2. The world of food and drink in 2015 is
exciting yet contentious. Consumers have
never known such an abundance of choice,
and food has probably never been so central
to popular culture—yet its future has rarely
seemed so controversial.
The international Expo Milano 2015, with
the theme “feeding the planet, energy for
life,” is one of many events where innovators
have gathered to ask: with the global
population projected to rise to 9.6 billion by
2050, how can the food production system
adapt and thrive?
Food Drink
FOOD + DRINK 2INTRODUCTION
Photography by David Sykes
3. FOOD + DRINK 3INTRODUCTION
In the short term, social and technological changes are transforming
our relationship with food. Technological innovations such as genetically
modified organisms (GMOs) are creating novel products while fueling
new anxieties and ethical quandaries. Consumers are gaining an
understanding of the links between childhood obesity and food policy,
bringing conversations about food into the political mainstream.
As food imagery proliferates on social media, more consumers are
“eating with their eyes” than ever before, and raising their expectations
to match. Food events such as MAD in Copenhagen, Bitten in New
York, and SouthBites at South by Southwest in Austin have emerged
not just as industry forums, but also as venues for a broader cultural
conversation.
“Food is becoming more important to people’s lives and their sense of
identity,” says Sam Bompas of experiential food design duo Bompas
& Parr. “The use of social media means that people use food to find a
sense of personal identity, and perform their identity on an ongoing
basis through photographing what they are eating.”
Food trends also race across the world faster than ever before. Brands
that might have remained local and undiscovered are rapidly brought to
attention by the Instagramming masses, forever in search of the next
novel image. A July 2015 study conducted for this report by SONAR™,
J. Walter Thompson’s proprietary research and insights arm, found
that 75% of millennials say they are among the first in their families to
research and try new food trends, and 80% are more likely to share
photos of food if it is interesting and unique.
Photography by David Sykes
4. FOOD + DRINK 4INTRODUCTION
But as the sharing of food imagery accelerates, we’re also seeing calls
for the food system as a whole to slow down, and take stock of its
role in supporting the health of our bodies and the planet. Issues such
as localism and responsible sourcing have become key differentiators
for brands seeking to connect with ethically minded consumers, who
increasingly view food as part of a holistic system.
As beauty standards shift to emphasize strength and fitness, these
are becoming aspirational qualities, and consumers are turning away in
droves from “diet” messaging. Only 28% of US millennials and 13% of UK
millennials said products labeled “diet” were “very appealing,” placing
the term among the least compelling food marketing claims covered in
our study. In June 2015, Nestlé’s Lean Cuisine became the latest brand
to disavow weight-loss marketing.
Going forward, brands will have to carefully balance consumers’ desire
for novelty with a commitment to ethics, transparency and health. With
all this in mind, we take a qualitative look at the broad shifts currently
shaping our perceptions of food and drink—and emerging trends to
watch across these categories.
Photography by David Sykes
5. FOOD + DRINK 5INTRODUCTION
Food Politics
Public awareness of the politics of food
and nutrition has slowly built in recent
years, fueled by the success of films such
as 2008’s Food, Inc. and public initiatives
including Michelle Obama’s Let’s Move!
campaign. Today, a grassroots movement
against unhealthy eating has acquired the
sort of urgency that in previous decades
characterized the seeking of cancer cures
or reducing smoking.
In the UK, celebrity chef Jamie Oliver is spearheading Food Revolution
Day, “a global campaign to put compulsory practical food education on
the school curriculum” that held its first worldwide event in May 2015.
Two months later, Tesco made a public declaration of its stance on the
health risks of added sugars for children, banning lunchbox-size packs
of Capri-Sun and Ribena drinks.
The 2014 documentary Fed Up, narrated by news anchor Katie Couric,
reflects growing public skepticism about the effects of conventional
branded foods on children’s health. Our SONAR™ survey found that
81% of US millennials believe large food brands pursue policies that
make Americans less healthy.
Food innovators are challenging the assumption that healthy food
must be expensive and time-consuming to prepare. Noted chefs
Roy Choi and Daniel Patterson have announced plans for a chain of
fast-food restaurants called Loco’l, delivering healthy burgers with a
delicious umami flavor for only $4. The first location will open in the
Los Angeles neighborhood of Watts, and the second in San Francisco’s
Tenderloin. As many as 28 additional locations are planned by 2017.
