Is This What’s In Store For 2017?
Here at HRA we hope you all had a fabulous Christmas, and last week didn’t bring you back down with too much of a bump.
Just as much as at Christmas we love keeping our eyes peeled for the latest NPD, nothing cheers up a gloomy January quite like a look ahead at the best trends on the horizon for the year to come.
Plant-Based Diets
Having been very much on the up for the last couple of years, this year plant-based diets are set to explode into the mainstream. Given the explosion of veganism – 360% in the last decade – this makes perfect sense. Whilst we’ve seen no end of innovation making plant-based meat and dairy substitutes closer and closer to the real thing, this is all set to get all the more hi-tech in the next 12 months. According to the Daily Telegraph, Chilean-based ‘Not Company’ is using Artificial Intelligence to develop plant-based alternatives to products such as milk, cheese, mayonnaise and eggs.
Watching The Clock
In a time where incomes are rising at the expense of free time, convenience and cooking time are key when it comes to cooking meals. As we go further into the 2000s, it seems consumers are busier and busier – and this is increasingly reflected in their food and drink choices. 2017 will see food and drink manufacturers capitalising on the preciousness of time, making this in many instances a key feature of food and drink packaging – becoming as important as nutrition and ingredient claims.
Health Food For All
For the last 10 or so years, food and drink industry professionals have continually referred to the ‘health trend’, with many pointing toward the way in which this is swiftly becoming part of the ‘mainstream’. Health campaigners have often referred to the way many consumers are being ‘priced out’ of the healthy options, but this is set to change in 2017. The emergence of supermarket schemes offering ‘wonky’ fruit and veg at a reduced price, combined with apps helping consumers source cheap fruit and veg will lead to healthy food and drink ceasing to be ‘luxuries’.
Robochef
The use of robotics in our food production doesn’t stop at the creation of animal product alternatives. 2017 will see Moley launching the world’s first ‘Robotic Kitchen’ for consumer purchase, a kitchen run entirely electronically – including an ‘iTunes-style library of recipes’. Although it may be a while for this to catch on in the mainstream, kitchens and their appliances are all becoming smarter – Samsung for example are rapidly expanding their ‘SmartThings hub’, which includes a touchscreen service allowing users to shop for groceries straight from the fridge.
Waste Not Want Not
If late 2016 marked the beginning of a new era for food waste, 2017 will accelerate this further than ever. Beginning with supermarket fruit and veg wastage schemes, it hasn’t taken long for technology to jump on the bandwagon with the introduction of several food waste apps. It seems every month a new one is popping up – from apps enabling customers to take home left-over supermarket fruit and veg, to ordering leftover restaurant meals at heavily discounted prices. Forget eating clean, is this the year of eating green?
Rise Of The Supergreens…
To the detriment of everyone’s old favourite supergreen kale, health conscious consumers are branching out when it comes to the leafy good stuff. It may not seem so long ago that Kale arose as a new health hero, emerging from a world of green veg dominated by broccoli, spinach and the occasional green bean. Late 2016 saw chefs moving on to newer, quirkier greens in their quest for the perfect superfood, making dandelion greens, carrot tops, Swiss chard and others their vegetables of choice, and 2017 is set to see this diversify further.
Have YOU got a hot new product to launch this year? Or are you simply looking for more information? Call us on 01803 203387 or email at hamish@hra-global.com.
