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With the rise of technology, the way humans eat is changing. Traditional methods of preparing food and consuming meals are shifting as advances in robotics and artificial intelligence allow for more personalized, efficient, and health-conscious meals. These changes are often referred to as ‘food trends’ and can help to inform foodservice providers and manufacturers of the most popular items, methods, and dietary trends that restaurants, cafés, and other vendors should consider incorporating into their menus. In this article, we discuss how food trends first began to develop and evolve, how the current trends are changing, and how the foodservice market can use food trend data to gain a better understanding of the current state of the foodservice industry.
A Brief History of Food Trends
Food trends have been around for centuries. From Ancient Greece and Rome to the Middle Ages, dinner parties, feasts, and other significant social events set the beginning for food trends. Royalty and the upper class made great efforts to set new trends in the food they served, providing new flavors, flavors from international countries, different dishes, and new ingredients or cooking processes. As the society continued to advance, so did the way humans cook and eat.1
The Industrial Revolution brought a number of new advancements in technology, and food was no exception. Canned, jarred, and boxed foods began to appear in grocery stores, making it easier for the middle class to access a variety of ingredients. Food companies eagerly competed to create the most convenient and delicious meals, introducing the idea of convenience food.2
In the 1950s, the United States began to see the rise of the well-known American-style diets, such as the USDA food pyramid, the Atkins diet, and the Mediterranean diet, to name a few. These meal plans, and others, gained massive amounts of popularity and continue to influence the way people eat in the 21st century.3
Modern Day Food Trends
Today, food trends are more complicated than in previous generations. With a rise in technology, different aspects of food, such as, origination, production, distribution, packaging, and consumption are all being impacted. This technology-driven focus has created an overall change in consumer behavior. As a result, the modern food trend consists of customization, fresh and clean ingredients, experimentations with plant-based diets, home cooking, and more.4
In addition, consumer’s shopping behaviors have changed. Due to the advancements of technology, consumers are able to have more control over their food decisions. Technology has created a higher demand for convenience, allowing people to purchase food with just a few taps of a phone or a voice command. Furthermore, consumer demand now requires faster delivery for their meals.
Creating and Analyzing Food Trend Data
Food trends are generally categorized by regional and sector meal plans. These regional plans can account for different food preferences, local events, or other relevant information about the respective geographic location. Food trends can also have sector plans, which account for the different types of cuisine offered at a given foodservice provider. These trends can be further broken down into regional and sector sub-categories to provide a stricter categorization and analysis of data.
Recognizing the value of food trend data provides insight into the menu items that are most popular at a restaurant or café. This data can help foodservice operators understand their current offerings, their customer’s eating habits, and the demand for certain menu items in their sector region. Once the data is processed, the operator can then make adjustments to their menus, ordering systems, and target market to maximize profit and increase customer satisfaction.
Wrapping up
Food trends, from feasts and royal banquets to computerized intelligent voice commands, have evolved over time and will continue to do so. Knowing and understanding what kinds of dishes, flavors, and diets will become the next trend is essential to the foodservice market gaining insight into what the customer demands. Understanding these trends and analyzing the data that defines these trends can give foodservice operators a competitive advantage in the market and help them target their customer base more effectively.