Photography by David Sykes
6. FOOD + DRINK 6INTRODUCTION
No More Waste
Amid rising awareness of the relationship
between food and the environment, both
brands and consumers are doing more
to combat food waste. According to the
Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), if food waste
were a country, its carbon footprint would be
third only to those of the US and China.
The 400 retailer and manufacturer members
of the CGF have pledged to halve food waste
by 2025.
In 2014, French supermarket Intermarché promoted its commitment to
reducing waste, while boosting its bottom line, with its Inglorious Fruits
and Vegetables campaign. The initiative sold imperfect-looking fruits
and vegetables to consumers at 30% below the standard retail price,
resulting in a 24% increase in store traffic. Swedish-Filipino startup FoPo
takes overripe fruit and turns it into a dry powder with a shelf life of up
to two years.
The movement is even making inroads into upmarket dining. In March
2015, chef Dan Barber’s pop-up restaurant wastED enlisted high-profile
chefs to serve scrap-based meals to diners in Manhattan’s West Village.
Health-food chain Sweetgreen followed up by creating the limited-
edition wastED “scrap” salad, featuring standard ingredients plus kale
stems, cabbage cores and broccoli stalks—roasted in anchovy oil to
soften and flavor the dish.
Our SONAR™ survey found support for brands that engage in such
practices—74% of US and UK millennials would adopt new dietary
habits in order to reduce their impact on the planet, and 70% are willing
to pay more money for products that reuse and recycle materials.
Photography by David Sykes
7. FOOD + DRINK 7INTRODUCTION
Healthy Indulgence
In the previous decade, diners revolted
against low-fat orthodoxy, especially when
dining out, as “diet” foods were discarded
in favor of rich meats and calorie-laden
preparations. But in the 2010s, healthy foods
are back, without the subtext of self-denial.
Health and indulgence increasingly coexist in the minds of consumers.
El Rey Coffee Bar & Luncheonette in Manhattan serves vegan
chicharrones locos, a fried Mexican street snack that has been
reinvented as a healthy and delicious salad. At Los Angeles restaurant
Sqirl, lines form around the block for chef Jessica Koslow’s unique take
on breakfast food, which uses Mediterranean and Asian spices to make
irresistibly light versions of classics. “This is food whose time has come,”
declared New York Times food critic Mark Bittman.
London food-blogging duo Hemsley + Hemsley extol the virtues of
coconut oil for rich-yet-healthy desserts like their Paradise Bars,
made with creamed coconut, raw honey, and dark chocolate. And the
small brand Unreal Candy is reinventing bite-sized chocolate from the
ground up, with less sugar, no corn or soy, and natural dyes.
Photography by David Sykes
8. FOOD + DRINK 8INTRODUCTION
Cross-Sector Collaborations
As food and drink continue to accumulate
cultural cachet, more cross-sector
collaborations are happening between food
innovators and the worlds of fashion, art,
design, film and media. Brutal Magazine,
launched in August 2014, showcases talent
from a range of creative industries through
the lens of food.
Food titles such as The Gourmand and Cherry Bombe that have
launched in recent years continue to push the envelope with creative
cross-sector collaborations involving food.
For its latest cocktail range, the Artesian bar in London drew
inspiration from the 20th-century surrealist art movement, especially
Salvador Dalí, for example serving its Anti Hero drink in a vessel
based on the artist’s depiction of elephants. Bompas & Parr’s new bar
Alcoholic Architecture conceives of drinks at the scale of buildings,
creating breathable cocktail clouds using powerful humidifiers.
At Milan Design Week 2015, Wallpaper* magazine’s annual Handmade
exhibition was called Eat Me! Drink Me! Tell Me That You Love Me!
It featured design-led explorations of gastronomy such as a luxury
outdoor grill made of copper and steel by industrial designer
Konstantin Grcic and kitchen brand Valcucine, and a fantastical set of
surrealist dinnerware by designer Nigel Coates and porcelain crafters
Ginori. Also in Milan, London design practice Studio Appétit created
Things of Edible Beauty, a set of hybrid “culinary art” objects that
combine flavors, fragrances and jewelry.
Photography by David Sykes
9. FOOD + DRINK 9BY NUMBERS
X
By Numbers
Millennials consider food
to be an important part of
personal identity.
They follow food trends closely, especially in the
United States, and consider going out to eat to be a
cultural experience—signs that “foodie” behaviors
have gone mainstream.
