Food trends update for 2024
The German “ZukunftsInstitut (= Future Institute) hs updated its trend report for the coming 5 years. Food trends evolve, become stronger or weaker, or stagnate. They can develop new dynamics driven by technical innovation and social or cultural impulses. They reflect what consumers desire from agriculture, food producers, retail or foodservice.
1. Plant-based Food and Carneficonados
New technology has given greater importance to plants, resulting in various forms of imitation meat and fish. This trend follows growing awareness of climate and the environment. It is also reinforced by growing awareness for animal welfare.
Starting with substitutes for unstructured meat (eg.minced), avant garde plant-based suppliers have developed products resembling whole meat cuts such as fillet steaks (“Beyond Food”), chicken-breast (“planted”), or flank steaks (“Redefine Meat”). Consumers continue to trial purchase new non-meat items but manufacturers complain about low repeat purchase rates. Manufacturers are thus focusing on taste and shorter ingredient lists.
It is easier for hybrid products to win on taste. They contain just a little meat. Competition in the future could come from precision fermentation cultivated from muscle or fat cells (cultivated meat or fish).
The trend to meat alternatives has led also to an anti-trend. Carneficonados and Vegourmets avoid industrial production and plant-based food. Top chefs are more and more showing their skills by creating original meals with vegetables, fruit, cereals, pulses and herbs.
2. Female Connoisseurs
Female connoisseurs have evolved strongly in the German F&B business since 2018. Top female chefs are no longer exotic exceptions and play a stronger role in driving change in the food business.
Many new cooking and restaurant trends focused on vegetables show a female touch. Change is also apparent in leading food companies such as Nestlé, Unilever and Danone. Some successful start-ups are also driven by women.
3. From Zero-Waste to Circular Food
In Germany, up to one third of grocery items end up as waste. It will be hard to reach the EU objective of cutting this waste rate in half, bearing in mind the side effects of the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and extreme drought in S. Europe.
It is recognized that zero-waste will not just be achieved by end consumers. Big Food and Big Retail must also be integrated and involved.
4. Regenerative Food
Regenerative food puts the focus on farmland as the decisive key to an effective eco-system. Regenerative agriculture uses organic instead of synthetic fertilisers, mixed fruit farming and deep-rooting. A variety of organisations and producers have joined the Regenerative Organic Alliance, which is also supported by Nestlé, General Mills and Unilever who all by 2050 fear a loss of 10% of plant production due to soil erosion
To get in touch with our Germany team below