After all the festive eating and drinking, it got us thinking about what’s going to be big in food and drink in 2022. Here are our top trends to watch this year:
- Reduced alcohol – We’ve seen a constant rise in no and low alcohol drinks – that’s not going anywhere, but there’s a new trend for reduced alcohol. People who still want alcohol just not too much! 🍻🥂
- More plant-based and free from variety – from plant-based chicken to plant-based eggs, and a variety of plant-based fish hitting the market this year, by the end of 2022 you can expect to be able to find a functional replacement for every mainstream food. Not just for home cooking but also in restaurants. This does mean an increase in Lab created foods. 🥑🍆
- Climatarian diet – people who eat the most sustainable food products. This diet will be different depending on where you live and what your access to food looks like. Along with the rise of carbon neutral foods, products with 100% sustainable lifecycles from raw ingredients to compostable packaging will become the brands of choice for consumers. 💱
- Automations and Robot – yes the uprising is coming! No not really, but we are going to see more automation and maybe even robot servers.
- Ghost Kitchens – increased enormously over the last few years and many have continued. A ghost kitchen has no shop front, you can’t visit, it offers delivery only.
- Experiential food experiences are on the rise! Places where you get to “do” something maybe play a game or help to cook part of the meal, it’s all about involving people and memorable experiences for the Instagram generation.
- Sustainability – hardly a trend, it’s a global responsibility. But it’s great to see that we’re getting so much better at it. Not just wasting less but calculating CO2e for the products we’re creating and making this information available to our customers.
- Gut health – science has linked a healthy gut to your mood, your wellbeing and you’re your happiness and ability to concentrate. We know more now than ever and the rise in fermented foods is only going to continue and become more mainstream.
- Food Tech – we’ve talked about robots but there’s going to be even more food technology. Think cool apps which can analyse the food on your plate for its nutritional benefits.
- Experimental foods – if you haven’t tried Korean Texan Smoked BBQ food then you’re in for a REAL treat. It’s not just those awesome guys at the Toll Bridge Restaurant in Sandwich serving it up, there’s also a real rise in experimental combinations.
- Cultural authenticity – We’re going to see restaurants becoming more genuine about the cultural origins of the food they create. Not using the name of a cultural dish unless it’s genuinely based on the original recipe and cooking methods, a replica if you like, instead it will be more common to talk about it being “inspired by….name of original dish“.
- More cultural foods – with less travel, there has been a rise in visits to restaurants where the cuisine is less well known, such as Filipino, Peruvian, Burmese and Scandinavian.
- Plant–based milks – well this isn’t going anywhere. We even heard someone talking about a potato milk the other day, but it’s going to be more based on flavour than ever before. Oh and the lovely team at Lilk are leading the charge in the next generation of dairy-free milks – delicious blended varieties.
- Immunity supporting foods – expect to see more foods which are designed to aid sleep, or reduce stress, fortified with vitamins, minerals, prebiotics and adaptogens.
- Hydroponics and urban farming – The best way to improve hyper-locality of food sourcing is to grow everything right where you are. We’re going to see more hydrophonics and urban farming to the radar in 2022.
