Based on current observations and industry projections, these are our insights into food trends for 2023:
Plant-based meat alternatives will continue to rise in popularity as consumers become more health-conscious and environmentally aware. Expect to see more restaurants and food brands offering plant-based burgers, sausages, and other meat substitutes.
The development of laboratory-made meats, also known as cultured meat or cell-based meat, has been progressing rapidly in recent years. The technology involves using animal stem cells to grow meat in a lab environment, rather than raising and slaughtering animals for meat production.
Here are some updates on the progress of laboratory-made meats:
Fermented foods and drinks will be on the rise, as more people seek out foods with probiotic benefits. Kombucha, kimchi, sauerkraut, and other fermented foods will become more mainstream.
Insects will continue to gain traction as a protein source, as people seek out sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives to traditional meat sources. Expect to see more insect-based snacks, protein powders, and even insect-based burgers and sausages.
Global fusion cuisine will continue to be popular, as people become more adventurous with their food choices and seek out new flavor combinations. Expect to see more restaurants and food brands offering unique fusion dishes that blend ingredients and flavors from different cultures.
Here are some examples of popular global fusion cuisine:
Health and wellness will continue to be a focus, with more people seeking out foods that offer functional benefits beyond just taste. Expect to see more products marketed as "superfoods" and "functional foods" that offer specific health benefits such as immune-boosting or anti-inflammatory properties.
Superfoods:
Functional foods:
Technology will play a bigger role in the food industry, with more restaurants and food brands using AI and other technologies to enhance the dining experience. Expect to see more virtual menus, augmented reality dining experiences, and other high-tech innovations.
Sustainability and eco-friendliness will continue to be important factors in food production and consumption. More food brands will seek out environmentally sustainable practices, such as using biodegradable packaging, reducing food waste, and sourcing ingredients from local and organic and regenerative farms.
2022's food trends will be mostly "shaped by the needs of people working from home and by the culinarily-astute-but-fickle Gen Z (1997-2012), whose members want food with sustainable ingredients and a strong cultural back story, prepared without exploitation and delivered in a carbon-neutral way — within 30 minutes." according to Kim Severson, The NYT food guru (New York Times, 12-28-21).
Life now involves a complex calculus of COVID transmission rates, local dining regulations, weather forecasts and if it’ll be comfortable to eat outside, whether seating capacity has been restricted and if the last software update accidentally wiped the picture of your mobile vaccination card.
Kim Severson: "With the supply chain in tatters and restaurant staffs stretched nearly to the breaking point, demanding shoppers and diners are out, and patience is in. A growing interest in the historical and cultural nature of food and its impact on the climate will only add to what forecasters (optimistically) say will be a new emphasis on kindness and understanding."
After nearly two years of dealing with a global pandemic, consumers are tired. Tired of making food, tired of meal planning, tired of cleaning up messes, tired of eating the same thing…just generally tired of food. Going out or cooking in are losing their attractiveness. Enter the resurgence of meal kits, more sophisticated and better tasting ready-made meals from a variety of outlets and food subscription boxes.
Upward pressure on global food prices, fueled by a perfect storm of unpredictable weather, rising consumer inflation, and an energy and labor crisis, is unlikely to let up anytime soon, says Dutch bank Rabobank—even with prices already sitting at 10-year highs. “We certainly don’t expect prices to go back to five- or 10-year averages,” said Carlos Mera, head of agri commodities market research at Rabobank. That’s partly due to a “floor” on global price rises: With fertilizer and other input costs increasing, farmers’ costs, too, are climbing. Meanwhile, increased hedging and building stocks to cushion the impact of now-familiar supply shocks is also pushing up demand. (Fortune, 11-30-21)
Inflation and supply chains are going to continue to be shockingly unpredictable and volatile.
Functional ingredients, immune-boosting, clean living: these trends have all enjoyed a long, sustained climb over the past couple of years and shaped innovation in the food industry.
