Bluegrass Ingredients On-site Hiring Event | March 19 | Glasgow, KY.
Trends hit differently in 2025. They don’t slowly develop, nor do they simmer with small brands before being adopted by mainstream players. Instead, an idea debuts on TikTok, goes viral and explodes into society in a matter of weeks. Next thing you know, Gen Alphas are talking to their baby boomer grandparents about fridgescaping and Dubai chocolate, and food brands are left scrambling trying to catch up.
This recent dynamic has forced food brands and ingredient suppliers to shift their approach to innovation, putting a premium on speed and agility. At Bluegrass Ingredients, we call it Agile Ingredient Innovation™. Essentially, we’ve stepped in to fill the gaps at R&D departments who don’t have the staff and resources to rapidly respond to every trend that captures online attention.
We recently developed two products that showcase our culinary team’s approach to innovation, first identifying relevant trends, and then rapidly developing new products. The first product we worked on involves pickles. Yes, pickles are trending in 2025, and consumers want them in everything, from beverages to dips to chips.
One particular TikTok trend, which saw people wrapping a dill pickle spear in cheese and flash frying it, inspired our culinary team to capture the flavors of cheese and pickles in a variety of formats.
We started with the dip space, which is the perfect category for pickle innovation. To build the formula, we used three of our ingredients:
These ingredients served as the flavor foundation, which we complemented with sour cream and cream cheese to form the base. We called it Chickle Dip and served it at Natural Products Expo West, where it was received with rave reviews.
A couple months later, we re-imagined the cheese and pickle trend into a sausage, showcasing how our culinary team can transform a trend into multiple applications.
Our ability to create unique flavor solutions using concentrated ingredients allows us to dial the flavor intensity up or down to hit an exact flavor profile. Contact us for the Chickle Dip or Sausage formulas.
Our next new product merged two seemingly disparate trends into a mashup that exploded with umami, cheesy notes and spice. All generations are seeking comfort foods during these uncertain times, but many consumers also are seeking out international cuisines. For our culinary team, these trends presented the perfect opportunity to create a mashup.
We started with the comfort side of the concept and chose everyone’s favorite: mac and cheese. Next, we went global with ramen, and mashed the two noodle dishes together into a Spicy Mac and Cheese Ramen. The main flavors in the dish came from our Chedd-Rich Concentrate, Butter Concentrate and Lemon Powder flavor.
The dish was delicious, but lacked a kick. So we built a seasoning blend similar to the popular Takis snack, which used our lime powder and buttermilk shortening powder. Chef’s kiss. The dish was perfect and packed a flavor punch that wowed, but didn’t overwhelm.
Each of these new products required multiple iterations to perfect the formula. However, these iterations didn’t slow down progress, which is what makes Bluegrass Ingredients unique. Our focus on rapid and agile innovation allows us to create black box flavors quickly and tailored to a specific application.
Are you ready to transform viral food trends into successful new products? Contact Bluegrass Ingredients and unleash the power of Agile Ingredient Innovation.
