You might be seeing a lot more microwaveable whole-grain oatmeal, frozen Indian entrees, gourmet soup in recyclable cardboard boxes, and juices with funny named fruits like acai berries or goji berries when you go to your local supermarket.
You can already find them today and there's likely more food like that on the way, as food companies try to keep pace with customers who want healthy, sustainable, internationally inspired foods.
"Even though the trends are there, they're not individual buckets," says Gary Fread, president and chief executive of the Guelph Food Technology Centre.
Today's shoppers are a contradictory bunch, according to presentations at the food centre's latest trends seminar yesterday.
They want food that is healthy, but easy to prepare.
They want food they can carry with them to work in portion-sized packages, but they want it to be good for the environment. And they want flavours that reflect Canada's cultural diversity.
"Your kids could go home after school with a kid in their class who comes from Hong Kong or India, and they might come home and tell you about the snacks they had there," Fread says.
"Fusion food that combines elements of different international cuisines is an obvious offshoot from that," he says.
"It's been a factor in restaurants for a while so it's only natural that it would show up in the supermarket."
"If you look at what restaurants are serving, that's where people are developing their ideas," says Sarah Goudy, the centre's communications manager.
"The most influential trend is a growing awareness of the health benefits of food," Fread adds.
"You can expect to see more food labels proclaiming things like whole grains, antioxidants and probiotics as people look for food that will keep them healthy."
"Consumers want something that's healthy, but in on-the-go packages, or a smaller package size," Goudy says.
Those convenient single-serve packages also fly in the face of another trend -- a growing consciousness of the environmental impacts of food and food packaging.
That trend is behind the local food movement and new eco-friendly food packages, but it won't stop people from buying food that's convenient to make and eat.
Carol Zweep, the food centre's manager of packaging services says some retailers are trying to address that need for reduced packaging.
"For example, Costco and Wal-Mart offer products that are shrink-wrapped onto cardboard," she says.
"Other companies boast biodegradable packaging, but that doesn't always do much good because the landfill environment doesn't encourage these materials to break down."
"You've taken something that's potentially compostable and put it in an environment where it's not," Zweep says.
"Options like organic or fair trade are seen as environmentally and socially responsible, and are also helping drive food choices for consumers, Fread says.
ON THE WAY
Some emerging food trends. Health foods:
- acai berry, whole grains, dark chocolate Ethnic foods:
- Indian, Caribbean,
- Thai,
- Moroccan
- Natural sweeteners:
- maple, brown sugar, honey Fusion:
- combining different flavours or cooking styles -- like chocolate with chili peppers, or pizza made with Indian naan bread
- Convenience packaging: single servings, hand-held, resealable
- Ready-to-eat: microwaveable packages, self-steaming vegetables and pasta
- Environmentally friendly packaging: biodegradable, sustainable, including recyclable materials
Source: Guelph Food Technology Centre presentations
This article first appeared on Packaging Digest.
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