Fine Food Australia 2023: Reuniting Peers, Showcasing Innovation

The food industry is back! After enduring the challenges of the COVID years, Fine Food Australia’s 2023 trade event has successfully united thousands of food professionals from throughout Australasia, and Simplot played a key role, with its large exhibition footprint including a unique virtual reality experience. Fine Food Australia is the country’s largest trade exhibition for the foodservice, hospitality and retail industries. It features new and innovative products from around Australia and internationally, as well as live demonstrations and masterclasses, catering to an audience of professionals working in the foodservice, hospitality and retail industries.

The 2023 event was held at the International Convention Centre Sydney, with Simplot’s innovative stand taking pride of place.

'People are just loving it... I think they're just really just happy to be chatting to salespeople again and mingling with industry peers,’ says Simplot’s Food Service Communications Coordinator Ellie Jaensch. The Simplot stand was eight months in the making and enabled visitors to see the quality and range of its brands, with demonstrations of Edgell Supa Crunch Delivery Chips that still hold their crunch after 40 minutes. The Simplot stand was catered to by Simplot’s Culinary Team who showcased new products, with treats including souvlaki using Edgell Plant Based Lamb Strips.

Excitingly, John West’s new tuna pouches won the award for best new food service product.

‘We've also just launched Edgell Guacamole and we’ve given visitors to our stand the opportunity to have a four-minute Virtual Reality (VR) experience,’ Ellie says. The unique VR experience takes users from the avocado fields of Mexico, through to the factory that processes the fruit to create Edgell Guacamole.

‘The VR was a real hit. It’s pretty cool and I think a lot of people were a bit rapt at the fact that it’s just avocado in those pouches.’

Some end users like Lawrence, head chef at Manly Wharf, were already huge fans of Edgell Guacamole and I&J South American Flathead Fish bites.

‘The fish bites we use it on our bottomless brunch on the weekend for tacos with the guacamole as well for a Mexican brunch. We are very busy.’

Simplot Australia’s Head of Customer and Channel Marketing, Mark Davey, also attended the expo and was excited by the opportunity it provided to connect with customers.

‘It’s great to see the health of the industry… we know it’s been a really tough time, and we really have to dig back in there,’ Mark says.

Facts to chew on

Over the four days, Simplot’s Culinary team used:

- Served more than 10,500 samples of Simplot’s extensive stable of brands.

- 168kg of Edgell Delivery Chips

- 72kg Edgell Sweet potato chips

- 24kg of Edgell Plant based lamb strips

(served in 640 portions of souvlaki)

- 5kg of John West Calcium in Springwater (served in 280 portions of sushi roll)

- 60 litres of oil