Food Trends

FOOD TRENDS

A number of macro forces will impact the way food is
produced, distributed, bought, sold and consumed. Push factors will force the sector to adapt
as a result of global issues while the sector will respond to Pull Factors which
are consumer driven, both will have a significant impact on the future of the
sector.

Table 1: Influential factors in food and restaurant trends.

PUSH
FACTORS

PULL
FACTORS

Global Population Increase

Rural to Urban life

Obesity & other non-communicable diseases

Global Warming & Climate Change

Health & Wellness

Technology

Digital Capabilities

Limitless Options

As the global population continues to grow and there is a
shift from rural to urban life, there will be an increase demand for food
supply and shorter, more efficient, supply chains. For example, Paris is opening the World’s
largest roof-top urban farm, growing fruit and vegetables set to supply
residents with a tonne of food a day.

‘The
14,000 m² of space – equivalent to about two football pitches – will be loaded
with around 30 different types of plant. They’ll be grown in columns without
soil and fed with nutrient-rich solutions and rainwater. This aeroponic method
uses little water and means a large number of plants can be grown in a small
area’ – Agripolis, the company behind the farm. (World Economic Forum)

Likewise in Dubai the World’s largest vertical farm has been
developed to cater for the 225,000 meals that Emirates Flight Catering produce
daily.

In
the new Dubai facility, the plants are stacked together four or five storeys
high over 130,000 square feet (12,077 square metres). For one thing, this type
of farming doesn’t need soil. The plants are stacked on top of each other in
rows, their roots immersed in nutrient-rich water. This system – called
hydroponics – uses 99% less water than field farming. The plants sit under LED
lights which drive their photosynthesis. (World Economic Forum)

The challenge to combat obesity and other non-communicable
diseases coupled with a health & wellness lifestyle will also contribute to
the future of food service. While the
most glaring impact on food production will come from climate change with global
warming and droughts.

Advances in technology, both in terms of production and
services as well as communicating, contribute to meeting more discerning
consumers’ demands. With limitless
options available for customers to choose from, restaurants will need to
revolutionise their business model.

So what does the
future hold for the Food & Restaurant Sector?

Mastercard present
the ‘Data Driven Dining’ – Top Trends for Restaurants. They highlight the ned for restauranteurs to
collect, manage, report, take action on anonymised and aggregated transaction
data and consumer behaviour from inside and outside their four walls. (https://www.mastercardservices.com/en/compendium/data-driven-dining-top-trends-restaurants-2019)

TRENDS	WHAT IT MEANS
1. QSR – Quick Service Restaurants	Digital menu cards, self-service kiosks, open kitchens.
2. Solving the Delivery Equation	High cost of delivery and relinquishing control over service.
3. Crafting it for the ‘Gram ‘Pose & Post’	Cater for Millennials & Gen Zs who have a thirst for experiences and social media-worthy content.
4. Personalisation Pick-up	Insights around customer preferences and what combinations drive larger checks.
5. Experimenting with Pricing	Get pricing right and rigorously test price changes.

Restaurant Insider
(upserve.com) is a source for restaurant news, trends, information, tools and
conversation, they present the top restaurant trends that are shaping the
future of food. They urge restauranteurs
to stay informed through industry blogs, stay active on social media and stay
involved in networks. (https://www.upserve.com/restaurant-insider/restaurant-industry-trends)

Trends	What it means
1. The rise of on-line ordering	3 in 5 people order delivery or takeout once/week. Pick up, direct delivery or third party delivery company are all in the mix.
2. Experimenting with Dining Experiences ‘Out-of-the-box’ experiences ‘Off-menu week’	Offer exclusive concepts with behind the scenes experiences and off-menu secrets
3. Consumers spend consciously	Transparency means everything, fair trade, diversity, living wage, the planet, environmental impact, conservation initiatives. Zero waste kitchens & increase in plant-based menu items.
4. Wellness Warriors	Functional Foods & Drinks featuring in the wellness industry Fermented foods – Great for your gut CBD oil – calming derivatives to treat inflammation and anxiety Probiotics – in drinks like Kombucha
5. Cultivating Culture to fight employee turnover	Put culture first with a stable environment and opportunity for growth including, mentoring, training, coaching, healthcare benefits, transportation etc.
6. Restaurant Tech Takeover	Cloud-based management platforms integrate point of sale, inventory, online ordering, loyalty programmes, mobile apps and payment processing.

