2021 Trends

This year’s top 10 trends are:

1. Regenerative Agriculture: We’ll see farming and grazing practices that restore degraded soil, improve biodiversity and increase carbon capture to create long-lasting environmental benefits such as positively impacting climate change.
2. Flour Power: 2020 will bring more interesting fruit and vegetable flours (like banana!) into home pantries, with products like cauliflower flour in bulk and baking aisles, tiger nut flour in chips and snack foods, and seed flour blends.
3. Foods from West Africa: Brands are looking to West Africa for its superfoods like moringa and tamarind, and lesser-known cereal grains sorghum, fonio, teff and millet.
4. Out-of-the-Box, Into-the-Fridge Snacking: The keyword is “fresh” in this new generation of grabbing and going — gone are the days when the only options were granola bars and mini pretzel bags. Now there are hard-boiled eggs with savoury toppings, pickled vegetables, drinkable soups, and mini dips and dippers of all kinds.
5. Plant-Based, Beyond Soy: Some of the products touting “no soy” in the next year will be replacing it instead with innovative blends (like grains and mung beans) to mimic the creamy textures of yogurts and other dairy products. In the supplement aisle, brands are swapping soy for mung bean, hempseed, pumpkin, avocado, watermelon seed and golden chlorella.
6. 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).
7. Rethinking the Kids’ Menu: Many parents are introducing their kids to more adventurous foods, with great results and better-for-you ingredients.
8. Not-So-Simple Sugars: Syrupy reductions from fruit sources, sweet syrups made from starches like sorghum and sweet potato, and Swerve, a cup-for-cup zero-calorie non-glycaemic replacement for sugar, are all gaining prominence.
9. Meat-Plant Blends: Butchers and meat brands won’t be left out of the “plant-based” craze in 2020, but they’re not going vegetarian, instead adding plant-based ingredients to meat.
10. Zero-Proof Drinks: Unique non-alcoholic options are popping up everywhere, many seeking to re-create classic cocktail flavours 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.

Predictions

There have been radical shifts in consumer habits in 2020. For example, shoppers have found new passions for cooking, they’ve purchased more items related to health and wellness, and more are eating breakfast at home every day compared to pre-COVID,” said Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief marketing officer at Whole Foods. “Food trends are a sign of the times, and our 2021 trends are no exception.”

The group of local foragers, regional and global buyers, and culinary experts came together to compile the list, and here are the 10 trend predictions for 2021:

• Well-being is served: The lines are blurring between the supplement and grocery aisles, and that trend will accelerate in 2021. That means superfoods, probiotics, broths and sauerkrauts. Suppliers are incorporating functional ingredients like vitamin C, mushrooms and adaptogens to foster a calm headspace and support the immune system.
• Epic breakfast every day: With more people working from home, the most important meal is getting the attention it deserves, not just on weekends, but every day. There’s a whole line-up of innovative products tailored to people paying more attention to what they eat in the morning. Think pancakes on weekdays, sous vide egg bites and even “eggs” made from mung beans.
• Basics on fire: With more time in the kitchen, home chefs are looking for hot new takes on pantry staples. Pasta, sauces, spices — the basics will never be boring again. Get ready for reimagined classics like hearts-of-palm pasta, applewood-smoked salt and “meaty” vegan soup.
• Coffee beyond the mug: The love affair between humans and coffee burns way beyond a brewed pot of joe. That’s right, java is giving a jolt to all kinds of food. You can now get your coffee fix in the form of coffee-flavoured bars and granolas, smoothie boosters and booze, and even coffee yogurt for those looking to crank up that breakfast parfait.
• Baby food, all grown up: Thanks to some inspired culinary innovation, parents have never had a wider or richer range of ingredients to choose from. Available options are portable squeeze pouches full of rhubarb, rosemary, purple carrots and omega-3-rich flaxseeds. Little eaters, big flavours.
• Upcycled foods: Peels and stems have come a long way from the compost bin. There’s a huge rise in packaged products that use neglected and underused parts of an ingredient as a path to reducing food waste. Upcycled foods, made from ingredients that would have otherwise been food waste, help to maximize the energy used to produce, transport and prepare that ingredient.
• Oil change: Slide over, olive oil. There’s a different crop of oils coming for that place in the skillet or salad dressing. At-home chefs are branching out with oils that each add their own unique flavour and properties. Walnut and pumpkin seed oils lend a delicious nutty flavour, while sunflower seed oil is hitting the shelves in a bunch of new products and is versatile enough to use at high temps or in salad dressing.
• Boozed-up booch: Alcoholic kombucha is making a strong flex on the beverage aisle. Hard kombucha checks all of the boxes: It’s gluten-free, it’s super bubbly, and it can be filled with live probiotic cultures.
• The mighty chickpea: The time has come to think beyond hummus, falafel, and even chickpea pasta. Rich in fibre and plant-based protein, chickpeas are the new cauliflower — popping up in products like chickpea tofu, chickpea flour and even chickpea cereal.
• Fruit and veggie jerky: Jerky isn’t just for meat lovers anymore. Now all kinds of produce, from mushrooms to jackfruit, are being served jerky-style, providing a new, shelf-stable way to enjoy fruits and veggies. ​The produce is dried at peak freshness to preserve nutrients and yumminess. If that’s not enough, suppliers are literally spicing things up with finishes of chili, salt, ginger and cacao drizzle.