Predicting the Next Big Food Trends

“The yuppie is dead,” declares trend-spotter Faith Popcorn, chairman of BrainReserve. As we kindly and gently tiptoe into the ‘90s, the semi-recumbent Couch Potatoes, with their comfortable homes and stable relationships, are already replacing the young financial wizards, with their expense-account lives, as symbols of the “good life.”

What, we asked the professional prognosticators, does this portend for the way we will be eating and entertaining in the years ahead?

“OFF-THE-RACK” MEALS-- The food industry is on the verge of a transformation similar to the one that occurred when clothing began to be bought “off the rack” instead of being custom-made. Just as we assembled our wardrobe from ready-to-wear elements, says Mona Doyle, president of the Consumer Network, a research and marketing concern, so cooking will come to mean the “assembly of ready-to-eat offerings into a meal.”

THE PERCEPTUAL METAMORPHOSIS-- Under the constant pressure of the clock, we embrace anything that promises greater speed and efficiency. And because of the microwave, Doyle writes in Marketing Communications magazine, “Consumers are undergoing a perceptual metamorphosis,” in which they learn to define fast food as something that can be prepared in minutes or even seconds.

MICROWAVE GOURMET --Microwave owners are learning fast food doesn’t have to be dull. As Barbara Kafka, author of “Microwave Gourmet” cookbook, writes, “The microwave oven makes it possible for all of us to cook and eat good, homemade food again. We can return to entertaining without sacrificing our lives to it.”

THE PARENTING FACTOR --The baby boomer generation has launched a baby boomlet of its own, says Phil Lempert, president of the Lempert Company, a marketing and advertising consultant to the food industry. These new parents “instantly shift their priorities to creating stable, healthy home environments. They are ‘panicking for healthy’ and creating a new kind of food trendiness in the search of safe food.” They also are squeezed for cash and worry from “Day One” about how they will pay for college years down the road.

The result: a switch to “warm and fuzzy” says Lempert. “Parents get together at home with other parents and their kids, who play while their elders sit and talk about how tough it is to raise them.”

FAST ISN’T ALWAYS FROZEN --The desire for speed of preparation is somewhat at odds with the desire for healthy, fresh food. Already, according to Lempert, the growth of the market for frozen microwaveable meals is leveling off. Consumers (and the food industry) are turning to “chilled foods,” such as additive-free fresh pastas, sauces and soups, which have only a short shelf life.

BEYOND CARROT --Health concerns are also driving supermarkets to stock more fruits and vegetables. On average they now offer 150 different types, up from just 50 varieties 10 years ago.

NOSTALGIA COOKING --There are signs of resistance to this dominance of our food habits by time, technology and health worries. Karen Caplan, president of Frieda’s Finest, which sells unusual fruits and vegetables to supermarkets, notes that she is receiving more letters from professional people “who want to know things like how Grandma made her Jerusalem artichoke pickles.” These impressions are bolstered by the research of General Housewares Corp., one of the largest kitchenware producers. Senior product manager Ted Conrardy says that all the industry growth has been at the upper end of the market, largely due to the 7.2 million households of people he calls Power Gourmets: those who insist upon the time to cook regularly and from scratch for family and friends.

EATING OUT TO EAT TOGETHER --Finally, Judith Langer, president of Langer Associates, a consumer researcher group, suggests that the family meal will endure even for on-power gourmets--and in a form that should give some hope to the beleaguered restaurateurs. Says Langer, “There are often several TVs and VCRs in the house, so family members may not even watch the same shows at dinner.” The home, then, has become a place where people eat apart, so, ironically, some families are now eating out, to have a family meal. As Langer says, at a restaurant “there’s still a reason for everybody to sit down together.”