Food Trends and Systems

• Dining trends include environment, health, animal welfare, aesthetics, and ethical/social/economic concerns.

Market Segmentation Approach to Food Trends

• The XTC trends tree shows the relationship consumers: axis (pleasure, health, physical, convenience, ethics), and trends (exoticism, fun, vegetal, slimness, cosmetics, time saving, solidarity sophistication, variety of senses, natural, medical, energy well-being, easy to handle, nomadism, ecology).

Early Food Movements

• Hippocrates stated, "Let food be thy medicine".
• Traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda are considered systems, not trends or movements.
• Many food philosophers warned against excess.
• Epicurus (341-270 BC) suggested seeking someone to eat and drink with .
• Socrates (469-399 BC) said, “Thou shouldst eat to live; not live to eat."
• Confucius (551–479 BCE) believed happiness could be enjoyed with coarse rice, water, and a pillow.

Trends vs Fads

• A trend is defined as a general change in how people behave, signaling a permanent shift.
• A fad is a popular style, activity, or interest for a short time, and it doesn't influence the general direction of things.

Identifying Food Trends

• To identify a food trend, you check kitchens, social media, chef discussions, and demographics.
• The supply chain should be observed.
• What lessons, insight and ideas do other industries offer?

Trend Life Cycle

• The embryonic stage is exclusive, rare, and elite
• During the early adopter stage, specialists give the trend airtime, but it remains rare and risky.
• Intrepid consumers embrace and post about the movement during the mainstream stage, and skeptical consumers adopt it.
• As the trend tapers off, it becomes adopted and replicated by mainstream and discount businesses, and is highly commercial.
• In the end stage, the trend is dated, but the "best" aspects remain in most kitchen arsenals.

Nouvelle Cuisine (1973)

• Nouvelle Cuisine was supported by health and aesthetics.
• Key figures include Pierre Troisgros, Paul Bocuse, Michel Guérard, Roger Vergé, Louis Outhier, and Alain Senderens.
• Henri Gault and Christian Millau, from the Gault&Millau restaurant guide popularized it.
• The movement rebelled against the conservative rules of the Michelin Guide.

Nouvelle Cuisine: The Ten Commandments

• Don't overcook.
• Use fresh, quality products.
• Lighten your menu.
• Don't be systematically modernist.
• Seek out new techniques.
• Avoid pickles, cured game meats, and fermented foods.
• Eliminate rich sauces.
• Don't ignore dietetics.
• Don't doctor up presentations.
• Be inventive.

The End of Nouvelle Cuisine:

• Nouvelle Cuisine has largely been incorporated into mainstream cooking.
• It lightened French cuisine and brought honesty to dishes.

Early Food Trends: Health

• Low-fat diets were popular in the 1940s.
• Seed oils replaced animal fats.
• Obesity and cardiovascular disease rates rose.
• Weight Watchers began in the 1960s.

Modern Food Trends: Health

• Medical: use functional ingredients to promote health and prevent or treat disease.
• Natural: use minimally processed foods that reassure consumers.
• Plant-based: use ingredients derived from plant sources.
• Recent movements include:
  • Paleo Diet (2002)
  • Gluten-Free (2010)
  • Veganism (2018)
  • Coconut and "Superfoods" (2013)
  • Ketogenic Diet (2017)
  • Digestive Health (2018)

Canada's Food Guide until 2019:

• The old guide had recommendations on daily servings of vegetables/fruit, grain products, milk/alternatives, and meat/alternatives based on age and sex.

One Food Guide Serving:

• Grain Products:

  • 1 slice (35 g) bread or ½ bagel (45 g).
  • ½ pita (35 g) or ½ tortilla (35 g)
  • 125 mL (½ cup) cooked rice, pasta, or couscous
  • 30 g cold cereal
  • 175 mL (¾ cup) hot cereal

• Milk and Alternatives:

  • 250 mL (1 cup) milk or fortified soy beverage
  • 175 g (¾ cup) yogurt
  • 50 g (1 ½ oz.) cheese

• Meat and Alternatives:

  • 2 eggs
  • 30 mL (2 Tbsp) peanut butter
  • 175 mL (¾ cup) cooked beans
  • 75 g (2 ½ oz) or 125 mL (½ cup) cooked fish, shellfish, poultry, or lean meat

• Vegetables and Fruit

  • 125 mL (½ cup) fresh, frozen or canned vegetable or fruit or 100% juice
  • 250 mL (1 cup) leafy raw vegetables or salad
  • 1 fruit

