Food Trends: What’s Hot for 2010

By: Kaiti Roeder, RD, LMNT

At the end of each year or the beginning of a new year, numerous companies release their predictions on upcoming food trends.

The past year’s fiscal fiasco sent many a good companies reeling. But the good news is a number of industries — not just food & beverage makers — are starting to stagger back to their feet and focus on ways to improve their positions.

The spotlight seems to be on those 76 million baby boomers who grew up in an era where the Don and Betty Drapers were the role models. 

Look for ’60s iconic food brands to be updated with a new ingredient profile and more flavor to meet the nutrition desires and needs, along with the dimensioned taste buds of the aging boomer. 

Look for less carbonated soft drinks and more vitamin enriched everything.

Remember the saying, "Breakfast is the most important meal of the day?" It's true. In fact, breakfast may help control Americans' increasing problem with overweight and obesity. A number of studies show that people who successfully maintain a significant weight loss eat breakfast just about every day.

Nearly 20% of consumers say they’d be more likely to eat out for breakfast on weekdays if options were more healthful, and operators are taking notice.

Smoking is the process of flavoring, cooking or preserving food by exposing it to the smoke from burning or smoldering plant materials, most often wood.

From the subtle notes of fruitwoods to the more-assertive marks of mesquite and hickory, smoking lets cooks permeate layers of flavor into products without adding fat, sugar or salt.

“Fresh” continues to grow. It can mean better for you,

local, additive free, less processed, more natural, traditional and authentic. 

It often ties in with decreasing number of ingredients and increased explanation of where products come from.

www.agr.state.ne.us/pub/apd/produce.htm

The food industry realizes that by using “real foods” and shorter ingredient lists that they’re creating healthier products that consumers want.

The new consumer mantra when it comes to health and wellness is ‘simple,’

77 percent of consumers read ingredient statements on packaging and are using nutritional information to make their purchasing decisions 

In this great melting pot, it’s no wonder people love ethnic food. 

Cuisines like Mexican, Chinese and Italian have become so mainstream, however, that it’s time to dig deeper. 

Restaurants will increasingly pinpoint specific regions — Tuscany, Brazil, Morocco, or even within the U.S., Kansas City BBQ — to develop tomorrow’s ethnic food.

Poised to be the next major health movement, sodium reduction is finally ready to take hold. 

The key difference, is that “sodium reduction is being pushed by food companies and health organizations, not by consumers.”  This could mean slow adoption of the “less salt” mantra by shoppers, even as the food industry moves ahead.

It’s a new world of “word-of-mouth” recommendations using the latest technologies:  mobile devices, mommy bloggers, Twitter and house parties. 

The shopper in 2010 will depend less on advertising and more on social networking and killer apps to help them make their decisions on where to eat and what foods to buy.

Private label or store brands are starting to look a lot more like brands.  As consumers cut spending because of the recession, smart marketers ramped up promotions for their private label lines. 

Many shoppers now equate private labels with national brands and value them as such.  In 2010, low cost, high quality private labels will thrive.

Beverages & sports drinks made without HFCS and withoutartificial sweeteners

Sugar is regaining some lost ground at the expense of high-fructose corn syrup.

Pop chips, baked chips, veggie chips Flat Earth Veggie Chips New York Style Pita chips Tostitos Multigrain Stacy’s Pop Chips

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.

This year, a lot of people returned to homey, comforting cooking, such as meatballs. Bon Appétit found them on both restaurant menus and kitchen tables all over the country.

Meatballs are great to make at both at home and in restaurants because they are affordable, easy to make and delicious. Meatballs are also universal -- every kind of ethnic cuisine has some kind of meatball.

What’s HOT???Mini Whoopie Pies

A staple of the south, this chocolate sandwich filled with marshmallow cream is a dream come true.

What’s NOT???Mini cupcakes

What’s HOT???Eating an immunity building diet With H1N1 (flu) hysteria continuing unabated, building your immunity with foods, such as those suggested by John La Puma, M.D., in Chef MD’s Big Book of Culinary Medicine is poised to become the big health trend of 2010.

What’s NOT???Dining on Omega 3sWe all know how important Omega 3 fatty acids are, but we also know that too much mercury, found in Omega 3-rich fish like tilefish, swordfish, king mackerel, and grouper, can make you sick. Is the pill easier to swallow???

VARIETIES INCLUDE:

Naan papadum lavash pita tortilla  

•BLACK GARLIC, ORIGINALLY INTENDED AS A HEALTHY DIETARY SUPPLEMENT, HAS BECOME ONE OF THE HOTTEST NEW "MUST-HAVE" INGREDIENTS IN THE CUTTING EDGE CHEF'S PANTRY.

