The Covid 19 Pandemic along with supply chain disruptions over the past two years has changed the way we eat, what we eat, how chefs in restaurants source and prepare foods, and the popularity/trending of certain foods and ingredients.
Local Strawberry Salad at Bloomsday Cafe in Philadelphia
Massively disrupting supply chain issues forced restaurants and homemakers to turn to local suppliers and farmers for meats, vegetables, and baked goods when traditional sources were no longer an option. This new style of regional and sustainable sourcing that began out of necessity has become the norm for chefs and everyday consumers.
“With the rising cost of goods and inflation, menus now more than ever are being built to cross-utilize ingredients as much as possible. There is an even larger focus on local ingredients because local supply chains are not as broken as the global chains.” — Kelsey Bush, co-owner, and executive chef of Bloomsday Cafe in Philadelphia.
People today throughout the world continue to move towards a healthier diet and our modern food trends reflect this. We’re happy to report that among the many current trending food choices like fermented and plant-based foods, it is vegetables that continue to remain high on the popularity list at home and when dining out.
“I think people will eat more vegetables, both in restaurants and on menus. Whether it’s a flexitarian diet or all-in on plant-based, I think people will be more mindful of eating more and better-quality veggies.” — Rob Hurd, executive chef of Frasca Food and Wine in Boulder, Colorado.
“I believe vegetables will continue to move to the center of the plate. Chefs will become more creative with vegetables by studying seasonal availability as well as regions and cuisines around the world where vegetables, not meat or seafood, are the primary ingredients.” — Jonathan Benno, chef of Bar Benno and Benno Restaurants in New York City.
Thus, vegetables both fresh and frozen will continue to remain highly popular both at home and while dining out this year and for years to come due to the consumer’s desire for a healthier diet, the popularity of local and seasonal foods and as a replacement for higher priced meat choices.
At Noon International we specialize in sourcing vegetables and fruits throughout the world, so this is a welcome trend! Please contact us today for any of your ingredient and product needs. As always, our team will respond quickly to your requests.
Upcycling it’s another HUGE modern food trend – an industry now worth 46.7 billion! Upcycling is also known as “salvaged food”, that is, making edible food from ingredients that would otherwise have been thrown away. Specialists in upcycling create snacks, drinks, chips and many other items from unused foods. Upcycling is now considered one of the “sustainable food systems of the future.”
Pulp Pantry Veggie Based Chips
Examples of upcycling businesses are Pulp Pantryand Scraps Frozen Food. Pulp pantry makes a variety of chips using vegetable juice pulp while Scraps takes broccoli leaves, bruised basil leaves and rather ugly looking peppers to make pizza sauce. Beautiful or not, these “throw-away” veggies still maintain their nutritional content and can be turned into delicious final products when creative manufacturers have the foresight to appreciate their intrinsic value.
To learn more about upcycled food go to www.upcycledfood.org. The “Upcycled Food Association (UFA) is a non-profit working to prevent food waste by accelerating the upcycled economy. UFA is a network of more than 180 businesses from around the world, collaborating to empower consumers to prevent food waste with the products they buy. UFA recently launched the Upcycled Certified ™ program, the world’s first product certification for upcycled products and ingredients.”
