ast summer, the right mix of rain and sun over Minnesota gave corn farmers in the Gopher State a bumper crop [3]. Garrison Keillor, the redoubtable host of the public radio show “A Prairie Home Companion,” was likely pleased. “Sex is good,” the proud Minnesotan once quipped, ”but not as good as fresh, sweet corn.”
One of 2015’s food trends, in fact, was a craze for healthy maize. Organic, GMO-free corn products like Kiddylicious Sweetcorn Rice Rounds, Off the Cob Sweet Corn Tortilla Chips, Pipsnacks Popcorn and Pop Art Snacks Tandoori Yogurt Popcorn tantalized health-conscious taste buds at the 61st Annual Summer Fancy Food Show last summer in New York City.
Darren Seifer, a food and beverage industry analyst at NPD Group, recently told Marketplace’s Annie Baxter that consumers are increasingly focused on clean and pure foods [4]. And when it comes to corn, that means fresh, locally sourced organic sweet corn, not high-fructose corn syrup, a sweetener found in a wide range of processed food that has been linked to obesity [5] and diabetes [6].