Beef is a food trend-setter

TREND SETTING

BEEF IS THE FOOD FASHION THAT NEVER GOES OUT OF STYLE

from the Beef Checkoff Program

This is the time of year when everyone makes predictions for the new year’s hot trends and compiles top ten lists for everything from fashion and paint colors to cars and cuisine. One trend that remains in fashion from year to year is that beef is always in style.

Sherwin-Williams named Evergreen Fog as its 2022 color of the year, a “simple but sophisticated greengray” that the company believes is a “subtle yet stunning statement shade.” Pantone on the other hand is predicting “diverse and distinctive colors blending comfort and familiarity with unexpected delight” for spring and summer fashions. You may be looking for “Skydiver” and “Daffodil” instead of the standard blue and yellow when shopping for your next favorite shirt.

While most people may not follow the latest fashion fads or know what colors are trending, they do know what tastes good, regardless of what appears on the latest list. According to the Beef Checkoff-funded Consumer Beef Tracker, which tracks consumer perceptions related to the protein landscape, taste still dominates the shopper’s decision-making process, with 87 percent of consumers selecting protein based on great taste.

Nation’s Restaurant News, a trade publication covering the foodservice industry, hosted a 2022 Trends Forecast webinar showcasing restaurant trends expected in the coming year. One of the guest speakers, Mark DiDomenico, director of customer solutions with Datassential, set the stage with an overview of consumer behavior following COVID closures. According to DiDomenico, during the pandemic Americans missed foods they couldn’t make at home easily, and steak was the most-missed item.2 This pent-up demand may lead to stronger sales at restaurants where steak is featured on menus.

One of the big restaurant trends for 2022 is the “world of breakfast.” While eggs will continue to dominate breakfast menus, there is a place at the table for beef. For example, although Flank Steak currently has a 1.3 percent breakfast menu penetration, its four-year growth rate is 205 percent, and it was called out as a one of the fastest growing breakfast menu ingredients. The door is open for restaurants to get creative with beef for breakfast.

In other culinary trend news, the National Restaurant Association partnered with the American Culinary Federation and invited professional chefs to review and rank a list of 109 food items and culinary concepts to create a list of top trends in the restaurant industry.

In the dinner category, less-expensive beef cuts made the top three trends, and the top three global inspirations included flavors from Southeast Asia, South America and the Caribbean. When chefs were asked, “what do you think the hottest culinary trend will be in 2022,” sustainability was the top response.

What does this all mean for beef? Overall, these trends help create a narrative for beef that resonates with the consumer. When consumers experience unique flavors at restaurants, they often want to experiment with those tastes at home as well. Beef recipes featuring global flavors may inspire home cooks to incorporate more beef into family meals. Sustainability being top of mind with chefs provides another avenue to share beef’s sustainability message. Beef has a great story to tell, and foodservice is one more way to showcase how beef is part of the climate change solution, and not the problem. With 69 percent of consumers claiming to eat beef on a weekly basis, consumer demand for beef remains strong, and it is expected to remain that way going into the new year. Regardless of a desire to be fashion forward or drive the number one midsize sedan of the year, one thing remains constant, and that is beef never goes out of style.

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