Food and Beverage Trends
The brand mashup is a new gold standard for capturing consumer attention. For the last few years, we’ve seen that who restaurant brands and c-stores partner with is just as important as what they serve. Most often, we see short-lived seasonal products and menu items, but more lately we’re seeing multi-year agreements and dual-branded concepts,…
Both psychology and economics have a lot to say about something called the scarcity principle, or the idea that people change their behavior based on their desire for something and the availability of that thing. In other words, supply and demand, except that supply is short. The restaurant industry has leveraged scarcity through limited time…
It’s that time of year when all of us in the business of menu development are eager to see what the reports say about emerging food trends. At FDR, it’s no different. Here’s what our team has to say about what’s ahead.
Most food trend predictions these days are influenced by consumer demand for minimally processed foods that are high in protein. Popularity on TikTok doesn’t hurt either. Given all that, it’s no wonder cheese is having a moment. Take cottage cheese, for instance. Google search traffic for the food rose slightly and steadily from 2004 until…
A shift has emerged in consumer eating habits: many are replacing traditional meals with snacks.
While sweet and salty flavor combinations aren’t new on restaurant menus, restaurants are taking the distinct pairing to the next level. We’re not talking about candied bacon. We’re talking about menu items like strawberry balsamic pizza and black garlic caramel dipping sauce for pretzel bites. In the FDR innovation kitchen, we’ve been exploring how sweet…