Sustainability, affordability and the important of food provenance will shape how we eat in 2019. Here are the six key trends taking over this year.
Fermentation
Fermented foods and drinks are still going to be big, especially drinks like kefir and fermented sodas, while a growing range of gourmet sauerkraut and kimchi options will continue to flow into supermarkets. Kelli Walker, founder of boutique Clevedon-based fermentary, Forage and Ferment, thinks the continuing popularity of fermented products is being driven largely by young consumers. "Younger generations know about the health benefits of fermented food, but they also want to reconnect with nature and disconnect from the mass produced foods we have been eating for too long." As far as Walker is concerned this is just the beginning of our love affair with fermentation: "We are just on the cusp, we will see the emergence of really interesting probiotic beverages and also ways of using the by-products of fermentation for other things like salad dressings."
Eco-friendly
From freezing your vege scraps to saving the pasta water and the growing popularity of the Bokashi bin, eco-friendly arrives in the kitchen with a vengeance in 2019. Paper and plastic recycling are already entrenched habits in most households but when it comes to food waste many still don’t think twice about ditching their food scraps in the bin, but this is going to change. You may not find yourself going as far as collecting scraps from other people’s kitchens after dinner and taking them home to compost - as a friend of Walker’s does when she eats at other people’s homes because she just can’t stand the waste - but you will definitely find yourself looking for ways to be waste-free this year.
Budget crunch
The growing cost of food in New Zealand will result in a huge rise in consumers DIY-ing to save money in the kitchen. You might find yourself making your own nut butters, yoghurt, pickles, jams, making stock from leftover meet and veg and even baking your own bread in 2019. This move towards do-it-yourself comes very much from a money saving motive but is also driven by a desire for less waste and the need to know where your food came from and exactly what is in it.
Origins matter
In fact, food provenance is going to be the food topic in 2019. Chatting food trends with Ray McVinnie it quickly becomes clear that he finds food fads forgettable but one thing he is confident to predict is the growing importance of knowing where our food comes from, including how it is grown, harvested and delivered. "I think the big thing that we are going to see is the importance of provenance. People want to know where their food comes from. They want the information so they can make informed choices."
Vegan power
2019 is also the year veganism well and truly reaches mainstream status. A wider and wider range of vegan choices will become available to consumers, in fact these changes can already be seen. Have you noticed the growing range of vegan dips, cheeses and more in your local supermarket? What about jackfruit, it is suddenly everywhere right? Environmental factors as well as the growing emphasis on plant-based protein alternatives will help to drive this momentum.
Bugging out
Speaking of protein alternatives, another thing that you will be hearing more about is bugs. Yes, you read that right, bugs. When a bag of goodies arrived in the office from New Zealand-based edible insects supplier, Eat Crawlers, filled with things like chocolate covered crickets and a scorpion lollipop, we were understandably hesitant to try them. After using a five-year-old as a guinea pig, we established that they are, in fact, edible and even quite interesting. Talking to co-founder of Eat Crawlers, Daniel Craig, it is hard to deny that this is a rapidly growing industry. "Everyone is interested in what we are doing, in just five years we have grown to become one of the leading retailers of edible insects in the world," shares Craig. "Despite the growing desire for plant-based protein sources there needs to be a sustainable meat alternative. It requires significantly less resources to farm insects and they are extremely high in protein."
Intrigued by the idea of getting some bugs into your diet? Why not try this Asian style crispy noodle salad with locusts? Perhaps you would like to pair some cricket flour seed crackers with your favourite cheese? Or simply indulge in a pirce of gluten free chocolate brownie with cricket flour and blank ants?