Many of the most diverse and popular menu items today reveal these underlying commonalities.
It may seem as if today’s food and beverage trends are all over the place, careening from newer-than-new beverages like nitro cold-brew coffee to heirloom grains that have been enjoyed for thousands of years, from funky, fermented kombucha to comforting old-fashioned fried chicken and biscuits. The fact that these divergent offerings can and do coexist on menus is one indication of how popular they are.
Consider poke. This Hawaiian-style fish salad has caught on in no small degree thanks to its healthy image. Low-fat yet flavorful, easily made gluten free, and loaded with protein and vegetables, poke checks many of the better-for-you boxes. It’s also attractive and Instagram-friendly, reflecting the knife skills and attention to presentation that go with it. Small wonder that, according to Datassential, it’s particularly popular with the influential Gen Z and Millennial demographics.
Protein as a healthy term on menus has grown 76.7% since 2014.
Another trend that’s benefiting from consumer interest in healthier options is plant-based dining. With more consumers eating less meat and more fruits, vegetables, grains, and other plant foods, the menu landscape is changing to accommodate not only vegans and vegetarians, but also a growing number of so-called flexitarians. These consumers still eat meat, but they’re eating less of it, and they’re challenging operators to create plant-based menu items that are just as satisfying and tasty as traditional offerings.
85% of consumers perceive items containing a full serving of vegetables to be more healthy.
Certainly, the popularity game will be won by those who can offer food and beverage options that answer demand for craveability—that unique combination of qualities that includes texture as well as flavor. That’s one of the reasons that crisp, crunchy foods like fried chicken, chips, toast, nuts, and crudité are so on-trend right now.
“Crunch” occurs on 9.5% of US menus, often as part of a specific item’s name, such as Avocado Crunch Burger.
Sources: Datassential, Most Popularly Menued Healthy Terms, 2018; Datassential SNAP! Poke, 2018; Datassential, Plant-Based Eating SNAP! Keynote Report, 2018; 2016 Technomic Inc., Healthy Eating Consumer Trend Report; Technomic, “The Nuances of Craveability,” 2013; Datassential SNAP! Crunch, 2018
Five years ago, no one outside of Hawaii had heard of poke; today it’s taking the bowl-food trend by storm. Pronounced “poh-KAY,” this traditional marinated-fish salad is proving itself a versatile addition to menus in all kinds of venues, from fine dining to fast-casual specialists to grocery store prepared-foods cases.
In fact, according to Datassential, poke has experienced four-year growth of 168%, and is now on 3.8% of US menus. Its versatility, healthy image, and similarity to sushi have all contributed to poke’s growing popularity.
At its simplest and most traditional, poke (which means “chunk” in Hawaii) consists of cubes of pristinely fresh raw tuna, marinated in soy sauce, onions, and sesame oil. But following the bowl trend, poke became more than just an appetizer. It became a craveable, customizable, Instagrammable specialty, with the addition of rice; vegetables like avocado, cucumber, seaweed, jalapeños, and radishes; crispy toppings like wasabi peas and frizzled onions; and umami-powered signature sauces.
Poke ranks in the 99th percentile for future growth potential, meaning that it is expected to outperform 99% of all other foods, beverages, and ingredients over the next four years.
Poke can be made with all types of raw and cooked seafood—not just traditional tuna and octopus, but also salmon, shrimp, Japanese crab sticks and fish cakes, and yellowtail—as well as marinated cooked beef, chicken, and tofu. It’s essentially gluten free, and adaptable to vegetarian versions.
In addition to the popular bowl format, poke can also be served as a small plate with chips or wonton strips, as a filling for a taco, rolled up as a sushi-burrito hybrid, or built into an Asian-style salad.
Poke resides in Datassential’s influential Adoption phase: get in now to get ahead of the curve.
Source: Datassential SNAP! Poke, 2018
Pokeworks, a growing fast-casual chain, features customizable poke bowls, salads, and burritos, as well as house specialty bowls.
Thanks to its healthy, pan-Asian profile, poke matches well with tropical juices, infused waters, wellness beverages, and specialty tea.
One of the biggest trends to hit menus is the flexitarian diet, which moves away from meat in favor of more vegetables, fruits, grains, and other plant-based foods. Beyond vegan and vegetarian, this new consumer represents a lot of potential for menu innovation.
Nowhere is the flexitarian trend more evident than in the role of proteins in the plant-based diet. In addition to eating chicken, beef, cheese, eggs, and other animal proteins, consumers are consuming more grains (which have grown 21.7% on US menus since 2014), legumes (up 28.7%), seeds (19.3%), nuts and nut butter (25.1%), and such high-protein vegetables as cauliflower (31.3%), edamame (24.2%), and kale (110.1%).
All of which expand the repertoire of food and beverage specialties, such as veggie- and grain-based burgers, grain bowls, kale smoothies, upgraded oatmeal, hummus, plant-based milks, and any number of global favorites that emphasize plants over meat.
Consumers choose plant-based alternatives because they think they are healthier and are trying to cut down on animal-based products.
59% of consumers define plant-based meals as either vegan or vegetarian, but 33% say such meals can contain some meat.
Plant-based burgers are on 1.2% of US menus, having grown 91% over a four-year period and 190% since 2017 alone.
At its Sunnyvale, CA, campus, Google has tested a new vegan taco item in its Mexican café, as a part of a larger corporate effort to reduce its carbon footprint through decreased consumption of meat, particularly beef.
Texture can be just as important to enjoyment as flavor, aroma, and appearance. And the texture that’s trending now is crisp and crunchy. Datassential pegs 10-year growth of both “crunchy” and “crispy” to describe specific menu item elements at 19%.
Crunchy foods are on 15.6% of US menus, while crispy enjoys 61.4% penetration.
Crunchy has a food versatility score of 63, and even works with beverages: celery or pickled string bean garnish for a Bloody Mary, biscotti with a specialty coffee, cookie crumbles or chocolate chips in a blended shake.
It’s no accident that popular foods like fried chicken, garden-fresh vegetables, and craveable snack chips are all crisp and crunchy. Crunch adds interest and fun to menu items, and crunchy foods are often easy to pick up and eat with the fingers, adding to their casual appeal.
Many build-your-own fast-casual concepts, such as salads and bowls, feature a “Choose Your Crunch” section of toppings. Popcorn, nuts, and crudité are all trending on bar menus. Avocado toast is huge, contrasting rich, creamy avocado with the satisfying crunch of toast.
Sources: Datassential SNAP! Crunchy, 2018; Datassential SNAP! Crispy, 2018
7-Eleven’s new Magic Bar snack is described as a “deliciously decadent dessert made with crunchy graham cracker crust, a mix of chocolate and butterscotch chips, walnuts, and shredded coconut.”