Shoppers used to look to food and beverage offerings for hydration or sustenance, but increasingly they are turning to them as a way to improve their mood, gain a boost in energy, provide nutritional benefits or improve their gut health. The shift is especially prevalent in younger Gen Z and millennial consumers. While ingredients such as adaptogens, probiotics and nootropics aren’t necessarily new, the way they’re being incorporated into food and beverages is changing - from a narrow range of foods or beverages to a ever-increasing set of enhanced foods and drink.
Plant-Based and Cell-Grown Meats: Several plant-based meat companies have been rolling out new technology and perfecting high-moisture extrusion to make more meat-like plant-based items in forms similar to tenders or whole cuts. Plant-based companies are also experimenting with cultured fats to make a plant-based sausage with actual animal fat grown from cells. Meats grown from cells in the laboratory are expected to get their first regulatory approvals this year. Grass fed meats time as a climate change solution has yet to come despite compelling evidence of its efficacy.
Mushrooms: Consumers are looking for a meaty umami flavor without the meaty calorie load. Many experts think this is the breakout year for mushrooms as the truly plant-based replacement for meat.
Functional ingredients, immune-boosting, clean living: These trends have all enjoyed a long, sustained climb over the past couple of years and shaped innovation in the food industry.
Citrus flavors and ingredients: These will piggyback on the interest in the fruits' immune-boosting potential, and include Calamansi lime, blood orange, yuzu, kumquat and tangerine as trending flavors. Hibiscus is trending up as well. CBD will also attract more product developers as brands promote the ingredient's potential to enhance focus and relaxation.
Ginger: Ginger's health benefits help, but consumers are now tending to favor the spicy and sweet flavor that can replace adding other sweetness to dishes.
Collard Greens: Something had to replace kale.
Different types of "hot" : More of us realize the nuanced flavors that come alongside the burn and that hot sauces don’t always have to be red.
Kelp: grows fast, has a stand-up nutritional profile and removes carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and nitrogen from the ocean. As a result, farmed kelp will move beyond dashi and into everyday foods like pasta and salsa.
Potato Milk: Who needs coconut milk when there’s potato milk. Made from mixing boiled potatoes with the water they’re cooked in, apparently it’s pretty good, especially with the addition of its several other ingredients, including pea protein. DUG is a ‘potato-based’ milk available now in some European and Chinese locales. DUG claims that it is 56 times more water-efficient than almonds, requires only half as much land as oats, and is free from the 14 most common allergens. Seems there is no limit to what you can make milk from - except the cow.
Fusions: "Swicy" and "Swalty" will be added to culinary lexicon, sadly, reflecting a continued drift to fused culinary foods. In this case, sweet is added to spicy or salty sauces. The food supply shortages is also contributing to new fusions as a shortage of one ingredient leads to use of a new one and, voila, a new dish is born.
Branded Produce: 68% of shoppers will pay more for produce that is branded over private label or unbranded options. Brand becomes more prevalent by generation, with two-thirds of millennials and Gen Zers considering it important that the fresh produce they buy is branded, compared to less than half of Gen X and baby boomers.
Molecular Farming: Like many of the technologies that are driving innovation in the alternative protein space, plant molecular farming has traditionally been used in the pharmaceutical industry. The practice — which involves genetically editing a crop so that its cells produce a desired protein — is being discussed as a way to rapidly produce proteins for COVID-19 vaccines.
In the food industry, molecular farming is one route to producing the animal proteins that give egg, dairy, and meat products their visual, taste, and functional properties. Molecular farming allows you to use the exact same protein that would normally be produced by a chicken or cow, without the need for any actual animals. Just saying...
“I believe we will see a return to meals that focus on comfort. These comfort foods will cross all continents as people search for a variety of options.” — Mary Attea, executive chef Musket Room in New York City. One-in-four young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 say they considered suicide in the spring of 2020 - brands with clearly stated objectives and values - to provide comfort, offer a solution to a problem, or to combat current issues will dominate to help sooth these anxieties.
