2015

Food and Health

Trends Kaiti George, RD, LMNT

Kearney Hy-Vee Registered Dietitian

What is a Food Trend?

Food trends indicate changes the

consumers make to their food habits

(patterns of eating). They reflect the

foods that have become popular and

changes consumers have made in the way

they purchase, prepare and serve food

At the end of each year or the beginning

of a new year, numerous companies

release their predictions on upcoming

food trends.

Which trends are steady and

which are slowing down?

Yesterday’s News

Bacon

Mini-Burgers/Sliders

Edible Flowers

Enhanced/ Infused

Water

Gazpacho

Steady since 2009

Locally sourced foods

Gluten Free

Healthy Kids Meals

Fruits and Vegetables as

Side items

Sustainable

CHIA!!!

So…what are chia seeds?

Chia is an edible seed that comes from the desert plant

Salvia hispanica, a member of the mint family that

grows abundantly in southern Mexico.

Fiber, Omega 3’s and SATIETY!

Coconut water CRAZE

Contains electrolytes and minerals, coconut water is

often marketed as a sports drink.

One cup has 46 calories, less that .5 grams of fat and is

a good source of fiber, magnesium, potassium and

Vitamin C.

Fermentation Fermented foods are foods that have been through a

process of lactofermentation in which natural bacteria

feed on the sugar and starch in the food creating lactic

acid. This process preserves the food, and creates

beneficial enzymes, b-vitamins, Omega-3 fatty acids,

and various strains of probiotics.

A “new” but very old trend!

Kefir

Kombucha

Kimchi

Miso

Chips…in all varieties!

Be on the lookout for chips that are being made with

some interesting ingredients

Chips getting a make-over

Made with everything from coconut, quinoa, kale, beets,

to many other unique grains, vegetables, and fruits

Cauliflower

Kale is having a moment, but it's not the only veggie we

have eyes for.

Cauliflower is the Next Kale

Cauliflower is taking a page from the kale playbook and

stepping up its game.

New ways to use cauliflower

Pizza Crust

Cauliflower rice

Mashed Cauliflower

Vegetables of the Year Ugly root vegetables.

Celery root, parsnips and kohlrabi are grabbing attention

in restaurant kitchens ... fried, mashed, pureed,

gratineed; flavored with cured pork or smoked honey ...

they replace humble potatoes with lots more inherent

flavor.

Better yet, consumers have no notion of how to cook them

... so they're becoming cheffy ingredients.

Bone Broth

Bone broth as a trend? Yes!

Paleo Diet approved

Bone broth is the often-forgotten superfood that forms the basis of nearly all our soups and stews. It's nourishing, simple, cheap and makes everything taste amazing.

Benefits such:

Joint Health

Hair, skin, nails

Helps gut function

Beyond Sriracha Sauce

Look for lots more sweet-spicy sauces and condiments.

Lots of experimenting with honey and jams: habanero honey, jalapeno honey and ghost chili honey, ginger-citrus honey ... going on chicken-and-waffles, whipped into butter, mixed into salad dressings, snuck into sauces.

+

Yogurts

Health-crazed consumers gorge on fruit-flavored, yogurt

... not knowing they're buying candy-level calories.

Now come vegetable yogurt such as butternut squash,

beet, carrot, and tomato

Grass-Fed Cattle

Protein enhanced

Seaweed Beyond Sushi

Seaweed may not be the next kale but it's on the

upslope of the trendline.

Consumers recognize it as a packaged snack and as a

California roll's wrapper.

But chefs are adding it (often silently) to poaching

broths, seafood sauces, even risotto, for its punch of

umami and background flavor.

Ancient Grains

Farro

Spelt

Quinoa

Amaranth

Freekah

Teff

Millet

What may be a staple in

many diets, there are a

whole host of super

grains…Each with their

own set of health

benefits.

Hummus Without Borders Google says that hummus has out-trended salsa, no small

thing since salsa dethroned ketchup.

The chick pea dip has become so Americanized ... which means piled with flavorings ... that the Subway is testing it as a no-meat option for its sandwiches.

Hummus is high in protein and fiber and low in fat, so it touches lots of dietary bases.

Eight years ago perhaps 12% of US households had it in the fridge; today 20% and rising .

