Top 10 Global Food Trends

A. Elizabeth Sloan

April 1, 2005

In 2004, health became the key driver of the world’s fastest-growing food and beverage categories, fresh fruit and salads made the “Top 10” of the fastest-growing foods ordered in restaurants, and heart-helping foods mainstreamed onto supermarket shelves. Fair-trade coffee became the number-one coffee brand, “sustainable” farming practices became a new marketing term, and sales of nitrite/nitrate-free meats, “wild-caught” fi sh, and almost anything organic continued to soar.

Top 10 Global Food Trends Greater time constrai…

Table 1—Fastest-growing food categories worldwide, 2004. From ACNielsen (2004a)

Fig. 1—Percent of in-home supper meals by how main dish is made. From NPD (2005a).

Fig. 2—Change in restaurant orders (000) for year ending Nov. 2004 vs 2003. From NPD (2005a).

Fig. 3—Sixteen percent (16%) of all consumers and 27% of periphery consumers do not take any action in avoiding the amount of trans fats they consume.