FOOD TRENDS
Food trends: the decade ahead What will the future of food bring for the next 10 years? Mintel’s Sam Moore talks to Food & Beverage Industry News about its latest research.
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Mintel’s global food and beverage analyst Sam Moore.
s the world’s population heads towards the 10 billion mark, there are a lot of challenges that lie ahead – whether it be health, housing or employment. Then there is the question of food. The world has to figure out how to make enough food to feed what could become an insatiable demand. How will this demand be met? What are some of the current trends? What will food companies have to do to make sure they meet those demands? Mintel is a company that specialises in market intelligence in the food and beverage sector. It recently conducted internal research and spoke with a number of external stakeholders to see what the coming issues over the next decade will be and how companies can get on board. Sam Moore is one of Mintel’s global food and beverage analysts
Research shows that the cost of animal agriculture could become unsustainable as a standalone solution to feed people. 32 Food&Beverage Industry News | March 2020 | www.foodmag.com.au
who has looked at the trends to see what the experts think will happen over the next 10 years. “One thing about the food and beverage industry is how fast everything changes,” she said. “That is why we decided to look at the trends for 2030 and the long-term analysis and take a more strategic approach and think about what the food and drink industry is going to be like in 10 years’ time. We also wanted to see how businesses can prepare for that future so that there are fewer surprises.” One of the outcomes of the research was the aforementioned population boom and how it would affect the supply chain of food. “We are seeing that just having animal agriculture on its own won’t be enough to feed everybody,” said Moore. “We are going to have to figure out how to do that and that
is why we are seeing a trend with high-end technologies being used. For a start, we are going to see more lab-grown food and that trend is all about how much consumer trust there is in food science and technology. That trust will strengthen as these things become vital conduits to save our food supply.” Moore acknowledges that food created in the lab – especially meat – is in its infancy, but because of how fast things can change, it probably isn’t as far away as everybody thinks. “Lab food hasn’t become commercial, but we are starting to see a lot of investment and interest in it and it is seen as a solution,” she said. “We do see it as becoming something that will strengthen our food supply. When we think about animal agriculture, 34 per cent of
