Food & Beverage industry is always on the look out for new trends and one of the best sources for this kind of trend spotting is Specialty Food Association shows and publications. I am personally a fan of Middle Eastern food so it was fun to see that it made the list. Every year Specialty Food Associations panel "TRENDSPOTERS" pick top trends in USA. Here is the list and info regarding upcoming trends that we will experience.

The Washington Strategy Group, a lobbying firm started by supporters of Fethullah Gulen, a Turkish cleric living in Pennsylvania blamed by the Turkish government for instigating a failed coup last year, has started signing clients. The group registered to lobby on its own behalf last year on “Human rights violations and the protection of free expression in Turkey,” but until last week hadn’t signed any clients. The six clients all appear to be local Gulenist and Turkish-American organizations based in Columbus, Ohio; Des Plaines, Ill.; Houston; New York; St. Louis; and Sunnyvale, Calif. Washington Strategy Group also registered to lobby for each of them on “Global human rights violations, freedom of expressions, rule of law, recent refugee and immigration problems,” according to disclosure filings.

A 19-year-old student of Turkish origin became the youngest politician in U.S. history after his election to the municipal council in the northeastern city of New Haven, Connecticut. Independent and uncontested candidate Hacıbey Çatalbaşoğlu was elected to the board of alders from New Haven's Ward 1 reserved for the city's renowned Yale University, where Çatalbaşoğlu continues his studies. Çatalbaşoğlu, who also helps out his father at their pizza shop in downtown New Haven, conducted a tight door-to-door election campaign, asking voter support with the promise to bring the city and the university closer.

Chobani, the second-largest yogurt maker in the United States, has picked Idaho, not upstate New York, as the site of its new $21 million research center. The Greek yogurt giant founded by former University at Albany student Hamdi Ulukaya is headquartered in New Berlin, New York, about 100 miles west of Albany. Chobani announced late last week that it is building a 70,000-square-foot expansion in Twin Falls, Idaho, where the company has invested $850 million over the past five years.