“FOOD IS A MAJOR PASTIME FOR ME” (US/UK)
100 %
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
74% 64%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
45%
BOOMERS
(50+)
“I CONSIDER GOING OUT TO EAT
TO BE A CULTURAL EXPERIENCE” (US)
100 %
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
81% 68%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
53%
BOOMERS
(50+)
10. FOOD + DRINK 10BY NUMBERS
“I AM AMONG THE FIRST OF MY FRIENDS AND
FAMILY TO RESEARCH AND TRY NEW FOOD TRENDS”
100 %
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34) US
MILLENNIALS
(18–34) UK
75% 57% 60%
GENERATION X
(35–49) US
50%
GENERATION X
(35–49) UK
39%
BOOMERS
(50+) US
31%
BOOMERS
(50+) UK
US UK
11. FOOD + DRINK 11BY NUMBERS
“I WOULD LIKE TECHNOLOGY TO OFFER ME MORE
ASSISTANCE IN PLANNING AND COOKING HEALTHY MEALS”
“I USE TECHNOLOGY (E.G., APPS, WEARABLES)
TO HELP ME MAINTAIN A PROPER DIET”
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
57% 38%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
77% 58%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
37%
BOOMERS
(50+)
19%
BOOMERS
(50+)
Millennials believe technology should
play an important role in helping them
make healthy food choices, and they
frequently share images of food and
drink on their social media profiles.
12. FOOD + DRINK 12BY NUMBERS
“I AM MORE LIKELY TO SHARE PICTURES OF MY
FOOD OR DRINK IF IT IS DIFFERENT AND UNIQUE” US/UK
100%
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
72% 52%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
22%
BOOMERS
(50+)
“I SHARE PHOTOS ON SOCIAL MEDIA
OF FOOD…” US/UK
100 %
75%
50%
25%
0%
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
MILLENNIALS
(18–34)
52% 48% 35%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
31%
GENERATION X
(35–49)
11%
BOOMERS
(50+)
11%
BOOMERS
(50+)
…I HAVE PREPARED FOR
MYSELF AT HOME
…I ORDER AT A
RESTAURANT
13. FOOD + DRINK 13BY NUMBERS
US consumers believe that high-
protein products are healthiest,
while low-fat claims are more
compelling for UK consumers.
Consumers think that sugar is less healthy than
carbohydrates in general, and small yet significant
minorities of consumers believe that products high
in “good fats” are healthier than any of the above.
32%
33%
25%
4%
7%
9%
22%
UKHIGH IN PROTEIN
LOW IN FAT
LOW IN SUGAR
LOW IN CARBS
HIGH IN 'GOOD FATS'
OTHER
25%
5%
9%
10%
18%
US
“THE HEALTHIEST SOUNDING NUTRITION CLAIM FOR ME IS...”
14. SAMPLE TREND 14FOOD + DRINK
Cube by Lernert & Sander. Commissioned by de Volkskrant, 2014
Awash with food imagery on social
media, consumers are gravitating towards
unexpected images that are aimed at the
mind rather than the stomach.
Food imagery on Instagram has lost some of its novelty: at press
time, 196 million photos on the platform are tagged as #food and nearly
64 million as #foodporn. Along with the ubiquity of food imagery, an
inevitable backlash is emerging—simple shots don’t cut it any more.
“There’s a bit of #foodporn fatigue. People aren’t maybe as interested in
seeing what their friends have eaten for lunch or dinner that day, but are
really interested in seeing food in unconventional images,” says Linyee
Yuan, co-editor of Mold, a food design editorial platform. “It’s kind of set
up in a way that you wouldn’t necessarily see on a plate.”
Feasts For The Eyes
15. SAMPLE TREND 15FOOD + DRINK
Foodography by Carmel Wineries, Israel, 2015
The Instagram account of designer Marta Grossi (@bananagraffiti)
features photos of bananas intricately painted with patterned imagery.
In May 2015, Instagrammers were captivated by a single photo of
identically sized cubes of 98 different foods—the work of design
studio Lernet & Sander. Mold’s own account (@thisismold) recently
featured watermelons precisely cut into pyramids, toy soldiers posed
for battle in a donut maze, and a replica of Moscow’s Saint Basil’s
Cathedral made of soft-serve cones.
The Instagram account @symmetrybreakfast, which has 366,000
followers, is the work of boyfriends Michael Zee and Mark van Beek. It
features photos of two virtually identical breakfasts, arranged as mirror
images. This slightly offbeat visual makes Symmetry Breakfast feel
less like a source for cooking inspiration and more like a meditation on
relationships. In July 2015, the founders even teamed up with Guardian
Soulmates to hold a breakfast speed-dating event in east London.
