Top Irish Food Trends For Ireland 2018
A List Of Irish Food Trends In Ireland This Year
A list of the top Irish food trends for Ireland 2018 has been compiled by Cork based food marketing company Bullseye Marketing. In their yearly report they have listed their top Irish food trends for Ireland 2018 that may be worth keeping an eye on for all you budding foodies out there.
Loving Local/Transparency & Traceability
This is one Irish food trends that I am glad to say has continued to grow from strength to strength every year. As an avid promoter for shopping local it is great to see the this report has highlighted the consumers are attracted to products which have been locally sourced and manufactured by artisan producers. Some of the key points highlighted in the report indicate that consumers trust products which are branded Irish Made, have ingredients that do not contain additives or preservative and the labels have ingredients clearly stated. This is great news as it is clear that consumers are more concerned about where their food come from as well as what is in it indicating people are more concerned about their health. Another key point from the report shows that consumers care about full traceability of their food. Knowing the story behind where their fruit, vegetables, meat and fish come has become important to consumers and it builds trust with the products. Concepts like “Farm to Fork” allow customers to see if their food is ethically reared or grown which again shows customers care about how their food is grown or reared. This Irish food trend has continued to grow in strength over the last few years and it is one I am glad to see being maintained.
Family Convenience
Another one of the Irish food trends which has continued to grow over the years is Family Convenience. The report has identified that the lifestyle of families with school runs, work, after school activities all make for a very hectic day. This has seen the rise of convenience products targeted towards the busy family. Products such as fruit boxes for school lunches where the fruit has been peeled, deseeded and cut or family nutritious meals that can be cooked within 15 minutes help families to free up some precious time at home. The report maintains that they continue to see the family convenience products continue to rise during this year and this is great, in a way. For me I think convenience products are great but, I would rather see more emphasis being placed on educating parents on how to cook nutritious meals at home from scratch while saving time. This allows the parents to know exactly what they are feeding their family, help them keep to a budget and save time. This could be a simple procedure of creating batch meals on the weekend and freezing them to making meals that are quick to cook while still nutritious. This is an area I myself will be keeping an eye on over the year.
Rise of the Weekend Hedonist
This trend has shown that consumers have become more aware of what they are putting into their bodies and have seen people making efforts to reduce salts, sugars and saturated fats from their diet. The report has shown that this trend shows that the consumer is very sensitive to their diet during the week making carefully planned meals but when it comes to the weekend their diet become more relaxed. When it comes to the weekends consumers leave their week long carefully planned meals to eat take out meals and enjoy comfort foods at home. This has indicated that we may see more of a rise in “food on the go” or “indulgent me time” products throughout the year. This trend follows in line with many other European countries who traditionally enjoy such foods as part of their diet such as “tapas” and “hors d’oeuvres”. I believe this is a trend that could see a welcome change to the more traditional dining on weekends in Ireland and see people experiment with delicious and tasty foods to compliment their weekday diets.
Ethnic Influence
The Irish love a nice Chinese or Indian takeaway on the weekend and this has been shown in the previous trend. Ethnic Influence predicts that Ireland will see a rise in consumer tastes for other non-traditional Irish cuisines over the coming years. Already in Ireland we are seeing a broad range of ethnic restaurants popping up throughout the country. Food products like sushi with an Irish twist have become available in many supermarkets across the country indicating that Irish consumers are willing to try a wide range of food from various cultures. With this growing trend we should see the rise of food products from the Middle East and Southern America over the coming years. Cuisines such as Israeli, Moroccan, and Lebanese food will start to become more popular in Ireland as Irish tastes grow and consumers wish to experience new flavours and foods.
Vegetable Everything
This trend has grown in popularity over the years especially with the younger consumer as they try to replace most of their meat based diets with vegetables without becoming full vegetarians. Recipes such as vegetable curry, vegetable lasangne and cauliflower in buffalo sauce are becoming extremely popular as consumers swap out the meat in recipes and replace them with vegetables. With consumers growing interest in more exotic spices and flavours, recipes containing vegetables have now seen huge growth because of their ease to cook but also for their many health benefits. Gone are the days of steamed cauliflower and broccoli on the side of a plate. Consumers now are interested in vegetable recipes which are packed full of flavour. This trend also includes plant based milk alternatives which as been classed was a “hot” trend. Milk and yogurts made from various nuts and fruits have become very popular with consumers who have allergies or who have given up on the more traditional dairy based diet. This has seen a large number of products being developed to cater for this growing market. This trend is predicted to continue to grow over the coming years as more and more consumers replace dairy in their diet with plant based foods.
These are some of the trends that are seeing new growth or continued growth over the previous year and should be interesting to see if they continue to grow as food tastes and trends continue to change. I for one will be keeping an eye on these trends and will create recipes that target some of these ares over the coming months.
Keep up to date on the recipe in my blog and keep an eye out for some of these trending topics and try them out for yourself.
