15 food trends for 2018

1. Gut-friendly food

With fermenting, pickling and preserving reaching the mainstream, our panel agree that gut health is set to be a big food trend for 2018. This includes probiotics like kimchi, miso and kefir and prebiotics such as onions, garlic and other alliums.Want to learn more about preserving food and the health benefits of doing so? Take a look at our digestive health hub for all the latest recipes and research. Then, see our beginner's guide to fermented foods and try it for yourself.

2. Booze-free beverages

Good Food columnist Tony Naylor cites non-alcoholic drinks as a growth area in the food and drink industry, and our supermarket forecasters say that health-conscious millennials are drinking booze less and less. Premium tonic waters with interesting flavours, non-alcoholic 'spirits' and botanical mixes are flooding in to fill a gap in the market. You could shop for booze-free drinks or make your own mocktails and fruity cordials at home.

3. Hawaiian food

Poke bowls are everyday food in Hawaii – essentially sushi without the fussy presentation. Still relatively hard to find, even in London, next year they will likely cross over into the mainstream. These bowls are endlessly customisable and can be economical, too. Try our Japanese-influenced poke bowl for a fresh and filling lunch.

4. Timut pepper

We love exploring new seasonings and we're not afraid of hot spices. Timut pepper, from Nepal, is spiky, zesty – surprisingly grapefruity – and leaves a tingly residual heat on the palate. It's also been tipped by sous-chef.co.uk and supermarket giant Asda as being the next big condiment for 2018.

Try adding a sprinkling to gin & tonic to take this classic cocktail to the next level.

5. Specialised tea

Good news for fans of a cuppa – tea is even more popular than before. Sales of herbal and green tea, in particular, continue to rise for consumption at home, so it’s likely that the small number of tea ‘bars’ that we've seen popping up may also start to proliferate on the high street. People are beginning to think of tea with the same reverence as coffee for its many varieties.Get to know your types of tea and become an expert on the perfect brew.

6. Hyper-local food

In the UK and many other countries now, there is a growing trend for dishes created with ingredients sourced within walking distance. One of the figureheads for this movement is Danish chef René Redzepi who is doing just that at his two-Michelin-starred Copenhagen restaurant Noma. Tony Naylor observes that at home, too, there are more and more "restaurants are applying a Redzepi-like sense of localism to their ingredients". Want to use your hyper-local ingredients in your cooking? See our beginner's guide to foraging.

7. Heme

Not available to buy yet, heme – pronounced 'heem' (from the Greek word for 'blood') – is at the cutting edge of food science, and is a possible stepping stone to more environmentally sustainable meat alternatives. Tech-food start-up Impossible Foods are already using it to bring a meaty quality to their plant-based burger including, yes, the bloodiness of meat cooked rare.

Find out what the Impossible Burger tastes like.

8. Plant-based protein

With more and more chefs embracing ingredients such as tofu, tempeh and quinoa, veganism is on the rise. Food blogger Angry Chef talks about redefined Indian cuisine (rich with pulses) as a growing trend, with restaurants taking dishes back to their plant-based roots with originality and mass appeal. There'll be more meat-free days in 2018.Learn more about modern veganism and find out what a plant-based diet is, as well as how it affects your body.

9. Everyday food tech

Having recently purchased Whole Foods, Amazon is now competing with a clutch of smaller outfits who specialise in delivering recipe kits to home chefs, which means an emerging trend is set to become even bigger. Tying in with this, the development of smart fridges will take the hassle out of ordering ingredients by snapping 'shelfies' of your food to keep you well-stocked. We can also look forward to more voice-operated gadgets such as Google Home and Alexa to record and order your shopping lists.

If you love hi-tech mod-cons at low prices, discover our pick of the best kitchen gadgets under £20.

10. South American cuisines

Mexican, Peruvian and Brazilian food along with Japanese-Mexican fusion could well be big this year. ‘Arepas’ [pronounced ‘uh-rey-puhs’, which are corn pizzas-come-muffins], chicha [‘chee-chuh’, a fermented maize drink] and chulpe corn [‘chool-puh’, used to make snacks] will be prevalent,’ says Georgina Lunn, Product Development Manager at Sainsbury’s. Quinoa and chia seeds have peaked, but purple potatoes, white and purple corn, black quinoa and kiwicha seeds are on the up.Get your tastebuds in the mood and browse our Brazilian recipe collection.

11. Foreign farming in Britain

Luke Farrell from Dorset’s Ryewater Nursery, who has encyclopedic knowledge of Malaysian and Sichuan cuisines, is harvesting rare Asian plant varieties like som saa and pandan (Nigella reckons the latter is the avocado of 2018). Meanwhile, there’s sustainably farmed British tilapia in east London (growup.org.uk), with the waste produced used as fertiliser to grow veg. British farmers are even producing txuleton (pronounced chuleton), the Galician old ox or dairy beef that foodies go wild for.UK pioneers include Andrew Barraclough’s farm near Penrith and the Lake District Farmers (LDF).

12. The fourth meal

Brunch, brinner, lunch... are you confused too? Now, we have a fourth meal to contend with. ‘We’ve been watching the fourth meal for months,’ says Jonathan Moore, Waitrose's executive chef. ‘We’re eating differently. We have breakfast for dinner, dinner for lunch – everything is less structured. The fourth is the final meal, which is normally a treat.’ So, four meals a day – if you have the appetite for it!

13. Nootropics

The health-conscious will be consuming nootropics – that’s brain food, to you and me – according to trends prediction agency Pearlfisher. Gut health is still a major focus but cognition may now start to take over. Look out for turmeric, salmon, eggs, dandelion greens and jícama (Mexican yam).

14. Craft butter

Grant Harrington, of Butter Culture, is elevating the humble yellow block. After a year of research into dairy fermentation, when he built a cabin on a farm in Oxfordshire, the ex-Fäviken chef started supplying butter locally. Now, his rich, buttercup-hued fat, heaped with naturally occurring diacetyl acid – the stuff that makes butter buttery – is omnipresent. Diners are eulogising it in restaurants from Sat Bains in Nottingham to London’s Bibendum. Learn how to make flavoured butters for fun toast toppings or easy garnishes.

15. West African cuisine

Zoe Adjonyoh’s recent cookbook, Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, about growing up eating grilled tilapia and gingery Scotch bonnet stew, has been influential. Thanks to her, ‘there is scope to show customers how to use different spices,’ says M&S’s Head of Food Product Direction and Innovation, Cathy Chapman. Additionally, Yeo Valley is releasing a limited-edition baobab and vanilla yogurt.

Get started on your West African cooking repertoire with our smoky Jollof rice recipe.

Check out other food trend guides...

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10 food trends for 2017

Do you have a food trend prediction for 2018? Leave a comment below...