This is the time of the year we often take a nostalgic look back at recent events as we also look to the future. There is no shortage of anecdotal projections for next year’s food trends by experts, researchers and consultants – including me. While I don’t publish mine for mass consumption, I do spend each year watching, spotting and listening and finally analyzing those lists that form the menu, food and beverage trends for my clients and to guide Right Stuff’s development efforts for the year coming. Putting aside for the moment global food industry “trends”, there are some hopeful highlights that connect both my personal passions and my professional pursuits:·
-This is no banner year for extreme extravagances or eccentric ethnicities which means we just cannot cover up lack of flavor, technique and quality with flimflam.
-Fast food does not have to be an anathema to “slow food” but there is a demand that it is more real and more wholesome. What better way is there of driving up the quality of meals at and away from home than making available well produced products!
-In addition to artisan, all the projects projections echo a similar theme about the importance of local and sustainable (and heirloom, heritage, handcrafted and all the terms that go along). That it comes as a revelation to someone who has been working on the sustainable food movement for so long may seem odd but it is so very gratifying and encouraging even as my optimism is cautionary that the real meaning of these terms does not hijacked. I remain guardedly confident that the eating public is too smart to let that happen.
-Oh and ……well crafted beverages from the barrel to the bar; they are not going away!
The importance of provenance, taste, locale, handcrafted, healthy, wholesome and biodiverse and helping to make good, clean and fair foods and beverages more available (and perhaps ambitiously, second nature) is very promising indeed.
“Food as the new eco-issue: The environmental impact of our food choices will become a more prominent concern as stakeholders — brands, governments and activist organizations — drive awareness around the issue and rethink what food is sold and how it’s made. As more regions battle with food shortages and/or spiking costs, smarter practices around food will join the stable of green “best practices”- JWT Intelligence, 100 things to watch in 2012 -Executive Summary
