Food Trends for 2012

Gluten-Free Banana Muffin

Wish you had a magic lens to see into the future? Don’t we all? I am always curious about what the experts say we’re going to eat so I researched their predictions about food trends for 2012. Here is a brief summary* of what to look for in 2012 with a few thoughts of my own, for good measure.

Gluten-free Gets Respect

You already knew this, but our gluten-free lifestyle is finally getting the respect it deserves! In 2011, we bought $6.3 billion of gluten-free products, up 33% since 2009, Hotels, fast-food chains, and cruises now offer gluten-free choices. Even the Wall Street Journal recently had an article on who should not eat gluten. I remember the days when I had to justify my diet to skeptics; today my diet is “valid.” As someone who was gluten-free before gluten-free was cool, this progress makes me very happy.

Singles and Doubles

Forty-four percent of adult eating happens alone and 1 in 7 adults live alone, so we will see more single-portion offerings. Also, nearly half of all adult eating occurs between meals, so snacks and small portions are important. Perhaps those singles might invite a friend for dinner, so cooking and baking for two will be important. This means small-yield recipes will get more attention, such as single-muffin recipes (see photo).

Snack Time

Speaking of snacks, we’re going to expect more: they not only have to taste good, they also have to be good for you. Store shelves are starting to carry chips and other snack foods with inventive, healthier ingredients. Sweet potatoes are big and lentils in the form of crisp cakes are popular. Have you tried the crunchy kale chips or nori (seaweed) that is roasted, salted, flavored and sold in lunch-box sized packages that keep them crisp. I notice that many of these snacks are so good that they appeal to everyone, not just the gluten-free folks. This means you can serve them to everybody, rather than have two separate kinds for the gluten-free and gluten-eaters. Much easier for everybody…..

Spice Combinations

McCormick, the spice company, says we will eat 12 different flavor combinations, including: Dill with mint, melon and cucumber; Ginger with coconut; Grapefruit with red pepper; and Blueberry with cardamom and corn masa. One combination that I don’t expect to encounter too often is: Korean pepper paste with sesame, Asian pear and garlic. Apparently, Korean is the new Thai. Growing up on bland food, I now seek out variety in spices and love to experiment. One of my goals is to learn more about “super-tasters” (those who taste food more intensely than the rest of us) and how they respond to gluten-free cooking.

Salt

Visible salt is showing up on chocolate and caramels. Plain salt won’t go away, but you will see Himalayan and alder-smoked varieties. Look for smoked salt in the spice aisle of your grocery store. I guarantee it will jazz up your meals. I once attended a party where all of the food was cooked on slabs of salt that sat on a barbecue grill. The heated salt cooked the food (meats, vegetables, and fruits) and infused wonderful flavor. I find this focus on salt very interesting since we also hear that Americans are eating too much hidden salt in restaurant meals and store-bought foods. One of the benefits of cooking your own food is that you control the salt, so sprinkle lightly.

Artisan Chocolates

Artisan chocolates from small businesses that make hand-batches will be popular. I like to support these small businesses who stake their reputation on high-quality chocolate that delights our palates. High-quality plain chocolate is divine, but we will also see exquisite flavors like lemongrass or lavender-blueberry. Chocolate has many health benefits: a candy bar’s worth of dark chocolate, or 100 grams, has just as many antioxidants as 100 grams each of spinach, prunes, raisins, kale, and Brussels sprouts, combined.  Note that it is dark chocolate (not milk chocolate or Dutch/alkali cocoa) that contains these benefits. Personally, I see these health benefits as justification for being a chocoholic and as I said in my Valentine’s Day blog, “there is no such thing as too much chocolate.”

QRC’s

Quick Response codes (QRC’s) are fractal-looking squares that are readable by cell phone and will be popping up more and more on food packages (you already see them in magazine ads). They’re a way for the industry to get more information out to consumers than they can fit on a package.

Kid’s Nutrition

I am so happy to see the industry finally caring about what we feed our kids! Why are the kid choices on a restaurant menu so unhealthy, with very few gluten-free options? A recent study shows that preschoolers see 21% more fast food TV ads than they did almost a decade ago. School lunch programs are getting attention, too. I have a rule when my grandchildren eat a meal at my house: “You have to eat a vegetable with every meal (except breakfast, of course).”

*Based on Progressive Grocer, SPINS, Wall Street Journal, the Hartman Group, Fast Food Marketing, and Natural Solutions magazine