Future food

Megatrends that matter

It is well known that, if it is a human food trend today, you can be pretty sure it will be a pet food trend tomorrow. So it follows that if you can identify the human food trends of tomorrow, then you can really be ahead of the game. Here is our selection of five megatrends shaping what we will be eating ten years from now. 

1. ‘Meat’ the future

Global demand for meat is expected to double by 2050 but, at the same time, animal agriculture is increasingly being recognised as simply unsustainable and, for many, also unethical. One solution? Grow meat in a lab. Cultured meat is making headlines these days around the world, as the chief obstacle to commercialisation – cost – is crumbling fast. 

When Dr. Mark Post grew the first cultured burger in 2013 it cost $330,000 (€269,000) to make, or just over $1 million per pound (€1.9 million per kilogram). Barely four years later, that cost was already down to $3,800 per pound (€6,800 per kilogram) and one US company making it, Memphis Meats, is targeting parity or even cheaper than ‘real’ meat. Meanwhile, another US-based company, Finless Foods, aims to have a lab-grown tuna product on the market by 2019. 

Aside from the improved environmental footprint, the benefits of cultured meat (and fish) are several. It is produced in tightly controlled bioreactors so quality can be controlled and it need contain no hormones, antibiotics or pesticides. It can also be ‘grown’ more locally and, being largely bacteria-free, does not need to be kept as cold, meaning lower transport costs.

Then there is the ethical side. “We’re told that the cells from one live cow, left to graze in peace,
could be enough to make about 175 million quarter-pounders,” noted the Wall Street Journal (5/1/18).

On the downside, there is still the yuck-factor of lab-grown meat and fish, but taste and texture are improving.

2. Power to the plants… and insects

Insects are already finding their way onto our plates and into our pets’ food bowls and plant-based meat alternatives are also shooting up fast. Think barbecued grasshopper instead of chicken wings, gourmet beet-burgers instead of beef-burgers and honey spiced duckweed. The possibilities are many, and coming to a supermarket near you soon, if they are not there already. 

Insects “contain sufficient levels of protein, fats and micronutrients to contribute to improvements in global health and food security, both via direct consumption and indirect use in feeds,” one recent study concluded. 

The United Nations made 2016 the International Year of Pulses to raise awareness of these little plant-based protein powerhouses, pointing out that “their nutritional value is not generally recognised and is frequently under-appreciated.”  As Pat Brown, founder of plant-based burger maker Impossible Foods, says: “Today we rely on cows to turn plants into meat. There has to be a better way.” 

3. 3D dinners

Every year for the past few years, the pasta maker Barilla has hosted a competition to design new 3D printed pasta shapes which attracts hundreds of entries from around the world.  A UK-based company called Food Ink purports to be the world’s first 3D printing restaurant, using a food printer called the Foodini to print its culinary creations. Welcome to the emerging world of 3D food printing!

It may seem fanciful still (and far from being widely commercialised), but 3D food printing has a serious side worth considering. Among the potential benefits are the possibility to customise the nutritional content, the reduced need for fillers and preservatives, less packaging, and the ability to make alternatives such as insect protein look more appetising.

The American space agency NASA is exploring the potential of 3D food printing to increase the nutrition, stability and safety of food given to astronauts while in space. 

4. Naturally healthy

Functional food or ‘nutraceuticals’ is hardly a new trend. Benecol and Flora spreads have been around for decades, claiming to help lower cholesterol, and the probiotic fermented milk drink, Yakult, was actually first launched in the 1930s. Today, though, people are increasingly looking for naturally healthy foods, preferably organic and minimally processed or even raw. And with that comes an interest in foods that make you feel good about yourself: food with a story, transparent in the way that you know how it got to your plate, and socially responsible.    

Gut health remains a big focus, just as when Yakult was first made, driving interest in fermented foods, probiotics and healthy fats.  

5. Mass personalisation

What do these first four megatrends all have in common? The answer points to our fifth and final megatrend: the role they can play in meeting the growing interest in personalisation. This general consumer trend is materialising in the food industry in, for example, the proliferation of nutrition apps, packaged customisable foods like granola,  personalised nutrition for the elderly and for athletes delivered through 3D printing, custom-blended plant-based protein powders and the possibility of cultured meat with a personalised nutrition profile. Propelled by these advances in technology, it appears that mass personalisation is finally becoming a reality.