025 Winter Show will put some really exciting trends in the spotlight in new ways. I’m excited about the new First Taste Experience food hall, which we’re debuting in Las Vegas and which will offer attendees a fun sampling experience, with a fresh theme and new products unveiled each day. We’ll do an International Market, Holiday Market, and Trends Market. 

With so much innovation and attention happening with “global flavors” in specialty foods, I expect this area to be buzzy from day 1.

Of course, working with our partner country Italy and the great team at Universal Marketing is another big reason to be excited. They have an incredible Pavilion planned for the Show, and they actually just expanded it by more than 10,000 square feet! The Pavilion will feature more than 90 exhibitors, superstar chefs, live demonstrations, musical performances, and more. 

The quality and appeal of Italian ingredients fits beautifully into another major trend—consumers wanting to cook restaurant-quality meals at home—so it’s a perfect time to work with Italy on the Winter Show.

What types of products do you expect to “break out” in specialty in 2025?

There are so many possibilities. If we look back at 2024, one of the major viral products was hot honey. SFA member Mike’s Hot Honey is in potato chips, on the menu at Dunkin’ Donuts, and more. But long before hot honey’s big year, it was one of the buzzy products at the Fancy Food Show. So I definitely expect that the biggest food and beverage stories of 2025 will be around products attendees can find on our Show Floor this January. 

Some of the emerging trends the SFA Trendspotters have identified provide some direction: increasing diversity and use cases for vinegars, an appetite for specific chili peppers rather than just generic heat, and a shift away from artificial sweeteners and towards natural sugar are all worth looking for this January at the Show.

How should Winter Show attendees be preparing to make the most of their time in Las Vegas?

First of all, thanks so much for registering – we can’t wait to see you there! I think first and foremost, dive into our exhibitor directory and start saving the products and suppliers that catch your eye. We’ve made it easy to browse the new-to-market products and first-time exhibitors that will be there, as well as the category-specific lists. 

One of the new Pavilions at the Winter Show will be Debut District, which is all about “the new.” That’s where startups and Incubator Village will be, along with exhibitors with new products and first-time exhibitors. So check out the Debut District list as well.

For anyone reading this far who has not yet registered for the Show or who has never been to a Winter Fancy Food Show before, I want to invite you to reach out to us to learn about how attending can elevate your work and help you reach your goals! We have a few more slots available in our Hosted Buyer program, in which SFA will cover the cost of some aspects of the Show experience for first-time attendees. If you’re interested, please email Michelle McDonald, our Director of Buyer Relations.   

I hope to see everyone in Las Vegas, Jan. 19-21, 2025!