Food is, perhaps more than anything else in the world, a focal point for how people think about tradition.
Consumers prize traditional processing techniques, and legislators protect traditional products through geographical indicators.
A dish can denote a culture more readily than almost any other cultural artefact. If you’re visiting a foreign land, one of the surest ways to connect is to taste the local cuisine.
Yet the way people consume food is changing. It is unlikely to go back to the way it used to be.
People want tradition in food
Many recent food trends have been characterised by a desire for more traditional ways of eating.
This trend has shown itself in the way people cook. In Germany, for example, consumers are increasingly valuing “traditional expertise” and “ancestral” practices such as fermentation, drying and pickling.
Scratch cooking is also retaining popularity, according to consumer analytics company Mintel. People still want to create meals with high-quality ingredients.
Consumers are even being drawn to whole meat cuts like belly, neck and collar, rather than processed meats, according to the organisation The Food People.
Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly distrustful of ultra-processed foods, in part because of scepticism around the motives of large-scale corporates.
Family meals have even been trending on social media, suggesting that many consumers still see them as desirable.
These trends arguably point to the return of more traditional ways of eating. Yet the way people consume food has changed. Despite consumer enthusiasm for tradition, the reality is that things show no sign of going back to how they once were.
Snackification is disrupting traditional meal structures
Snackification is changing how people eat. Rather than food being centred around the traditional three-meals-a-day structure, consumers are snacking throughout the day.
‘Grazing’ is becoming the default form of food consumption, explains Charles Banks, director and co-founder of The Food People. When people eat is far more flexible and fluid than it once was.
According to ingredients company The ACI Group, around 60% of consumers worldwide prefer to split meals into more frequent snacks.
As their lives get busier, consumers are more and more focused on making meals convenient. Snackification has arguably been on the rise for decades, but the trend shows no sign of letting up.
The evening meal was once the central occasion of the day, providing an opportunity for a whole family to gather together. But as snacks become increasingly prevalent, such occasions are no longer as prominent as they once were.
GLP-1s and functional foods are changing the way people relate to food
Consumers are also beginning to think about food differently. The functional foods market has increasingly focused on the benefits that food can provide beyond sustenance; high-protein for muscle growth, probiotics for gut health, even collagen for the skin.
Meal-replacement drinks even attempt to do away with eating altogether, often claiming to provide all the nutrients one needs in a quick, easy way that does not necessitate taking the time to actually cook a meal.
Foods are increasingly seen as similar to medicine – something to consume for the benefits it provides, rather than enjoyment of the food itself.
GLP-1 weight-loss drugs, by removing ‘food noise’ and suppressing appetite, could take this trend to the next level. While we’ve argued elsewhere that GLP-1s are unlikely to change the entire food landscape, they are certainly likely to, for their users at least, provoke a more pragmatic approach to eating.
For those with supressed appetites, eating becomes more about getting the necessary nutrients in the body than actually enjoying the experience of eating.
Access to ingredients is becoming more volatile
The third factor changing food is less linked to the behaviour of consumers, and more to factors beyond their control.
The prices of many crucial food commodities are increasingly volatile. Take cocoa, for instance – the beloved bean has been in crisis for more than two years, making chocolate more expensive and driving the rise of alternatives. This has even led to McVitie’s Penguin and Club bars being unable to call themselves chocolate.
Due to factors such as climate change, ingredients that consumers know and love are becoming harder and harder to come by. This is pushing industry to rely more on alternatives, and leading to price hikes in retail.
The times they are a-changing
Tradition in food is linked to several factors. It’s linked to traditional ingredients and foods which have had the same recipe for generations. It’s linked to the experience and the joy of eating. It’s linked to the communal nature of food, which causes the family to gather around the dinner table.
But all these are at risk. The availability of many ingredients is becoming more and more volatile. Taste and texture as a motive for eating is being slowly eroded by the idea of food as medicine. Even the traditional meal time is less common as consumers eat on the go and snackification reigns supreme.
What does food mean? Not the same thing as it once did.
