“As 2014 gets into full swing, it will be exciting to see vegetables and vegetable products being used in expansive and innovative ways we haven’t seen before,” said Ausveg spokesperson Cameron Brown.
JWTInternational is expecting to see creative vegetable dishes with rices and legumes replace meat-heavy meals and become mainstays on the menus of more fast and casual eateries, as well as fine dining restaurants.
Natural vegetable yogurts with flavours such as carrot, chopped cucumber and chilli are also garnering high interest as savoury, healthy snacks, which are predicted to challenge less nutritious counterparts.
“With consumers becoming increasingly health-conscious, vegetables are expected to be seen as increasingly trendy, multi-dimensional foods,” said Brown.
As sustainability will remain an issue for producers, it’s believed that edible packaging will be increasingly embraced. There is already technology in use that allows any food to be enclosed by edible packaging.
“It’s truly exciting to have vegetables at the forefront of contemporary food and health movements,” said Brown. “We’ve long known that vegetables have the scope to be used in more ways than what’s deemed to be conventional. It will be great to see consumers’ actions match these thoughts.”
Ausveg is a leading horticultural body representing Australia’s 9,000 vegetable and potato growers.
The JWTInternational report highlights and forecasts consumer trends and areas of growth, based on months of qualitative and quantitative research. This year’s is the ninth annual report.
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