Botanicals – Plants and flowers are springing up in food and beverage items as more and more consumers are becoming interested in the potential healing benefits of these ingredients. This trend is very exciting because is it very natural, global, clean label and very easily incorporated into chef driven cuisines.
Transparency – This is driven by the consumer demand for more product information, fewer artificial ingredientsand more sustainable production and packaging. It has now extended beyond just clean-labels to include product traceability as shoppers grow more curious on where their food comes from and how it’s handled along the supply chain.
Ethnic Cuisine –Asian and Middle Eastern flavors continue to show more awareness and growth beyond just sushi, tempura, hummus and yogurt. Asian flavors balance the five basic tastes — sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami — while Middle Eastern ones range from spice blends with texture — such as such as za’atar and dukkah — to labna, a softand spreadable cheeses made from strained yogurt. These types of foods allow consumers to travel from the comfort of their own home.
Science-based Foods – Beyond Meat is known for it’s plant-based burgers which are made from pea protein isolate, coconut oil and sunflower oil. The also justrecently launched Beyond Sausage; both are vegetarian product is designed to mimic the flavor, texture and shape of the respective animal-meat item without the hormones, nitrates, soy and gluten. Sales of plant-based foods grew 8.1% during the past year. Nielsen estimated that plant-based meats accounted for 2.1% of sales in refrigerated and frozen meat products sold at retail. Cell-cultured meat also is gaining traction, and tartups have begun to experiment with fish as well as beef and poultry.
Sustainability- This trend has moved beyond recyclable packaging. Consumers are taking a more active role in the battle against food waste, a mindset that is leading many shoppers to try and use all parts of a plant or animal or vegetable, rather than cherry-picking some and throwing the rest away. Also called “root-to-stem” and “nose-to-tail” eating, this expanded type of sustainability is likely to appear equally in meat and produce departments.
Indulgence Foods – Comfort foods containing butter, lard and other fats and oils are hip again. Today’s consumers seem more interested in reducing the amount of sugar and sodium they consume than about the amount of fat in their diet. It noted there is growing awareness “that certain fat and oils can actually make positive health contributions.” Indulgence foods will always fit somewhere within the American diet, since nearly everyone has a tendency to eat food once in a while that isn’t especially nutritious.
Botanicals – Plants and flowers are springing up in food and beverage items as more and more consumers are becoming interested in the potential healing benefits of these ingredients. This trend is very exciting because is it very natural, global, clean label and very easily incorporated into chef driven cuisines.
tartups have begun to experiment with fish as well as beef and poultry.