Friday 26 January 2018

The food trends of 2018…. allegedly

With the start of a new year one thing is always sure – there will be a host of experts revealing what the ‘big’ thing of 2018 will be in their industry. From interior design to fashion (cowboy boots apparently), these lists – although sometimes a bit overdone – can prove useful for a bit of inspiration! After all, had someone told you 10 years ago that you’d be eating avocado smashed on everything, you’d probably have thought them crazy.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with food habits, sticking to the same four or five meals you know everyone likes, and which can be rustled up relatively quickly. Should I be embarrassed I’ve eaten exactly the same thing for breakfast every day this year? Perhaps… (although at least it’s porridge), but I hadn’t even really registered it was the case until I started writing!

So, some of these trends might be a bit ‘out there’, but you never know – it might just inspire you to try something new. Here at Hunters, we love finding new ingredients and ideas, so if there’s something you spot which we might not have in store, we’ll happily track it down for you.

2018….what do you have in store for us?

1.      Plant-based food – veganism continues to grow in popularity, and that means more innovation in the sector – leading to more choice! Gone are the days of the only dairy free alternative being a carton of soya milk. And with some of the Hunters team being dairy intolerant, we do like to find the best products out there to give everyone a choice. Even for those who aren’t going vegan, there’s definitely more of a trend towards flexitarianism – eating less meat – and looking at ways to add protein to the diet without it. We’re confident this will be a BIG trend for the year.
2.      Gut healthy foods – we’ve talked before about how popular kimchi, sauerkraut and other pickled vegetables are, and how healthy – along with how tasty they are! There is predicted to be an increase in people looking after the health of their digestive system by eating these types of foods, along with things like apple cider vinegar, miso and kefir. Onions and garlic also have good healthy-gut credentials!
3.      The next big cuisine will be…. - There seems to be some disagreement on whether this will be Middle Eastern and African flavours (like Harissa and za’atar), Indian street food, Japanese or Hawaiian (poke bowl anyone?). We think they all sound great, so let’s not worry about picking just one!
4.      Eating more or less often – again there seems to be some difference of opinion. Some people think we’ll all be eating four meals instead of three (maybe a snack before bedtime, or a light extra meal before exercise – although I’m not convinced people haven’t been doing those for decades, without labelling it). Others think fasting will increase in popularity. Do what works for you!
5.      Root to Stem and Nose to Tail – as the name suggests, this is eating everything from a plant or animal, in order to minimise food waste, which can only be a good thing.
6.      Eating local – this has always been important to us, and to many of our customers – but eating regional produce, grown, produced or reared locally, will hopefully continue to increase in importance. Seventy per cent of the items we sell (which, if you’ve been in the store, you’ll know is a lot), are produced in the Yorkshire region.
7.      No alcoholic drinks – whether you’re doing Dry January, or you just fancy cutting down on your alcohol consumption for whatever reason, non-alcoholic drinks are getting trendy. Long gone are the days of having a choice of lemonade or orange squash on a night out. Now there’s hangover free wine and even an alcohol-free spirit – Seedlip. Sip it with tonic, and you’ll forget you’re not drinking – although the clear head the following morning will remind you!


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