Sensient flavors’ urban foraging trip inspires trends to taste predictions
Sometimes the best inspiration is found in unconventional places. And what’s more unconventional—not to mention adventurous—than finding food sources from plants, roots and herbs right in your own city?
Urban Foraging
Taking the “eating local” trend to a whole new level, Sensient Flavors’ consumer insights specialists strapped on their hiking boots to forage edible goodies and inspire ideas for the annual Trends to Taste flavor predictions. Guided by a well-known and respected Chicago-based forager, the group crawled under bushes, trekked around ponds and dug in the dirt to uncover high-quality local produce—the very same items that are popping up on menus of what are arguably the hottest restaurants in the Windy City.
“We were surprised by how many wild, fresh and edible foods—from sassafras root to parsnips, wild mint, juneberries, lamb’s quarters and wild mushrooms—we were able to find right in the heart of the city,” said Roger Lane, Marketing Manager at Sensient Flavors – North America, who is one of the consumer insights specialists responsible for predicting flavor trends for Trends to Taste. “Because of increased consumer interest in eating local, renowned restaurants are following suit. Many are using foraged food on their menus, which is affecting consumer eating behavior and preferences.”
Infatuation with Natural Ingredients
Urban foraging has picked up momentum from trends in consumer thinking that cause people to infatuate with natural ingredients that stem directly from Mother Earth. Urban foraging produces ingredients that are unparalleled in terms of freshness and quality, which has propelled the practice to growth in a consumer market that desires fresh, quality ingredients. Modern consumers aren’t looking for ingredients that have been truck-shipped across the country; they are looking for locally produced, unmodified ingredients that grow in their immediate surroundings.
“During our initial research for the Trends to Taste flavor predictions, we began to notice a larger, overarching shift in consumer thinking,” said Lauren Williams, Director of Marketing, Beverage Flavors, at Sensient Flavors – North America. “Consumers are increasingly interested in connecting with the natural world around them and tasting it is a really engaging element of that understanding. That, combined with consumers’ adventurous palates—especially those of Millennials—made the concept of foraging for this year’s predictions a natural evolution for our annual research process.”