Food Trends For 2019
Another year has gone by and we’re already into the second month of 2019! As always, here at NetCost Market, we like to look ahead at this time of the year to see what we expect are the most likely food trends for the year ahead! Here are some of our predictions:
Home dining is on the rise
There was once a time when everyone believed that the best food you could get was from an expensive restaurant… but not anymore! Over the last few years, Americans have been going through a home-dining revolution with home cooking becoming more popular – even trendy! The popularity of fresh produce over convenience food has really tipped the scales for millennials, who have transformed cooking into a pass time rather than a chore. On top of this, there’s also the fact that many restaurants are under increased financial pressure as a result of increasing rent, stagnating wages, and higher importation tariffs. These elements will likely increase the price of eating out, making staying at home and creating a home-cooked masterpiece a more attractive option!
The rise of the robots
The restaurant and food industries are not immune to automation. For those that work in the industry, this won’t come as welcome news as it could mean a threat to jobs, but for customers, it could mean a better dining experience at a reduced cost! Everything from robotic waiters to meal-preparing machines are in the process of being designed and perfected, and 2019 could be the year that we see some initial designs coming to market. So, keep your eye out for these intriguing ideas that are likely to become the norm in the not so distant future!
Motherless Meat
The growing trends of veganism and vegetarianism have really taken off in the last few years, but what if we could have our cake (or juicy burger for that matter!) and eat it too?! Well, it may not be so far away! There are various companies with huge financial backing working diligently to crack the secret formula for making lab-grown meat. The incentive? Whoever cracks it first and can produce it on a large scale at an affordable price will monopolize on a huge, untapped market by providing the ideal product for meat-hungry vegetarians and guilt-compelled carnivores! On top of that, the reduction of livestock will rapidly reduce greenhouse emissions and theoretically open up more land for planting carbon dioxide filtering plants, helping to reduce the effects of global warming!
Sour is all the rage!
So far, we haven’t talked too much about what flavor trends will develop. Lots of food bloggers out there are predicting the rise of sour cuisines such as Korean, Filipino, and Persian, which draw on the sour flavors of foods such as calamansi, rhubarb, sour orange, tamarind, and pomegranates. This fits in with the longer-term trend of people moving away from sweet flavors with the rising awareness surrounding the health risks related to eating too much refined sugar!
From our research, 2019 looks like it’s going to be a great year for food lovers with some ground-breaking changes to the way we eat and interact with food. The future of food has never felt so…futuristic! And 2019 could really see us depart from outdated eating experiences and enter a whole new era of dining culture and practices!