I’m doing a talk to a food company about future trends so it’s time to revisit some food trends. This list is similar to previous lists, but somewhat expanded.
Key trends
1. Fast & convenient
2. Regional, seasonal & slow
3. Scientific solutions & functional foods
4. Comfort & nostalgia
5. Sustainable, ethical & fairtrade
6. Natural, pure & organic
7. Health & obesity
8. Indulgent
9. Portability & ready to eat
10. Premiumisation
Emergent trends
1. Food politics
2. Food inflation
100% with you. Perfectly describes my weekly grocery shopping.
as for the emerging trends – a few more ideas (thinking aloud…)
3. Hi-tech food (GMO, cloned food, nano technology) – inspired by the recent news.
4. Sensory and flavours (aging palates demand bolder flavors due to taste impairment)
5. Transparency (link to ethical concerns)
Just spotted in Time magazine (US edition) Top 10 Food Trends
1. Recession dining
2. Nanny-state food regulations
3. Salmonella Saintpaul (I have no idea!)
4. War on bottled water
5. The Clover coffee maker (huh?)
6. Caffeinated foods
6. Goat meat (gimme a break!)
7. Local food backlash (I haven’t seen it)
8. Celebrating Grant Achatz (?)
9. Mex-Italian (yuk)
Yeah, right….
This is from a sushi restaurant.
“Over the past xxx years, xxx has worked hard to reduce its environmental footprint. One of the ways we’ve done this is to create our menu around seasonal and local ingredients, which is how our xxx came about. For this we use whatever fish our Cornish fisherman xxx has caught on any given day. ”
It goes then goes on about sustainability and supporting local communities and son on. Now I’m sure thus is all true. However, most of the fish on the menu seems to be tuna and salmon and I don’t remember there being a lot of these out at sea off Cornwall. Then there’s the rice, the rice wine, the imported beers and so on.
Is this not a good example of how “local” and “sustainable” etc have been stolen and used willy nilly as marketing propositions without any real substance behind anything.
Just spotted another list!
Nostalgic treats
Feel good foods
Antioxident scoring
Just a handful of ingredients
Food fashion
Raw to your door
Quality and price (?)
Cheese
Seaweed (!)
Adapted from Delicious magazine, Food trends for 2010.
I’ve noticed a trend recently that’s not so much a food trend but more of a diet/lifestyle trend. It seems that a lot of vegans and raw vegans are going back to eating meat and animal products. Many who have been vegans for a long time (more than a decade some of them) and who have been rather evangelical are finding that veganism was not the best choice for them after all. When you are defined by what you eat and then you start to make drastic changes to your diet there are big identity issues that need to be dealt with.
I’m omnivorous all the way but I find this trend interesting. I see it as a big fat bandwagon that people are starting to jump off in favour of a more individualised approach to their health. People are learning that it’s not always best to just blindly follow what some gurus say (who, as it turns out, rarely practise what they preach).