2021 will see a continued emphasis of making the meal - and its preparation - a meaningful event. Throughout the early 2000's, the meal became more of a chore - a box to tick off during the day. The pandemic slowed some things down and allowed us to rediscover the meal as a social event, especially within the family, of great importance. And being able to dine with friends was so rare that making that meal a special occasion re-emerged as a key element of living. Even the old fine china and other old wedding presents came out for the first time in years. This trend is expected to continue.
Expect next summer to be full of barbecues and in-person events—and 2021’s holiday season to be crowded with family gatherings.
“In response to all that has happened this year, I believe next year will bring two polarizing approaches to dining. One that embraces the need for simpler, comforting and soul-nourishing cuisine and the other that functions as an escape and embraces frivolousness—allowing patrons to be both fancy and indulgent.” — Gemma Kamin-Korn, chef of Bar Beau in Williamsburg, New York
“When we do dine in, it will be memorable. More exclusive types of dining experiences in the dining room”— JoJo Ruiz, executive chef at Serea Coastal Cuisine and Lionfish in San Diego
"Overall, in the New Year, I expect people will start seeing cultures more holistically through food (e.g., Vietnamese food beyond banh mi and pho). When it comes to exposing diners to the new traditions—what it means to be Burmese-American, Filipino-American, Ethiopian-American, or Vietnamese-American." — Kevin Tien, chef of Moon Rabbit in Washington, DC
(All Quotes From Food and Wine - By December 14, 2020)
We literally started playing with our food in 2020, and will see that to continue into 2021. We're saying goodbye in 2020 to sourdough starter and hello in 2021 to pickled and fermented everything, pesto, and comfort food.
We literally ran out of mason jars lids as so many people were trying out canning. Expect people showing off their gardens in the spring as well as how they will turn their harvests into jars of pickled cucumbers, red onions, radishes, and more. In 2021, more people will be taking the time to make and cut delicious gnocchi from scratch, hanging their homemade bucatini all over their kitchen, and even laboring over a big pot of Sunday Gravy. Even if you resisted the urge to get in on trends like banana bread and Dalgona coffee, it's going to be hard not to Google pasta attachments for the food processor in 2021.
In the U.S., consumption of plant-based foods rose and all signs point to this trend continuing in 2021. 58% want to increase plant based foods in their diet while 31 % want to decrease intake of red meat. More people will be flirting with veganism, but others will just be eating things that taste good and happen to be vegan. Expect the usual suspects to be rolling out even more innovations, especially at fast-food restaurants, but some forecasters predict newer things like plant-based "fish" are also going to be big on the horizon.
As planet-based and flexitarian diets become more popular and people seek out foods that are equally good for the environment and themselves, there is no doubt that consumers will turn to products made from the best, sustainable ingredients, like mushrooms.
Microgreens aren’t exactly new, but consumer appetite for them is at an all-time high. They’re not only colorful and cute, but also loaded with nutrients. A 2012 study found that microgreens have four to 40 times more nutrients than their mature counterparts.
There is an interesting dual interest in 2021 for comfort food along with more complex ethnic flavors. On the one hand, there exists a desire for comfort and familiar flavors - cognitive depletion reduces consumer enjoyment of complex-flavored (but not simple-flavored) foods. This is a type of “flavor fatigue.” The more mentally drained a person is, the harder it is for them to appreciate more complex tastes.
On the other hand, consumers are, with their increased time in the kitchen, experimenting with new sauces and spices. Literally. Instead of seasoning with plain salt and pepper or drizzling recipes with olive oil, expect to see snappy spices and flavor-boosted sauces. We have a spice guide that helps!
Oneness with nature is being discussed a cure all: A way to improve one’s mental health, a place to work out our bodies, and also an avenue to address the climate crisis. Ultimately, the interest in nature is all about health — healthy lands, healthy minds, and healthy bodies. The pandemic drove a desire to commune with nature which spilled over into our food.
90% of American adult consumers today look for functional benefits in their food, beverages, and, of course, supplements. For a long time to come, people will be asking: What can this food, drink, lotion, or supplement do for me? How can it help protect me?
