With the recent jump in home cooking, the role of flavor has been especially magnified as food serves a magnified role in providing excitement, comfort, health, indulgence, self-care, and family bonding.
In the pantheon of snack foods, "salty and crunchy" stands on the highest pedestal of cravings. "Salty snacks are supremely satisfying to all consumers," says Elisa Maloberti, director at the American Egg Board.
Dotty Griffith takes a look ahead to find attitudes and lifestyles that influence food choices and some of the flavors, ingredients, technologies, and styles that will manifest in 2020 and beyond.
Latin flavors are experiencing a strong upward surge, for good reason. There already are large parts of the US (especially California, Texas, and New Mexico) in which non-Hispanics are the minority. US Census Bureau data indicate that by mid-century, about a third of the population will be comprised of persons of Latin/Hispanic background. (Meanwhile, the Caucasian population is expected to drop from around 62% to about 56%.)