At the beginning of 2020 we started an exciting collaboration with Good Sense Research to create a monthly Future Food Trend Tracker which sets out to demonstrate the relationship between future trend predictions and customer acceptance, readiness and importantly how that manifests over time. The end product is a report each month which shares actionable trends and insights for you and your business.
The importance of climate positive meats, meals for a climatarian diet, organic foods and ethical meats in the hospitality sector has steadily been increasing among consumers, and they are becoming more open to the use of vegetable and fish by-products when dining out. Consumers are also looking to experiment with their cuisines, outside of the British, Italian and American dishes, seeking culinary adventure in Persian, Modern Korean, Filipino, African and Central Asia/Stans cuisines.
Detailed below are the 5 key insights from the December 2021 report:
1. During December 2021 a higher proportion of consumers enjoyed a 100% meat-based diet (shifting from a 75% meat-based / 25% plant-based diet) compared to the previous year, whether it be at home, dining out or on the go. This is most likely due to the seasonality effect with higher proportions of winter comfort eating and diners enjoying treats during the seasonal celebrations.
2. The importance of climate positive meats, meals for a climatarian diet, organic foods and ethical meat has steadily increased. Perhaps due it being higher on the consumer psyche due to a lot of media coverage, COP 26 and the Earth Shock programme, to name a few.
3. Consumers appear to be more open to the use of vegetable and fish by-products; most likely due to mainstream media coverage and heightened consumer awareness of food waste in the context of climate footprint.
4. In December a higher proportion of those 'not aware but interested' in a number of sustainability related topics when dining out were recorded. Highlighting, even though some may lack awareness on these topics, they are interested in a more sustainable dining experience. However this lack of awareness seems to be driving the level of appeal in sustainable production in hospitality down.
5. Consumers appear to be looking to experiment with cuisines outside the safety of British, Italian and American – seeking culinary adventure in Persian, Modern Korean, Filipino, African and Central Asia/Stans cuisines.
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