•THE FLAVOR OF BLACK GARLIC CAN BE DIFFICULT TO DESCRIBE - SLIGHTLY SWEET, WITH SUBTLE HINTS OF LICORICE AND FENNEL, WITH SUBDUED, BUT DISTINCTIVE, TRUE GARLIC FLAVOR INTACT. ITS CHEWY-GOOEY TEXTURE IS REMINISCENT OF SUN-DRIED TOMATOES OR CURED OLIVES. •

These are comforting, nostalgic flavors that remind us of our youth — when we felt safe and secure.  They remind me of the flavors that help replicate the “campfire experience.”  

Other popular flavors include: malt, licorice, nougat and rhubarb.

Candied, fried, baked or boiled…sweet potatoes are one of the most diversely prepared vegetables.

Aside from being a delicious snack or side dish, they also will become known as the new functional food, as they are rich in dietary fiber, beta carotene and vitamins C and B6.

Companies are launching yogurt line that contains nearly twice the amount of protein per serving than other yogurts.

Expect food to either have nutrients added, or have the word “free” (gluten-free, allergy-free). Just a few year we talked about “functional food,” which was really about adding ingredients to pump up the nutritional value. Before that, it was “fortified.” Next year ………????

We’ve mainstreamed probiotics, like Activia with Bifidus Regularis. We’ve become used to food with calcium added, or

vitamins identified, but this year you’ll see a stronger statement—products will be defining “good for you” as, “includes specific vitamins and nutrients.”

NuVal™ Nutritional Scoring System. It is designed to help you cut through confusing nutrition information so you can make decisions about food quickly and easily, and feel good about your choices.

Nutrition labeling for standard menu items sold by chain restaurants with 20 or more locations

Panera is the first chain to voluntarily post calorie info on menu boards in all company owned Panera Bread, St Louis Bread Company and Paradise Bakery and Cafes by April and in all franchises by the end of the year.

“If you build it, they will come”  isn’t working the way it used to. 

Half of Americans are spending less at restaurants because of the economy, so it’s time for restaurants to come to them. 

Burger King is one of the latest to sell its food (French fries) in retail stores, but expect more retail-restaurant connections in 2010. 

Additionally, more restaurants will uphold relationships with customers by using iPhone apps for menu changes and online ordering.

What’s typically on the left side??? Look for:

more creative snacky things more small plates more portion options…

▪ things sized for one, for two, for a crowd

Consumers are tradingdown in order to trade up.  That’s what’s

behind the explosion of: “gourmet”

hamburgers Brisket burgers Short Rib burgers Fancy toppings

Artisan hot dogs

• Baum & Whiteman believe the words “organic” and “natural” are diluted (polluted, actually) by big-brand food companies.• being replaced in consumers’ minds by “fresh”

and “local” and “hand-made.”  • Restaurants are spotlighting house-made

or locally-made bread, artisan-cured salami, chef-pickled vegetables, locally-butchered beef, honey made from nearby hives, foods purchased from regional farms — all these theoretically reflecting sustainability and helping local farmers and being better for the environment.

• The trend of fortifying foods to make you healthier and more beautiful is being transferred to the restaurant scene.

•   Watch for bartenders to get into the act by concocting good-for-you cocktails with “enhanced” beverages — on the theory that you can drink yourself into good health and become beautiful .

• Beverage buzzwords include guanara, acai, goji, green tea, hibiscus and acerola.

Well, here’s the Truth:  For 2010, it’ll be tongue (including lamb) and oxtail along with beef and pork cheeks, chicken gizzards, tripe and other innards. 

Savvy chefs are using these odd parts to offset downsized portions of expensive steaks and chops.

• A decade or so back, American palates made a profound shift from sweet to bitter • strong coffee, dark chocolate, broccoli rabe,

brussels sprouts and other bitter food.  • There’s been another, quieter shift, from

sweet-sweet to tart-sweet.  That’s why chefs are now pickling their own vegetables to serve with newly trendy rich and fatty meats. You’ll see more pickled shallots, leeks or ramps atop steak instead of fatty onion rings.  You’ll get it in the sour-salty flavor profiles of increasingly trendy Southeast Asian cuisine.

Kids’ menus are popping up on more chain restaurants, and many are reformulating to create healthier options. 

Look for more restaurants and hotels offering cooking classes for kids, more “adult” things on kids’ menus, and more kids-eat-free promotions.

The tough economy and declining consumer traffic forces restaurants to poach customers by stealing competitors’ top menu items. 

Fast food chains are adding up-priced gourmet burgers, pizza chains are selling pasta, and juice chains are adding pizzas and flatbreads. Everyone is adding snacks and signature beverages and energy drinks, hoping to capture between-meal business.

Eggs are everywhere on menus — draped over burgers and pizzas, tucked into sandwiches and showcased in dolled up renditions of classic deviled and Scotch eggs as bar snacks and appetizers.

This presentation is available or downloading at

http://www.nebeef.org/health_materials.asp