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Organic and Superfood Trends
Organic food and Superfood trends include radical positive shifts in consumer purchasing habits towards organic food, companies adopting regenerative agriculture practices, healthy oils such as avocado oil becoming a consumer favorite, the growing popularity of plant-based substitutes to meat and egg, and consumers are increasingly interested in identifying the ingredients used in the food and beverages they consume.
Organic Food Trends
- The US organic industry has expanded, its market is now worth $50.1 billion. The expansion of the market in 2020 was mainly a reaction to the COVID 19 pandemic.
- According to Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief marketing officer at Whole Foods Market. “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.”
- People choose organic food "for its human and animal welfare practices and for its sustainability and transparent supply chain stories."
- Producer brands such as Cargill and General Mills are now adopting regenerative agriculture practices, those which "regenerate soil that has been stripped of its nutrients and biodiversity by synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides"
Superfood Trends
Superfood Oils
- Consumers are becoming more mindful when cooking of how much oil they need. While hydrogenated oils actually have some potentially harmful effects, natural oils are superfood oils. "Extra virgin olive oil is well known for its anti-inflammatory effects and high levels of antioxidants. " However olive oil is now "taking a backseat as other oils, especially avocado oil and its skin-enriching properties," take the spotlight.
- Benefits such as high omega-3 levels, monounsaturated fats, and vitamin E have been seen in nut oils such as macadamia and almond. Also, CBD oil has also recently seen an increase in popularity, with results ranging from "pain relief and anti-inflammatory to mental health problems such as anxiety being mitigated."
Proteins
- Plant-based substitutes for meat and egg have become a major consumer favorite.
- "In direct contrast to this, puffed or roasted pork scratches have also been glued as one of the biggest food trends of 2019." The roasted pork scratches are not only high in "protein but also contain mono and polyunsaturated fats that help keep your heart healthy."
- New quinoa,' the grain that has gained prominence, is another trend. "It contains almost twice the amount of fiber and protein compared to quinoa."
Clean-label and Naturally Derived Products
- The growth of the market for clean-label ingredients has been stimulated as consumers are increasingly interested in identifying the ingredients used in the food and beverages they consume. This is due to concerns about the long-term effects on well-being and environmental sustainability of the ingredients used in foods and beverages, their nutritional quality, and their influence.
Research Strategy
To identify the organic food and Superfood trends in the US, your research team examined research reports, industry articles, and media reports, unfortunately, public documents on these topics were limited, as most sources on these topics were prepaid research reports. Therefore, your research team used only one source to identify the organic trends, and one source to triangulate the superfoods trends in the US. There were no express articles on US superfoods trends, so we triangulated the US superfoods trends from the global superfood trends. We assumed that all the identified global Superfood trends were also US trends since they were limited to a particular region within the source article. Since most of the trends identified were consumer trends, there were no company examples associated with these trends. For the generic trend provided, we gave company examples. All trends identified are post 2019 trends, due to Covid 19, which we believe would make most 2019 trends redundant.