Celebrating A Decade of The Food People

his month global food & drink trend spotting and ideas agency The Food People celebrate their 10^th Birthday, with this in mind the Kitchettes are reflecting on how far the food industry has come in these 10 years.

The rise and almost take over of food photography on the web since the launch of Twitter and most importantly Instagram would have been incomprehensible 10 years ago, especially the idea of the masses enjoying food on a daily bases through computers alone. The huge success of the food blogger armed only with an iPhone and a few good filters has been incredible. We have seen bloggers as young as 18 and many students blogging in their spare time have reached almost global stardom through their ability to arrange and produce stunning dishes. Leaving us Kitchettes cracking open our lunches in the office at 12 noon on the dot (and probably photographing them in the process).

A huge rise in healthy and before unheard of foods that were championed by the likes of Deliciously Ella, quinoa and flax that were once reserved for vegan health food shops have become a regular on many weekly shopping lists. This has produced a huge rise in allergen avoider, veganism and flexarians, young millennials are happily announcing their choice to follow a vegan diet without a tie dye t-shirt or John Lennon reference in sight.

Vegetables, eggs and avocado are now taking centre stage as the most photographed and hash tagged foods on social media. Users such as The Body Coach have gained over 130k followers in what feels like over night with simple, lean and easy meals. We’ve seen a huge rise in #MeatFreeMonday championed by the internet sensation Jamie Oliver, #FishFriday and #TacoTuesday are also regulars in our news feed.

It’s not only bloggers that have benefited from the rise in ‘food porn’, restaurants and chefs have been able to reach and entice globally. A restaurant’s social media now has the ability to make or break them as people flock in by the masses after seeing that oozing Eggs Benedict photograph on Twitter.

During their 10 year rein The Food People have brought to us the food trends that both dictate and are led by these social media foodie phenomenons.

Firstly we saw gourmet versions of every day food, the burger got a makeover, accompanied by a huge price hike. Fresher ingredients were used and the customer became more aware of meat’s origin. Size was also everything! The relatively un-photographed ‘street food’ of the world’s big cities hit the spotlight as social media and camera phones made sharing experience, reviews and images almost instant.

The last 10 years of The Food People has seen a huge change, mostly down to social media. Where some sceptics may discard these trends as fads and lack respect for those making money off the back of them, here at Kitch we feel fads or not fads these trends have put social media to great use.  People are eating healthier, inspiring each other to try new ingredients, researching the sources of their food more thoroughly and wasting less. We are also big believers in small businesses and feel this relatively cheap form of marketing has produced a growth in the popularity of quality restaurants not just those with the best photographers and largest marketing budgets. All of which we feel has given the consumers more confidence and more quality choices.

So here’s to another 10 years of food trends and The Food People.