Others, like Alix Turoff, a registered dietitian in New York, say they like cauliflower because it absorbs the flavors of other ingredients. She tells her

clients to pair riced cauliflower with dishes that have a lot of sauce and flavors, like curries, stir fries and chili. Some people even use riced cauliflower

to replace the rice in sushi, stuffed peppers and taco bowls.

“It opens up the door for people to get more creative,” she said. “It’s just a great way to get more vegetables in your diet.”

Food industry experts say that the cauliflower trend is growing because it appeals to a broad spectrum of consumers following a variety of diets,

from plant-based to Paleo. Many of them are drawn to vegetables and are seeking out so-called clean labels, or foods that limit additives such as

sugar, salt, artificial sweeteners and heavily refined, synthetic or genetically modified ingredients.

According to Nielsen, there are 36 different categories across the grocery store that feature cauliflower as an ingredient. The company found that

sales of “cauliflower centric” refrigerated dishes rose 108 percent in the past year, and that cauliflower baby foods increased 34 percent. Green

Giant, the century-old national food brand, says that cauliflower is among the hottest vegetables it sells today.

“The cauliflower trend is pervasive,” said Jordan Rost, the vice president of consumer insights for Nielsen. “We’re seeing it in everything from cream

cheese to baby food. Products that contain cauliflower are experiencing faster growth in sales than their overall categories. It’s driving growth across

all foods.”

Some national pizza chains, like California Pizza and Pie Five Pizza, have made cauliflower-crust pizza a standard item on their menus. There are also

multiple brands of cauliflower pizza sold in supermarkets, including Caulipower and a brand called Cali’Flour, which sells plain cauliflower crusts and

flat breads (including a vegan variety) for consumers who want to add their own sauce and toppings.

Many vegetable substitutes can be made at home with simple kitchen appliances. Riced cauliflower can be made with a food processor or a hand-

held tool called a ricer. Another gadget called a spiralizer turns zucchini, peppers and squash into noodles. But the process can be messy and time-

consuming, leading some brands to offer more convenient, packaged varieties.

In January, Green Giant introduced four lines of frozen “veggie spiral” noodles in grocery stores, with each line made entirely from zucchini, carrots,

beets or butternut squash. The company also introduced 10 lines of riced veggies, including cauliflower, broccoli and kohlrabi.

When the company first introduced its riced cauliflower in late 2016, it was harvesting five acres of cauliflower for the product each week. Now it is

harvesting six times that amount, 30 acres, equivalent to over 100,000 heads of cauliflower each day, said Jordan Greenberg, the vice president and

general manager of Green Giant.

“One of the goals that we had from day one was to create products that offer consumers opportunities to add more vegetables to their diets while

swapping out white carbs and less healthy side dishes,” he said.

Trader Joe’s, with more than 450 stores nationwide, started carrying its own brand of riced cauliflower last year that sold out so quickly that some of

its stores reportedly instituted a two-bag limit on customers. Whole Foods, Birds Eye and Cascadian Farm also introduced their own lines of riced

cauliflower.

But the products have also drawn the ire of the country’s $34-billion-a-year rice industry, which calls its new competitors “rice pretenders.” Now the

industry and 10 members of Congress from six rice-producing states, including Arkansas, California, Louisiana and Texas, are trying to stop

companies from labeling their cauliflower products rice, which they say is misleading and confusing to consumers.

In February, the lawmakers sent a letter to the Food and Drug Administration asking the agency to create a “standard of identity,” or formal

definition, for rice that defines it as a product containing or derived from rice or wild rice.

“Rice is a grain, not a vegetable that has been processed to resemble rice,” their letter stated. “While we recognize that consumers are entitled to

select rice pretender products, we want to ensure this choice is not an error.”

The rice industry’s strategy is similar to tactics employed by the dairy industry, which started its own campaign last year — backed by lawmakers

from dairy-producing states — against plant-based products labeled milk and cheese. Sales of cow’s milk have fallen in recent years, while sales of

plant-based alternatives, like almond milk, have risen.

In May, USA Rice, a trade group, sent formal complaints to Green Giant and several supermarket chains informing them that vegetable “crumbles”

marketed as rice were misleading. Shoppers might, for example, reach for a package of “cauliflower fried rice” in their local freezer aisle mistakenly

thinking that it contains actual rice, said Michael Klein, a spokesman for USA Rice.

“If you want to call it cauliflower crumbles or minced cauliflower or chopped cauliflower, that’s fine,” he said. “But don’t call it rice. It is not rice. There’s

a scientific definition of rice, and that’s not it.”

***

Anahad O’Connor is a staff reporter covering health, science, nutrition and other topics for Science Times and the Well blog. He is also a

bestselling author of consumer health books such as “Never Shower in a Thunderstorm” and “The 10 Things You Need to Eat.”