Unboxed: 9 tasty trends for food service
At the recent National Restaurant Association Show, our colleagues at Nation's Restaurant News discovered these examples of popular food trends.
![Unboxed: 9 tasty trends for food service Unboxed: 9 tasty trends for food service](https://eu-images.contentstack.com/v3/assets/blt09e5e63517a16184/bltbc9d3a473b52ad5c/64d6e2083b52b27dbdffa816/unboxed-restaurant-show-promo.png?width=700&auto=webp&quality=80&disable=upscale)
Photos from Nation's Restaurant News
The show floor has a lot of plant-based substitutes, of course, but the options are moving beyond the pea protein of big brands such as Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat and traditional meatless center-of-the-plate items such as tofu and tempeh. Pictured here are fish analogs made out of konjac root and rolled into sushi from Boldly Sushi.
There are several displays of American and Japanese wagyu beef, the highly marbled Japanese cattle breed that sells for a premium price, as well as imported and domestic Iberico pork (the latter is being raised in Texas), and other high-end options such as the premium Prime rib from 2 rivers pictured here.
A nascent cuisine that is slowly gaining momentum is items from West Africa, such as the stews that are on display by New York City-based Egunsi Foods offered by a Nigerian entrepreneur.
These twisted baked goods are available from many companies this year. Norma Abbattista of J&J Snack Foods Corp., said that the Bavarian pretzel pictured here, which is darker in color and has more complex flavor than many other varieties, is particularly trendy this year.
This nutritious food, increasingly being called “sea vegetables,” although it’s technically algae, is becoming more popular in part because it is not merely sustainable, but restorative, sequestering carbon and helping to purify the water in which it grows. And since it comes from seawater, no fresh water is required to grow it.
Mushrooms are fungus, not plants, but they are low in calories, full of micronutrients and, although not actually high in protein, nonetheless have a lot of umami flavor and meaty textures that make them hearty meat substitutes, especially since most Americans eat more protein than they need anyway. Meati, a mushroom brand, can be used as a burger as well as other entrées.
Meatless and luxurious, truffles are becoming increasingly commonplace at the show, with multiple displays of truffle oil, truffle hot sauce and truffle-studded cheese, among other items.
Rather than being offered up as meat analogs, many exhibitors are offering plants in fairly pure form, such as Mighty Sesame Co.’s tahini, with a label of one ingredient: sesame seeds. There are also green chickpeas, smoked basmati rice, vegetables packed in oil, and more.
Consumers are increasingly looking for more pronounced flavors, and younger generations in particular gravitate toward sour items, so it stands to reason that more pickles, such as these from North Star Pickle Company, are available for sampling at the show.
Consumers are increasingly looking for more pronounced flavors, and younger generations in particular gravitate toward sour items, so it stands to reason that more pickles, such as these from North Star Pickle Company, are available for sampling at the show.
Five years ago at the National Restaurant Association show, if you were looking to alternatives to conventional food, you would have found a wide range of items that were free of gluten and other allergens, as well as a fair number of items that were vegan.
At this year’s show (and last year’s) what you would have found instead was a staggering array of plant-based items, mostly plant-based protein that were stand-ins for beef and chicken, and increasingly for seafood, as well as dairy-free alternatives for milk, eggless egg substitutes, and some items that were called plant-based for no particular reason other than that that’s a trendy thing to call food — plant-based dumpling wrappers were on display at the show, colored with beets and other vegetables, as though dumplings were normally wrapped in meat.
This trend was in evidence before the pandemic started, as the early wave of meat analogs became available and legacy brands such as Country Crock recast themselves as things like “plant butter.”
But much more than that is available at the show, including premium items, which tend to do well in sluggish economies as wealthy consumers trade down from big purchases to three-hour vacations in restaurants, and plants being exhibited as the best versions of themselves rather than substitutes for something else.
Foodstuffs other than animal and plant products are also on offer, such as fungi and algae.
Take a look at what trend-forward items can be found at this year’s show.
A version of this piece originally appeared on Nation’s Restaurant News, a New Hope Network sister website. Visit the site for more foodservice industry business intelligence.
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