6 Food insights for 2019

The Qindle crew kick-started the year with the mouth-watering Horecava fair, where all we talk about is… food! Over four days the huge Rai convention center of Amsterdam gets filled with over 66.000 passionate professionals coming to showcase the latest food & beverage trends and innovations.

Our team gladly went on the hunt for the newest industry directions and highlighted the following top ones:

1. New beverage experiences

The clear drift towards a healthy lifestyle – sporting (cf. Fitbit), meditation and superfoods are well-set in our routines. What caught our attention is the creation of new experiences. Thus, our top picks for the category would be:

• Kombucha and infused water: Natural reflexes rediscovered. These drinks appear to be great not only for your body, but also for your soul, thanks to their natural ingredients only and antioxidants ingredients. A great, soft, power punch.
• Chai and high-tea: New (not so new) breakfast tastes and experiences. We tasted an exquisite chai at Molina and had a very interesting workshop about how to (properly) drink our tea depending on what food we eat. There seems to be still much to learn from these morning specialists!
• 0% alcohol: We tasted Seedlip, the non-alcoholic spirt made out of herbs, spices, and vegetables. Surprisingly good! So much so that it could easily replace any alcoholic beverage. We definitely see a wide new market opportunity here!

2. Replacing plastic

We will never over-speak about this topic and it’s great to find always more companies investing in innovating solutions, such as eatable straws, palm bark-made dishes or sugar-canes bottles, for instance.

3. New basic flavors

It’s been great to see how food gets reinvented. Not only food in general, but the basics. We noticed especially some delicious dried strawberries and tasteful black garlic! In our pursuit of genuineness and healthiness, this 100% innovative trend gave us great hope for our future generations.

4. Instagrammable food

Always and forever. IG is still HoReCa’s best friend, perfectly in line with our connected generations (Millennials, especially, which are the ones using catering services the most). As food became a lifestyle and people became #foodies, standing out with presentation is a must.

5. Vertical urban farming

As Amsterdamers, the growing topic of urban agriculture has become a little more than just a trend. It is now a necessity to find solutions for the current over-urbanization and lack of space. We met with several of these new industry players and heard great stories about how start-ups found unconventional ways and initiatives to help or improve food production. Vertical farming solutions allow harvesting more crops from the same square footage – and in a sustainable way. We can’t wait to see one of those Skyscraper farms!

6. New waste cycle

As mass-consumption becomes more and more of a daily concern to consumers, new business models have emerged. We especially loved the TooGoodToGo app concept and the rescued food from the Krusli start-up. Both strongly engaging against the food-waste stream and with a purposeful mission of changing behaviors.