As an advocate for changing mainstream consumption, one of the most heartening shifts in food consumption this year has been the rise of the Flexitarian. The most disheartening is the parallel rise in ultra processed 'food' which will see Big Food working closely with traditional chemical and drug companies, delivering 'food' to the mainstream market. Plant based food consumption is the mega trend of the decade. You just might not recognise many actual plants.
Plant based eating continues its steady rise, but the new mainstream pivot on plant based food is off like a lightening bolt. Ultra processed and lab made food is set to be the star of 2020 food. Many consumers will take these new so called 'plant based foods' on face value, especially as many of the already big players can afford advertising that gives legitimacy to the products. But the difference with the most recent gene edited meat copy foods is that they are literally manufactured in a lab from parts of plants and end up as something other than the end product they purport to be. (To make sense of that, think of Beyond Meat Burger. A 'plant based' meat pattie lookalike made from Pea Protein.) These new lab based 'foods' are generously described as 'plant based', but vegans aren't the target - presumably because they prefer actual plants. The target is processed food eaters. While a vegan's biggest folly with processed food might have been over looking the health impacts of adding a pile of sugar and water to almonds to make almond milk, but the health impacts from manufactured food are potentially just a tad more insidious and complex. We have to hope that Keri Glassman from Nutritious Life in NYC is right when she told Livestrong.com: "TRANSPARENCY IS A HUGE 2020 TREND IN ALL FOOD CATEGORIES IN TERMS OF LABELING HOW AND WHERE ITEMS ARE MADE AND EXACTLY WHAT'S INSIDE."
It's still fair to say that 2019 was the year that plant based food went mainstream and it became de rigueur to discover the latest new food. Here is a few of them and what to expect in 2020.
The pin up fake meat products of 2019 are surely the 'plant based burgers'. Versions of chicken, fish have been around for awhile, albeit slowly improving, but the final arrival of lab based burgers has changed everything. While the Impossible Burger and Beyond Meat Burger is as close to resembling the peas it's derived from as a Frankfurter is to resembling meat, these lab based 'foods' are now mainstream and being served up in fast food franchises around the world with advertising like Hungry Jack's latest ad, pitched squarely at meat eaters.
Fake fish has been around for awhile, but is becoming way more sophisticated and competitive. Fishless fish, crabless crab, vegan caviar (seaweed). Sophisticated marketing of products like Tuno, may from soy flour and yeast extract, and put in tins that look just like fish tuna have the seafood industry in a tizz. Every day, more and more sophisticated actual plant products are entering the market. The Good Catch have mastered a fake tuna made from algae oil and legumes - peas, chickpeas, lentils, soy, fava beans, and navy beans. The legumes give the flaky texture and the algae oil for seafood flavor and omega-3 DHA.
Insects haven't really developed as a food group after being hailed as the new food for a bulging planet, presumably because of the diminishing stock levels conspired with strong vegan trends generally.The bugs that live on and in us however need feeding and that has seen a surge in the sale of fermented foods such as yogurt, tempeh, kombucha, sauerkraut and kimchi.
The seemingly endless rise of veggie Chips or veggie pastas is set to continue to skyrocket. Just make sure when you are buying these products that you read the label. You need to find the apparent hero ingredient at the top of the ingredients list, not somewhere toward the bottom, sprinkled on as a flavour after sugar, salt and additives.
Organic, low additive wines and craft beers made locally, and served up by the guy who made it have been on the rise for years, but now embedded in the mainstream. At the same time, the vessels that move these products, especially beer, are improving - beer barrels made for endless reuse or rented like an Uber, beer 6 pack holders made of paper or compostable plastic. Zero alcohol mocktails, beers and wines are also on the rise.
Thomson Reuters notes that 75% of the world's foods come from just 12 plants and five animal species, expanding the diet is also a good strategy for coping with climate-induced crop failures. Championed by foodies, chefs and scientists, all manner of previously neglected plants rich in vitamins, capable of adapting to the changing climate are making their way onto plates.
The actual meat industry is crying fake foul all over the world as the catch cry for 2020 when offered the chicken or fish is likely to be, "What's it made of?" Ultra processed food, whatever it is made of, has health implications and many of those are not yet known. WHATEVER YOU CHOOSE TO EAT, MAKE IT YOUR BUSINESS TO CHECK THE INGREDIENTS AND GIVEN THE OPTIONS, ALWAYS CHOOSE SOMETHING THAT LOOKS MORE LIKE THE ACTUAL THING IT WAS MADE FROM, THAN SOMETHING UNIDENTIFIABLE WITH ITS ORIGINS.