16. FOOD + DRINK 16SAMPLE TREND
Symmetry Breakfast by Michael Zee and Mark van Beek, London
Another aspect of #foodporn 2.0 is a renewed focus on tableware,
by both restaurants and consumers in general. In April 2015, the Israeli
company Carmel Wineries produced Foodography, a series of dinners
and workshops with dishware specifically designed to provide a
flattering backdrop for smartphone food photography. At Stockholm
Design Week, designer Sofia Almqvist presented her Umami Table, a
scalloped surface for bespoke tableware that offers a particularly
artful backdrop for otherwise conventional foods.
“Fine dining has always been very focused on tableware,” says Yuan,
“but what we’re seeing now is that consideration being taken at more
casual restaurants as well. For young restaurateurs and chefs, it’s not
negotiable any more. Anyone watching Food Network is going to know
what you mean by plating and have high expectations for how dishes
are presented.”
Implications: With the proliferation of online food photography,
consumers now expect food to get the high-end visual treatment.
Consider fashion retailer Farfetch’s recent collaboration with
Assouline, Farfetch Curates Food, a book exploring the intersection
between art, graphics and food.
17. FOOD + DRINK 17SAMPLE TREND
There’s a new awareness and
importance around tableware as a
visual aspect of eating.
LINYEE YUAN
COFOUNDER, MOLD
Umami Table by Sofia Almqvist, Stockholm, 2014. Photography by Petter Brandt
18. FOOD + DRINK 18SAMPLE CASE STUDY
Launched in Amsterdam in April 2015, The Roast Room is a forward-
looking restaurant for the 21st-century meat-lover. While the barbecue
joints of the 2000s indulged diners’ carnivorous appetites with large
quantities of rich meat, The Roast Room instead emphasizes quality
and transparency.
“People are likely to eat less meat in the future, but with higher quality,”
says Michiel Deenik, the owner of the restaurant. “Quality over quantity,
this is exactly where we can meet the needs and wants of the guests.”
The design of the restaurant, by the Dutch interior design practice
Studio Modijefsky, brings the role of the butcher to the fore. Previously
hidden away from squeamish diners, the butcher is now celebrated as a
skilled artisan, and works in full view, in a glass-fronted butchery with a
modern-industrial aesthetic.
The Roast Room
The Roast Room, Amsterdam. Photography by Maarten Willemstein
19. FOOD + DRINK 19SAMPLE CASE STUDY
“The butchery is an open area with a lot of glass where guests can
dine as well,” explains Deenik. “There is nothing that we hide. When we
explain the menu to the guest, we really go into detail about where the
beef comes from and how the life of the cow influences the structure,
color, taste, and amount of fat in the meat.”
Implications: The future of meat is increasingly contested. Reassure
worried consumers by emphasizing quality and transparency, and think
beyond conventional, low-cost meat and poultry.
The Roast Room, Amsterdam. Photography by Maarten Willemstein
20. FOOD + DRINK 20CASE STUDIES
The Innovation Group is J. Walter Thompson’s futurism, research and
innovation unit. It charts emerging and future global trends, consumer
change, and innovation patterns—translating these into insight for brands.
It offers a suite of consultancy services, including bespoke research,
presentations, co-branded reports and workshops. It is also active in
innovation, partnering with brands to activate future trends within their
framework and execute new products and concepts. It is led by
Lucie Greene, Worldwide Director of the Innovation Group.
The Innovation Group is part of J. Walter Thompson Intelligence, a platform
for global research, innovation and data analytics at J. Walter Thompson
Company, housing three key in-house practices: SONAR™, Analytics and
the Innovation Group. SONAR™ is J. Walter Thompson’s research unit that
develops and exploits new quantitative and qualitative research techniques
to understand cultures, brands and consumer motivation around the world.
It is led by Mark Truss, Worldwide Director of Brand Intelligence. Analytics
focuses on the innovative application of data and technology to inform and
inspire new marketing solutions. It offers a suite of bespoke analytics tools
and is led by Amy Avery, Head of Analytics, North America.
Contact:
Lucie Greene
Worldwide Director of the Innovation Group
J. Walter Thompson Intelligence
lucie.greene@jwt.com
Report editor: Shepherd Laughlin
Visual editor: Emma Chiu
Cover photography: David Sykes
Contributors:
Graeme Allister
Hallie Steiner
Hannah Stodell