Upscale supermarkets display two dozen variations ... beet, pumpkin, Thai chili, spinach-artichoke, guacamole, edamame, cilantro-chimichurri, lemongrass-chili ... even (oh, dear) chocolate mousse.

Because it's usable as a dip or a spread or a condiment, it might in theory challenge mayonnaise

Bitter is the New Bold

Bitter pill: Bitter is the new bold.

Look for darker coffees, deeper chocolates, next-gen

cruciferous veggies like cauliflower and collard greens,

hoppy beers and cocktails with the bite of bitters

Everyday coffee drinkers are seeing the darker/deeper

trend already as both Dunkin Donuts and Tim Hortons

have rolled out their first dark-roast coffees.

Matcha

Matcha finely ground powder of specially grown and processed green tea. It's special in two aspects of farming and processing: The green tea plants for matcha are shade grown for about 3 weeks before harvest, and the stems and veins are removed in processing.

Real matcha is pricy stuff, but the flavor has caught on in such a big way that the powder version has become more accessible.

‘Don’t Waste Food’

Campaigns

Can you afford to throw away $2,000 a year? If you are

the average American, the answer is, apparently, yes—

and you may not even be aware of it.

Americans throw away approximately $165 billion worth

of food each year, and for the average American family,

that can be up to $2,200 per household, according to a

recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council

(NRDC).

The Mashup is the new

Melting Pot

Culinary mashups have been gathering steam since

2008.

Guy Fieri brought them to a mass audience with recipes

like Cajun Chicken Alfredo and the Jambalaya

Sandwich.

Explore Japanese snack foods; they're so flavor-crazy

that what sticks there might make it here.

Shrimp-and-Mayonnaise or Avocado-Cheese Doritos; Lay's

Hot & Sour Fish Soup Potato Chips; KFC's salty ginger-

chicken chips; Pepsi-flavored Cheetos.

ABC…Anything But Cola Spooked by sugar, by dubious reputations of alternative

sweeteners, by greenies waving placards about harmful

chemicals, consumers are abandoning colas … in the US

and Europe, too. Aging boomers and skeptical

millennials alike are seeking drinks with healthful halos

Anything that stood next to a coconut sells readily.

"Enhanced" in ways Mother Nature never intended,

"premium hydration" ready-to-drink waters fly off food

market shelves ... proving that H2O on its own is not a

soda replacement. But barely sweetened, lightly

flavored (frequently artificially) waters attract

consumer interest everywhere ... even when

carbonated.

Waffles

It seems like the internet discovered the waffle iron this year and its not going away anytime soon. “Fritaffles” (frittata waffles), mac and cheese waffles, pizza waffles and hashbrown waffles… the list goes on. Expect to see more casual and chain restaurants galvanize on this internet meme and produce their own novelty waffles.

Expect to see more waffle Benedicts, potato waffles, cornbread waffles, etc. Chicken and waffles won’t be dying out anytime soon either.

Waffles with everything is the order of the day – both sweet and savory.

Banana Everything

Banana Popcorn

Banana and Sea Salt Caramels

Banana Peanut Butter

Banana Biscotti

If you didn’t get it by now, know this: The banana is everywhere.

Banana Bread was the most googled recipe in 2014

Dessert of the Year: Shaved

Ice Desserts

Made of actual ice, the

light and airy treat can

be topped with fruits,

nuts, candy, and cereal,

and it comes in

traditional flavors like

strawberry or exotic ones

like black sesame.

The snow-like texture

quickly melts in your

mouth for a refreshing

taste, and it's not too

heavy or creamy like ice

cream.

Trends for Dining Out

Technology!!!

All sorts of devices and programs that interface directly

with the consumer. More restaurant companies

experiment with tablets ... letting guests order food

and drink from their tables; play games while they're

waiting; then pay with smartphones ... meeting a

waiter when an order is delivered, or when it's time for

a refill from the bar, or for upselling desserts

Even that's not efficient enough: Skip the tablet and let

people reserve a table and preorder dinner from a

mobile device that also tracks how long it'll take to get

to a restaurant ... and then clues the host and the

kitchen to prepare for liftoff.

Buzzwords for 2015

Pistachios are the nut of the year

Upscaling ramen noodles

Flavored salts

Plant-based

Questions??

Kaiti George

Kearney Hy-Vee Registered Dietitian

kgeorge@hy-vee.com

308-236-0024