2018 Food Trends

1. Unusual Herbs

• By adding herbs to your food you can reduce or even eliminate the salt you add and still have a tasty meal

2. Hot Sauces

• Hot sauce provides a different taste profile to your food in a similar way that herbs do, and because many contain sodium, you don’t have to add salt

3. Sparkling Beverages

• Bubbly alternative to sugary soda

4. Better-For-You Snack Foods

• Crispy snap peas, veggie, nut, and legume-based chips and puffs

5. Edible Flowers

• Some health benefits, might provide a shot of antioxidants, help reduce inflammation

6. Meat Raised Without Antibiotics

• Overuse of these life-saving drugs, especially in agriculture, are driving up cases of antibiotic resistance in humans

7. Functional Mushrooms

• Reishi, Chaga, Cordyceps, and Lion’s Mane will be starring in unlikely products, such as bottled drinks, coffees, smoothies, and teas

8. Plant Proteins

• Lentils, quinoa, tofu, or flax seeds
• Veggie burgers, crackers, and even pastas

9. Souping

• First there was juicing; now, Souping
• Juice is low in fiber and souping retains some of the vegetable nutrients notably the fiber

10. Activated Charcoal

• Black powder
• The emergency room antidote for drug overdose is now in smoothies, supplements, and more as a way to ‘detox’ you

Food Trends

• 60% of Americans plan their meals; dinner is the most planned meal
• 40% of consumers gave safety “a lot of thought”; women & college graduates most likely

Functional Food Trends

• IFT definition:
  • “Foods and food components that provide a healthy benefit beyond basic nutrition”

1. Eating well

• Eating foods that deliver “specific benefits for my body” has surpassed consuming foods that are “good for me in a holistic way”

2. Buying in

• Buying foods and beverages that have specific healthy ingredients. Fiber, protein, vitamin D, calcium, nuts/seeds, …

3. Mind Matters

• Eating for brain health

4. High Octane

• Quick, easy, and high-nutrient solution foods
• Atkins products, Clif Bar, Kind Bar
• Super foods, protein foods

5. Reconditioning

• Heart healthy foods
• Digestive health foods- including probiotics, prebiotics
• Bone health

6. Healthy Living

• Mediterranean
• Keto, Paleo
• Atkins, slimfast

7. Claims

• No artificial ingredients, no preservatives, all natural, and locally grown / locally raised
• Non-GMO, clean label, and antibiotic-free / hormone free foods

8. Plant-based

• Meatless burgers

9. Basic upgrades

• Real ingredients
• Fresh when frozen
• Multigrain

10. Family Ties

• Kids
• Healthy snacks

Foods as an international commodity

• Foods are always traded and shipped around the world
• Grocery stores carry speciality items; can be purchased online
• Fast food companies - McDonald, Pizza Hut, KFC- many outlets all over the world
• Easily recognized US food brands are well received internationally

Parts of the Food industry

• 4 Segments: not clear-cut; overlap
• Production
  • Raising or growing of plant and animal products for food consumption
  • Farming, ranching, orchard management, fishing aquaculture
  • Technologies involved in selection of varieties, cultivation, growth, harvest, slaughter, storage, and handling of raw materials
• Manufacturing
  • Conversion of raw agricultural products to finished products
  • Many unit operations and processes — core of food technology
• Distribution
  • Aspects of product sales, transportation, storage requirements
• Marketing
  • Selling of foods- wholesale, retail, institutional and restaurant sales
  • Most involved with consumers
  • Commercials, advertisements, social media

Allied industries

• Machinery and equipment manufacturers
• Food colorings, flavorings, chemicals manufacturers
• Produce nonfood items integral for food industries-plastic, paper, etc.
• Safety of food supply- FDA; other regulatory agencies

How do food industries keep up with the trends?

1. Open Production: a firm purchases a commodity from a producer at a market price determined at the time of purchase

• A license is necessary for handling foods

2. Contract Production: a firm commits to purchase from a producer, at an established price before purchase is made

• A contract manufacturer provides manufacturing services for other companies that sell the product to consumers

3. Vertical integration: a single firm controls the flow of commodity across 2 or more stages of food Production

• The safety and quality of ever single ingredient, no matter how small, is essential to the final product’s safety and quality

• The kinds of foods consumed, change continually

  • More than 10,000 new food products are introduced each year

• Attitudes towards foods change consumption patterns

• The food industry has traditionally operated with open production

Industry Food Trends

1. Rx Foods

• One third of adults were more likely to buy a food or drink with multiple health benefits

2. Alternative formulations

• Diet plans in order to align their food and beverage choices with personal nutritional or ethical goals

3. Kids’/Infant foods

• More snacks

4. Global Modifications

• One third of consumers are looking forward to trying new global foods and/or flavors this year

5. Planetary transparency + Societal care

• Foods touting humane treatment of animals
• Ethical and recyclable claims
• Humane treatment of animals and regenerative agriculture resonate with consumers, but they are not strong purchase motivators unless a product satisfies other top consumer priorities

6. Influx of plant based foods

• Plant based ground veggie dinner mixes
• Plant protein

7. Relief from kitchen burnout

• Sales of value-added fresh pre-seasoned and precooked meat and poultry, up 29% during the pandemic.

8. Everyday specials

• Premium / speciality foods to create restaurant style meals and coffee shop experiences at home

9. Combination foods

• Laughing Cow Blends combine spreadable cheese with beans, chickpeas, or lentils,.
• Strong Roots switched out potatoes in its Cauliflower Hash Browns

10. Pet Foods

• Pet supplement sales jumped 21% in 2020 to 800M and are projected to top 1.2B by 2025

Future

• In 2021 and beyond, expect food and drink companies to create mental and emotional wellbeing solutions, deliver on new value needs, and use brands to celebrate people’s identities
• Feed the Mind
  • Innovative food and drink formulations will offer solutions for mental and emotional wellbeing that will create a new foundation for healthy eating.
• Quality redefined
  • Brands will be changed to respond to new definitions of trust, quality, and ‘essential’
• United by Food
  • Food and drink brands can balance a person’s needs to feel unique and special with the desire to be part of communities of like-minded individuals