Accenture is a leading global professional services company,
providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital,
technology and operations who lead the Food Marketing Institute which advocates
on behalf of the food retail industry.
They present ‘The Future of Food – New Realities for the Industry’

REALITY #1: A
CHANGING MARKETPLACE BATTLEGROUND

Trend	What does it mean
1. A rapidly changing marketplace	emergence of ‘Grocerants’, micro- food-halls, urban farming, augmented reality experiences, using technology to create a virtual experiences, pop-ups, forecourts, deliveroo etc
2. Digital capabilities	RFDI to help track the calories in restaurant orders, apps connecting our eating habits to our medical well-being ‘healthy for me’ options.
3. Diet and health services.	Connecting our eating habits to our medical well-being through doctor-prescribed diets and physical health routines. Technology will help us choose “healthy for me” options—and make them easily available.
4. Community and social platforms.	Consumers will be better able to connect in physical and virtual communities around their common food priorities. Whether it’s local and organic, or gluten-free and paleo, technology will provide consumers new options to commune with their “tribe” and personalize their food identity.
5. “Mise en place” as a service.	Consumers will have access to products at different stages of preparation, from raw ingredients, to chopped and diced, to hot and ready to eat.
6. Delivery and concierge services.	Products come to consumers where and when they need them, with an array of value-added options—delivery curbside, to work, to front door, or inside their pantries and refrigerators.

WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR DINNER? AND
HOW DO YOU WANT IT?

REALITY #2 THE CHANGING CONSUMER

Trends	What does it mean
Health-enhancing foods	Health as the Holy Grail means consumers are willing to pay more for healthier foods.
Transparency and sustainability	Transparency may become a key non-price purchase trigger: 9 in 10 consumers globally rate ingredient transparency as important or very important for companies to address.
Social consciousness.	73 percent of consumers would actively switch to a brand with a social purpose.27 It is no coincidence that the market trend toward “responsible products” is growing.
Trust.	With trust in a company increasingly becoming table stakes, brands and retailers will need to look hard at their value system and how it is communicated to the end customer.
Tribal influencers.	Brands and retailers have to understand how they will be invited to participate in the tribe and thereby influence purchase decisions.
The digital self.	As AI personal assistants become more prevalent, brands and retailers will be dealing more and more with a consumer’s digital self, versus the actual person. AI will earn the right to make decisions for individual consumers, who will trust their assistants to take the decision-making burden off of them. The usual points of influence and purchase levers may not apply when dealing with a bot
The technology effect.	Rapid advances in technology will continue to fuel consumers’ expectations that retailers provide immediate and real-time response to their demands and needs. Adoption rates of consumer technology increase each time new options are introduced, which means the rate at which consumers are adopting new technology is faster than ever before.

REALITY #3 – A
REINVENTED FOOD PRODUCTION SYSTEM

Trends	What does it mean
Supply and demand will be closer together.	Trends like urban farming brings farms closer to population centers, and experiments in “in-store farming” and local manufacturing of products are expected to grow quickly.
Entirely new sources of food.	Alternative proteins such as peas, yeast, insects and algae offer substantial efficiency gains over animal-based ingredients. Meat and dairy products currently require large inputs of grain and other resources for relatively little caloric gain.
Digitization of food.	Digital trends will have a tremendous impact on how food is produced. The “digitization” of plants is the process of measuring, calculating, deconstructing, and storing the optimal micro-needs of a plant in a digital medium which are then used to replicate those conditions to control production

CB Insights Platform
presents the NExTT FRAMEWORK of Food & Beverage Trends in 2019.

Food & Beverage Trends in 2019