Like any industry, the food industry changes frequently. Popular food dishes may only be popular for a few months before the next new delicious dish is served up.
Every new year brings brand new flavour combinations and cooking techniques, and 2016 is set to be no exception. Experts who live and breathe food are finishing off their predication for the most demanded and popular dishes for the upcoming year.
LET’S RECAP ON WHAT WE LOVED IN 2015
Avocado
Providing healthy fats and containing high levels of vitamin E, iron and potassium. From adding it into salads to spreading it onto toast, people were going crazy for this fruit in 2015.
Prosecco
After the shortage scare this year, it was clear that prosecco was clearly the most favoured alcoholic beverage to choose.
Cauliflower
The craze for using healthy foods in unusual ways continued with the cauliflower. This year, people threw out the usual doughy pizza and replaced them with a cauliflower base, to create the no carb, gluten free and nutritious pizza. The demand for cauliflower is thought to continue into 2016.
Kale
2015 was the year for kale. It was added to almost everything – even smoothies!
FOOD TRENDS 2016
Good enough to tweet
It’s no secret that today’s society is technology and social media crazy, with people constantly taking pictures of their meals and uploading these onto social media such as Instagram. This craze has given restaurants the chance to show off their culinary skills, as a way to encourage more customers to visit them. However, this then adds more pressure to such businesses, as if their dishes are not aesthetically pleasing enough, they will then be likely to lose out on customers.
So, meals don’t just need to taste good – they need to look good enough to tweet too. This food trend will only continue as technology continues to grow and enhance.
Delivery options
A food trend which already started in 2015 and is set to continue this year, is casual dining – dining in a more informal manner. Although the atmosphere is more relaxed, there are still high expectations on the quality of the food, and people still want a memorable experience whilst they dine.
With the help of diverse food delivery companies, this demanded dining experience can come true more frequently and easily, not only with food delivery apps, but apps which specifically offer and deliver fresh and healthy food, such as Gousto. Gousto is a fresh food company which offer healthy recipes to people, whilst also delivering the ingredients to their front doors – taking the planning and trekking out of home cooking.
Food just doesn’t do it all
Whilst the informal dining will grow to be more popular during 2016, this does not mean that people won’t go out and eat meals at restaurants. People’s expectations of dining, however, will change.
The ambience of the restaurant will play a large part in whether someone enjoys their meal. Guests will now look beyond the meal itself and focus on factors such as: pleasant décor, fast service and they will also look for additional attention from the workers.
Therefore, restaurants should look into investing into creating the perfect atmosphere for customers.
Localisation
The local sourcing of produce, meat and seafood is another trend set for 2016 – along with this, it has been predicted that people will become even more keen to reduce food waste and also make more of a conscious effort to be environmentally friendly themselves and even choose to eat at places which are not harmful to the environment.
In addition, people want to know as much as they can about the food they are eating, for instance how the food was grown/produced or even how it travelled to the restaurant – this is question with food both at home and when eating out. Ultimately, this trend for 2016 will be to find food full of flavour without causing a lot of harm to the environment.
Alternatives to Meat and Dairy
Finding alternatives for both meat and dairy will be a high priority for consumers in 2016 – this could mean that more people will demand veggie burgers and non-dairy desserts. This movement also refers to the upcoming food trend of the ‘part-time vegetarians’, as it has been predicted that more people in 2016 will want to reduce the amount of meat they consume due to health and animal welfare concerns.
Along with this, there has been an increase in the number of people who demand gluten free, wheat free and dairy free products, as they believe this is the healthier option.
Finding more ways to get more vegetables onto your plate
Turning traditional carb dishes into vegetable dishes will be one of the biggest food trends in 2016. From cauliflower based pizzas to “spiralizing” – the art of turning vegetables and even fruit into pasta or noodles. Being gluten-free, paleo, vegan and vegetarian friendly and containing lower carbohydrates, it is the perfect dish to substitute pasta and noodles, whilst also helping to maintain the healthy lifestyles which will become even more popular during the next year.
Although not all vegetables and fruit can be spiralized as well as others, the most commonly used fruit and veg are: courgettes, carrots, sweet potato, apples and mooli.
WHAT ARE THE NEW FOOD TRENDS FOR 2016?
Seaweed; The New Kale
Whilst kale was one of the most demanded vegetables of 2015, the trend is going to fade out in New Year and be replaced with what is called ‘the new kale’. Already extremely popular in Japanese and Asian cuisines, seaweed is being introduced into Western dishes. Perfect for detoxing, seaweed is full of nutrients and provides more flavour to healthy dishes.
Jazzed up porridge
Porridge in 2016 will be looking very different to how it looked in previous years, offering more than just milk and a dollop of honey. Instead, expect to see a variety of grains and both sweet and savoury toppings incorporated into the morning meal. With a huge selection to choose from, it will be difficult to decide what topping to have.
Physalis Peruviana; 2016’s Super fruit
Every year there is a new super food which creates a craze amongst people – in this case it’s a super fruit. The name of the super fruit is commonly known as ‘golden berries’ however they were formally known as ‘ Peruviana’.
Their appearance is similar to raisins, yet are a more golden colour and taste sweeter – it is what is inside the golden berries which differentiates them from other berries, as they are higher in protein, vitamin A, antioxidants, iron, fibre and have a low sugar content.
The Sirt Diet
The Sirt diet appears to be one which will appeal to many people and has apparently already caught the attention of so many and this popularity is only thought to continue throughout 2016. The reasoning for its attraction is that it encourages people to eat chocolate and drink red wine and coffee, as a way to stimulate the body’s ‘skinny gene’.
Sounds like a brilliant diet to us!
The cultural cuisine for 2016
With Rio being fresh in everybody’s minds this year, expect to see a lot of Brazilian style dishes to be served up – especially Brazilian BBQ food this summer. In addition to the standard BBQ food, summer cookouts will also include the flavours of paprika, sweet chilli and caipirinha. Summer sounds even better now!
A LITTLE LIST OF WHAT ELSE IS EXPECTED TO BE POPULAR IN 2016
Kohlrabi
Cauliflower
Zucchini
Sweet Potatoes
Chili-lime potato chips
Plant-based protein bars
Seaweed on popcorn
Have we missed anything off? Let us know what you think the food trends for 2016 are.