Since 2020, many things have changed about the way we live, work, socialize, and move around. Food is no different. Lockdown measures meant that people were eating at home much more often, and restaurant closures refocused our lives around what we eat and where we prepare it.
The pandemic generated or least amplified some behavioral changes that were on the rise (more home cooking and e-commerce/deliveries), but it changed neither the course nor the trajectory of the food transition quite the contrary. The main trends began emerging two years ago, and are now well established. Depending on cultural and economic differences, paradoxes and contradictions, these changes are happening with more or less intensity and more or less quickly, but they are happening, and we can never go back in time.
1.Health
There is no longer any doubt: when it comes to health, it’s all about what you eat, whether for your own health or that of your loved ones.
Even though the search for performance might be an occasional influence, health is now part of a holistic, preventive vision. How can it be achieved? By choosing ever more natural products and ingredients and even simpler recipes and processes. When striving to increasing consumer confidence in food safety and highlight its benefits, less is often more!
2.Ethics
A label or fancy name is no longer enough to guarantee that the product on your plate doesn’t have an excessively large carbon footprint. People are taking an interest in where their food comes from, and how it was processed and transported. Ethics and responsibility are becoming more complex issues, and now apply both upstream and downstream. We are gradually becoming accustomed to claims about environmental impacts with taglines such as “from pasture to plate” or “from field to fork.” These subjects are and will continue to be determining factors in consumer choices, and will require more and more clear and tangible evidence that genuine steps have been taken, but without food bills rising.
3.Satisfaction
Food provides a safe haven in these uncertain times and is seen as a source of comfort and pleasure for many. Meanwhile, as society is becoming more interested in responsible food choices, people’s appetite for ethics is growing too, both at home and in restaurants. As the economic crisis is affecting food budgets, it will be difficult to cater only for a minority due to purchasing power issues. But people won’t stand for feeling guilty. On the contrary, they have never been so determined to experience the positive emotion of new discoveries.
4.Digital
The connection between food and digital is nothing new, but innovations in this field are rife, driving more consumers to look to their phones and tablets when hunger strikes. With a pinch of creativity and fun, a generous dose of services, and a sprinkling of relevant information, and digital opens new paths to products, information and advice and tips on eating better, hopefully with clear and comprehensive information.
