We caught up with Dr Morgaine Gaye to discuss the future of food…
Healthy eating and authentic, natural food is bang on trend just now, what do you think has fuelled this world wide change towards healthier, more natural food?
A number of things have contributed to this trend: our lack of trust in food itself due to the number of food scares. Our general lack of trust in government/authority and even celebrity. All the recent scandals have driven consumers towards to authenticity and realness – something they can really trust. Generally this tends to be more easily proven and believed in simple products. It’s a time of self-reliance – trusting ourselves.
Where does your interest in the future of food stem from?
I just think the idea of the future is always exciting and filled with new possibilities.
If the nineties and noughties was all about convenience and fast food what will future 30’s and 40’s look like?
2030’s/ 2040’s is not real futurology and more like guess work. Your guess is probably as good as mine!
“All the recent scandals have driven consumers towards to authenticity and realness – something they can really trust”
I know that one of the great projects you’re involved in is the ‘Bellwether Report’ on food trends. How do you and your team predict what will be the next trend in food?
Food is a great social indicator. We predict trends in a number of ways but mostly by noticing emerging ideas in fashion, interiors, geo-politics, politics, media and also food itself from all corners of the world. We then try to cluster these examples and try to formulate what we think is an over-arching trend and begin to try and prove our theory by looking for examples and interviewing people.
How do you see future food trends affecting global production and what methods do you see that allows us to start producing food in a sustainable and plentiful way?
Huge questions! Insects as food and cattle feed, will be a great boost to sustainability and affordability of protein in the West.
‘Superfoods’ has become a fashionable term in food lately, do you see this label being used more so in the future?
Superfoods is a branding term because all raw vegetables and fruits have the benefits touted in most superfoods. However, there are some which are very dense with micro-nutrients so less can be more. All of these foods will be a more common part of our diet in the future. Texture and colour seem to be a key factor in food products just now, do you think the online opportunities for foodies, such as instagram and food blogger platforms are driving this change towards brighter more colourful foods?
Texture is a new emerging trend which hasn’t been fully explored in food and will start to become more used.
Food is not more brightly coloured than it was in the 70’s it’s just that our cameras are better! A raspberry is still a raspberry!
We love your range of functional food, which are all are grain-free, dairy-free, organic, sugar-free, low GI and raw. Is this something you’re looking to expand in 2015/2016?
We’re in the process of developing more products all the time…so watch this space!
Find out more from Dr Morgaine Gaye – www.morgainegaye.com
