In the quest to have the next new fad, packaged goods manufacturers are forever in search of the silver bullet – the must have – the every-home-should-have-one product.
Market research firm Datamonitor has produced its crystal ball findings of likely types that will win favour in shopping trolleys this new decade. And it seems free is big.
Free range and gluten free are right up there along with the search for miraculous superfruits that offer health giving properties.
I have my doubts about the superfruit quest. Some of the examples suggested included Baobab, a tart fruit high in antioxidants, Borojo, a natural energizer from the jungles of South and Central America, Maqui, a mega antioxidant berry also native to South America and Yumberry (let’s see the marketing wunderkind stuff that up) which technically is the “yang-mi” fruit, another super-high antioxidant tree fruit this time from China.
Surely this is the decade of the carbon foot print. It sounds like a whole lot of av-gas guzzling, air-lifting and hot footing it through dwindling rainforests to me. While Tesco may put carbon footprint information on a humble packet of chips in the UK, I can’t see a similar blurb registering as benignly on a serve of Borojo. But the flip-side to this would mean that nurturing native fruiting trees in the Amazon could possibly prevent more trees being cut down for multi-national ventures.
Meat flavoured foods is looming as a bit of a favourite too. Haggis flavoured potato chips, meat flavoured lollipops, bacon flavoured chocolate bars and even bacon flavoured vodka. Datamintor asks whether bacon flavoured icecream or yoghurt can be far behind. Well yes …I’ve had bacon icecream at the hands of Brent Savage chef/ co-owner at The Bentley Restaurant and Bar in Sydney and I know I can get char sui chip cookies in Chinatown.
Environmentally friendly plastic is another likely contender even if it may sound like an oxymoron. But that’s been around for a while and in my view is a better option as a shopping bag than those unsightly, brightly coloured supermarket eco bags made from car tyres or whatever. Those abominations have a half life of a billion years if they get turfed into land fill. Packaging will go this way too, generally with additives in plastic bottles to help them break down. But I wonder what else they will do in their destabilising process. Already the jury is out on chemical leeching with placky bottles. Give me the bags… and think long and hard about the bottles.
And drink ‘shots’ will be de rigeur. While energy drink ‘shots’ have burgeoned exponentially in the past four years, we can expect the new wave of ‘shots’ to be the antithesis of them. Relaxation shots will be the thing. Some examples include Koma Unwind Chillaxation Shot and Tranquilla Relation Shot.
In the functional drink sector the protein enhanced ,exercise recovery drinks, ordinarily the domain of power athletes and weightlifters, look like flexing their muscle to a wider market.
Fantastic…I can’t wait. I’ll be able to lift a mug of cocoa with my left ear.
Bentley Restaurant: www.thebentley.com.au