• Canada's new food guide was released in 2019

Vegetarianism and Veganism

• Reasons for reducing meat consumption include health, weight management, animal welfare, environment, concerns over antibiotics, and taste.
• Percentages of vegetarians and vegans:
  • Canada (2020): 7.6% vegetarian, 4.6% vegan
  • USA (2018): 5% vegetarian, 3% vegan
  • UK (2019): 25.8% vegetarian, 4.4% vegan
• Switching entirely to plant-based foods ignores what grazing and browsing animals do.
• Sustainable livestock farming can restore soils, biodiversity, and sequester carbon.
• The global vegan food market is expected to reach $24.3bn by 2026.

Veganism for Health

• Eating less meat/dairy is a healthy choice.
• Veganism helps to protect against cardiovascular disease by reducing obesity and lowering cholesterol.
• Education and financial resources are necessary for the diet.

Slow Food

• Slow Food was founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini in Bra, Italy.
• It is promoted as an antidote to "fast food."
• It aims to prevent the disappearance of local food cultures and traditions.
• It counteracts fast life and combat people's dwindling interest in where their food comes from
• It believes the world's food choices affect the world around us.
• The Ark of Taste collects quality productions from cultures, history and traditions: fruits, vegetables, animal breeds, cheeses, breads, sweets, and cured meats.
• The Slow Food philosophy has three principles, good, clean, and fair.
  • Quality, flavorsome, and healthy food.
  • Production not harmful to the environment.
  • Accessible prices for consumers and fair conditions and pay for producers.
• To realize projects and ambitions, Slow Food has developed entities:
  • founded in 2003 supports Slow Food projects that the defend food biodiversity and traditions.
  • founded in 2004 supports a network of food communities, chefs, academics and youth working for a sustainable food system.
  • (UNISG) opened in 2004 educates future food professionals

Farm to Table

• It is a social movement that promotes sourcing ingredients directly from local farms rather than long distant supply chains.
• Produce is picked when ripe, better flavor and nutrient concentration, suited for simpler menus
• it is believed that less green-house gas is released by lessening transport

Modernist Cuisine

• Molecular gastronomy is a precursor to Modernist Cuisine.
• Molecular gastronomy explores culinary transformations, with a focus on phenomena occurring during the preparation of dishes.
• The founding chefs of the molecular movement abandoned it due to public misunderstanding, copycats, commercialism and mediocrity.
• They rekindled original intentions under "Modernist Cuisine"
• Cooking values tradition, builds on it, and its part of the ongoing evolution of craft.
• Innovation in ingredients, techniques, appliances, information, and make a real contribution to cooking.
• Some key figures include: Ferran Adria of El Bulli, Heston Blumenthal of the Fat Duck, and Thomas Keller of the French Laundry
• There are three basic principles guide the cooking including excellence, openness, and integrity.
• Cooking can affect people in profound ways, and that collaboration and sharing is essential to progress.

Trends

• Nose-to-tail eating emphasizes ethical, social, and animal welfare concerns.
• Zero waste addresses ethical, social, economic, and enviromental concers.
• Khushbu Shah stated that when ethnic cuisines become trendy, it is often based on white people's approval.

Looking forward

• Mindfulness.
• Ethical claims on packages have increased seven-fold since 2010.
• New corporate values include social conscience, health and wellness, enhanced nutrition, and life hacking.

Tactile

• Multi-sensory experiences in products, packaging, and display are the new "secret weapon."
• Acoustic sounds like slurping, chewing, whispering, and packaging crinkling trigger pleasing sensations (ASMR).
• Restaurant experiences are not longer passive, but interactive.

NeuroNutrition (and Biohacking)

• Diet is the #1 cause of death due to preventable metabolic disorders.
• 10% of the world population is on an exclusion diet due to allergy or health issue.
• NeuroNutrition connects food and the brain.
• "Brain claims" have increased by 36% in the last five years, mostly in sports nutrition and cereals.
• BioHacking is about individualized nutrition and products.
• Some resturants have on-staff nutritionists to help you choose foods for gut health, immunity, cholesterol, inflammation, fatigue and even depression.

Explore food trends, systems, and historical dietary movements. Understand the characteristics of trends versus systems, the impact of philosophy, and key aspects of movements towards healthy eating. Identify the influences and economic factors driving food trends.