Whole Foods Market compiled top food trends from their team of culinary experts, buyers and foragers across 490 stores; here’s what to watch for in 2020, including locally owned Swerve Sweetener.
- Regenerative Agriculture | Farming and grazing practices that restore degraded soil, improve biodiversity and increase carbon capture to create long-lasting environmental benefits.
- 2. Flour Power | An array of interesting flours are entering the market making baking more inclusive and adventurous: especially exciting: cauliflower flour in bulk and baking aisles, rather than already baked into crusts and snack products.
- Foods from West Africa | From indigenous superfoods to rich, earthy dishes, traditional West African flavors are popping up everywhere in food and in beverage. The trio of tomatoes, onions and chili peppers, superfoods too like moringa and tamarind, and lesser-known cereal grains sorghum, fonio, teff and millet.
- Out-of-the-Box, Into-the-Fridge Snacking | The keyword is “fresh” in this new generation of grabbing and going: hard-boiled eggs with savory toppings, pickled vegetables, drinkable soups and mini dips and dippers of all kinds, all perfectly portioned and in convenient single-serve packaging.
- Plant-Based, Beyond Soy | The trendiest brands are slowing down on soy, replacing it instead with innovative blends like grains and mung beans.
- Everything Butters and Spreads | Think seed butters beyond tahini – like watermelon seed butter – and seasonal products like pumpkin butter year-round. Nut butters beyond cashew, almond, and peanut (hello, macadamia) and even chickpea butters (no, it’s not a new name for hummus).
- Rethinking the Kids’ Menu | Food brands are bridging the gap from old-school basic kids’ menus and taking more sophisticated younger palates into consideration. Think non-breaded salmon fish sticks. Foods that are fermented, spiced or rich in umami flavors. Colorful pastas in fun shapes made from alternative flours.
- Not-So-Simple Sugars | For those seeking sweetness outside of the usual suspects like sugar, stevia, honey and maple syrup, there’s lots more to choose from for your cooking, baking and tea- or coffee-stirring needs. Syrupy reductions from fruit sources like monk fruit, pomegranates, coconut and dates are one way to add concentrated, unique flavors into recipes for desserts, meat glazes and marinades. Sweet syrups made from starches like sorghum and sweet potato can be compared to the deep flavors of molasses or honey, and can be used for baking and sweetening beverages.
Swerve, a cup-for-cup zero-calorie non-glycemic replacement for sugar, combines erythritol with ingredients from fruit and starchy root vegetables to produce a sweetener that’s available in granular, confectioners’ and brown versions.
- Meat-Plant Blends | blending in veggies with meats… Try the trend: Applegate’s The Great Organic Blended Burger; Lika Plus Blended Burger; Beef, quinoa, vegetable meatballs; The Blended Burger Project winning recipes
- Zero-Proof Drinks | Many of these beverages seek to re-create classic cocktail flavors using distilling methods typically reserved for alcohol, creating an alternative to liquor meant to be used with a mixer rather than a drink on its own. Think alt-gin for gin and tonics and botanical-infused faux spirits for a faux martini.
“Try the Trend” products and brands include a variety of products available now or coming to Whole Foods Market stores in 2020. Shoppers can seek out trending products here.
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