Clean labels, probiotic foods, alternative protein sources, natural pigments and biohacking – these are only a few examples of food and drink „megatrends” set to make it big this year. On June 8th, during an outdoor science festival, researchers from the Institute of Animal Reproduction and Food Research together with experts from MASPEX company exposed consumers to global innovations that change the ways we produce, buy, eat and dispose food.
As a part of EIT Food #AnnualFoodAgenda season 2, whole families took part in workshops, experiments and demonstrations following the topic of „Food trends and future consumers” and learnt the latest scientific achievements and market novelties in the area of food processing, shopping, consumption and recycling. During the event, we discovered i.a. food products with a 30-year long expiry date and checked if foods dedicated to astronauts, alpinists and sailors could also be included in our daily diets. Kids and their parents also took an insight into a growing popularity of fermented food products such as kimchi and kombucha. Using special equipment from the laboratory of metabolomics they performed scientific analysis of natural colorants present in e.g. purple carrots, and commonly used in yoghurts or juice. Festival guests also had a chance to investigate exotic spices and other products considered 'superfoods’ available in local stores and now more frequently used in Polish kitchens. Finally, we uncovered both the most popular and yet not widely known sugar substitutes, as well as checked the latest trends in the bakery and confectionary sector of the food industry.
Trends at the food and drink market are not only related to the products themselves. We can now hear about the “consumers of new generation” who make conscious dietary choices, follow the „zero waste” schemes at their household, and develop habits that reduce the environmental footprint. To bring attention to this trend, during the #AnnuaFoodAgenda workshops children and their parents were given an opportunity to engage in zero waste cooking, discover the “food sharing” concept and learnt how to do shopping in a responsible way.
„Food trends and future consumers” #AnnualFoodAgenda” workshops were free of charge and took place on June 8th, 2019 at Olsztyn Old Town (Poland) at 12:00-16:00 during the Science Picnic of the Polish Academy of Sciences.
In total over 30 researchers have been involved in the activity, with nearly 500 hundred guests directly involved in #AnnualFoodAgenda hands-on workshops, demonstrations, talks and experiments.
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