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Kitchenware News & Housewares Review Show Daily 4 3 Tuesday, March 13, 2018 Peapod Expands Nutrition Filters Imagine walking into a grocery store where all of the products displayed are based on a shopper's personal tastes, dietary preferences and budget. Peapod, the country's leading online grocer, aims to do just that by enabling shop- pers to curate their own personalized digital aisle. An early innovator of smart shopping technology, Peapod has expanded its filtering capabilities to include four new nutrition filters: "Non- GMO," "Sugar Free," "Vegan" and "Vegetarian." Adding to Peapod's already robust sort feature, shoppers can now customize their searches with 16 features specific to nutrition prefer- ences, in addition to a variety of filters including brand preference, price and sale specials. "Our customers have told us that one of the pain points of traditional in- store grocery shopping is the over- whelming selection and the time it takes to read labels in order to find what they need," said Carrie Bienkowski, Peapod's Chief Marketing Officer. "While we all want options, we also want to find what we're looking for and to do so quickly. As a digital player, we can create personalized, curated shop- ping experiences to help consumers find what they're looking for with just a few clicks. These tools also help our shoppers discover new products that meet their specific needs. The new filters are based on growing consumer food and nutritional trends, as well as Peapod's own consumer insights. Forty-two percent of consumers read nutrition labels before purchasing and non-GMO labeling is becoming increas- ingly important to consumers as sales of non-GMO products are predicted to hit $330 billion by 2019. Moreover, vegan and vegetarian filters were added as plant-based diets continue to gain popu- larity. Almost a third of Millennials indi- cate they eat a meat alternative product every day, and 70 percent consume them at least a few times a week. "Our customers are often early adopters of emerging trends," says Bienkowski. "As such, we're able to uti- lize our keyword search data to stay ahead of the market. Since adding the "Organic" filter in 2014, it has become our most frequently used filter, and all Peapod carts now have at least one organic item." Enhanced smart shopping tools rep- resent Peapod's commitment to revolu- tionizing how consumers shop for gro- ceries. With more than 12,000 products, including fresh produce; meat and seafood; deli items; natural and organic foods; and a wide range of prepared foods and easy-to-prep meal kits, Peapod is a one-stop shop for convenient meal solutions and weekly stock-ups of pantry staples. Cooking And Serving in the English Style By Micah Cheek English cuisine has historically gotten a bad rap for dense and bland dishes remi- niscent of wartime shortages. But more recently, the likes of April Bloomfield and Jamie Oliver are shining a whole new light on English food. Now, the no fuss, fresh style dovetails nicely with Americans' current culinary interests and can shape how consumers buy kitchen tools. Carolyn Robb, former chef to the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester and Prince and Princess of Wales and author of the cookbook, The Royal Touch, details the way the cuisine has shifted. "As you probably know, food in the UK was absolutely shocking. It's amazing the evolution the food has undergone in that time," says Robb. "I would say the trend has gone to the really traditional dishes from years ago that have been modern- ized with a focus on sustainability and a focus on what's locally grown." Traditional roasts and soggy veg have given way to minted peas, cauli- flower cheese and fresh goat cheese tarts. "Now they're being presented in a more contemporary way. We have taken in a little bit of French influence, and a little bit of Italian influence as well." The key to this cooking style's appeal is an emphasis on seasonality. "I think the best thing to start with is some very good ingredients. Go to the market and find some really beautiful ingredi- ents, and then [say], 'What can I do with this?'" Robb says. "You can just go online and look up recipes for asparagus. You don't have to be a professional cook to find good ingredients and make some- thing simple with them. That's how you develop your own cuisine within your own little kitchen at home." Improvising at the grocery store starts with acquiring kitchen tools that can handle any scenario. "The basics [are] a very good chop- ping board, an assortment of sharp knives, a really good peeler - a Microplane grater is really essential for Parmesan, nutmeg or citrus- and heavy based saute pan, something you can get a really crunchy golden finish on without using extra oil," says Robb. She also rec- ommends one large Dutch oven or a Le Creuset casserole for slow cooking. "I keep some wooden spoons for sweet, and some for savory. A really long-han- dled wooden spoon for jams. I love to have good rubber spatulas for mixing and scraping. I do have some silicone spoons for really spicy or pungent foods, I use both." Home cooks can be ready to entertain with just a few good pieces of bakeware and an oven. "For a very informal thing, quiche is a very good thing. There are so many bad quiches in the world, it's wonderful to have a homemade one," says Robb. "Really, you can put absolutely anything into it. I use pancetta. There's a hundred and one different cheeses, I love a roasted pep- per and goat cheese." For something more formal, roasts or braises can be handled in a Dutch oven or casserole. "A good dish for the winter is a casse- role, something along the lines of a boeuf bourgignon. It's one of those things, the basic recipe stays the same, but there are little changes." Any fruit in season can be integrated into dessert. "A really simple dessert is what we call a crumble. Fruit at the bot- tom, be it apple and cin- namon, or rhubarb, with a crispy topping. It's based on an old dish called Apple Betty. There's lots of different variations. And then some home- made ice cream to go with that." Even in a fancier dining experience, consumers can feel confident serving with a mixed set of dishware. "People no longer have formal sets of dinnerware, these are very mix and match. That's the trend, where things are becoming less formal," says Robb. "I think, for the home cook, it's nice to have something really simple to serve on." Robb is cur- rently designing a dishware line, and her aesthetic for that favors clean, white sur- faces with little accents of illustration, preferably of fruits or vegetables.