New food trends

These are some of the new ones that seem called to stay with us for a long time.

Plant-based foods and products

Thousands of consumers have decided eliminate or reduce the consumption of foods of animal origin and switch to a plant-based diet (vegetables, greens, cereals, fruits and legumes). This is due to the production of livestock by the emission of greenhouse gases. But it is also born of the indignation of thousands of people towards the rearing conditions of some farms and cruelty with which some animals are treated.

Almost the 10% of the Spanish population has eliminated or reduced meat consumption, according to The Green Revolution 2019 report:

• 0.5% are
• 1.5% are vegetarians
• 9% are flexitarians (sporadic consumption of plant-based foods, especially fish and eggs)

For this reason, the food industry has begun to produce products based exclusively on vegetables, such as hamburgers made with soy, and whose challenge is to approximate the flavor and texture of its animal analog.

Fermented foods

Every day we can find a greater supply of fermented foods. Its growing demand is due to the numerous benefits that fermentation has on our intestinal macrobiotics and digestive health. We talk about products such as kombutcha tea, kimchi, sauerkraut, kefir ...

This trend can be seen not only in the shopping cart, courses and tutorials have also proliferated that teach consumers to make homemade fermented through the use of brine, macerated or pickled.

Real food

It is a movement that reject processed foods and ultra-processed that include, on their labels, a long list of ingredients. Therefore, it defends the consumption of natural products. Furthermore, the “realfooder” movement claims the buy in markets, prioritizing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, legumes, fish, eggs. The interest in eating a diet based on real food is so growing that they have even been designed to identify a healthy process of another more harmful according to the system.

As a consequence, the food industry is increasingly betting on products made with fewer ingredients and emphasizing the reduction of saturated fat, and salt in its composition.

More sustainable packaging and food

New trends are also focused on purchasing models, specifically on the types of packaging and transport chain. It is useless if we reduce the consumption of animals if then the vegetables and fruits that we buy are wrapped in plastic or buy organic products that come from the other end of the world and whose transport affects pollution.

For this reason, new models of supermarkets are currently being worked on focused on the cooperative and community management to favor the direct purchase to the productr, without intermediaries. Also, it is intended to favor the purchase of bulk products, avoiding the use of plastic containers and bags and opting for, such as glass containers or reusable bags.

Healthier snacks

Another group of foods that has undergone constant changes are the so-called "snacks", which are consume between hours. To please all kinds of consumers and adapt to the rest of the aforementioned trends, the food industry is developing snacks without hydrogenated fats, sugars or added additives.

In addition, snacks with the certificate “plant-based", Made with proteins vegetables chickpeas, peas or beans and ketogenic snacks for those who carry out this type of feeding.

What you should know:

• Reduce the consumption of foods of animal origin to move to a plant-based diet.
• New models of cooperative and community management supermarkets to favor direct purchase from the producer without intermediaries.
• Growing interest in food based on real food that rejects the ultra-processed.

Judith Torrell Diploma in Human Nutrition Clinical Nutrition Specialist Advance Medical Consultant Nutritionist