Upcycled products (foods that use neglected or underused parts of an ingredient to reduce food waste) and sustainable sourcing are rising priorities.
Back in January a little more than a quarter of Millennials rated influencers and social media networks very influential on their eating habits. As social lives moved online, this number went up, hitting a high point of 41% in September and is currently sitting around 37%.
]]>Turns out that variety is much more than the spice of life - it may be one of the essential requirements for life. Only in the last century have many farms converted to the single-crop, mono-culture approach that rebuffs our world’s natural synchronous character and destroys ecosystems. The systematic destruction of soils is not only a result of a lack of knowledge and individual willpower, but also a legacy promulgated by market pressures and federal policies that designed and perpetuated the industrial system we rely on today.
Diversified farming systems (DFS) dominated food production in the United States and other developed countries before industrialized agriculture systems progressively displaced them from the late 19th century onward. Efforts to maximize yields and lower costs by purchasing fertilizers, pesticides and seeds for single rather than multiple crops were the favored strategy without realizing the problems created when crop rotation is eliminated.
But just as their ancestors did for thousands of years before them, greater amounts of farmers and ranchers are realizing that integrating multiple species into their operations is the most efficient, productive, and healthy form of land stewardship.
A multitude of animals belong on a farm because each serves a specific role in large-scale land health. For instance, cows, goats, sheep, pigs, chickens, and turkeys should all be there. You can even mix in some bison if you don’t have sheep (since they can spread harmful diseases to one another).
If DFS are to thrive again in the USA, policies and preferences must evolve to reward the ecological and social benefits of sustainable farming and landscape management. Farmers already dedicated to sustainable practices (e.g., organic and eco-agriculture farms) need robust support, and conventional farming landscapes need policy, regulatory, and market signals to shift progressively from degradation to diversification. There are six key levels of regenerative activities that can help return soils to a healthy, carbon-capturing state.
Cows, bison and large farmed game (elk, red deer and the like) are the key ruminant actors, responsible for aerating topsoil with their hooves while infusing their specialized, potent fertilizer into the land. Without them, grasslands couldn’t grow as robustly and regenerative agriculture wouldn’t exist.
Goats and sheep, while also ruminants, are like nature’s weed-eaters: they gobble up every weed or piece of brush they come across. They’re vital to sustaining healthy pastures and reclaiming areas that have been overtaken by woody and invasive vegetation.
Next up, the chickens and turkeys. No matter what the industrialized operations that push for ‘vegetarian-fed’ chickens say, these poultry pickers play a crucial role in the fields by eating insects and scavenging through the droppings of the other animals. This doesn’t just give them a hearty diet — it helps debug pastures and orchards and spreads manure around while killing off dangerous parasites.
Then, there’s the pigs. Though they’re not the cleanest bunch, they can also play a critical role in farm health by rooting (digging up roots with their snouts), which tills soils and helps clear land. Collectively, these animals form a pasture maintenance crew that no machine or chemical can match.
Diversification in crops rotations and regenerative practices furthers the soils health beyond the benefits realized by the variety of livestock.
Biodiversity, many believe, correlates to stability. If foreign invaders - plant, disease or animal come in to the ecosystem - it is easier to adjust, even if one species disappears from the food chain. It minimizes the "all our eggs in one basket" problem.
Government policy has supported monoculture practices supporting prices of certain crops in a way that forces farmers to continue unhealthy soil practices. Changing the policies that that prevent beneficial change is critical.
And this is where the variety in our diets come in. Demand created for more diverse products energizes growth in the regenerative and sustainable practices utilized by producers and fisheries. But the diversity also impacts our own health.
People who eat the same foods over and over again tend to be less healthy than those who strive for variety, suggests recent research in the Journal of Nutrition. In the study, participants who consumed the widest range of foods were 21 percent less likely to develop metabolic syndrome—a cluster of conditions like high blood pressure, high blood sugar, or increased body fat that ups your risk for heart disease and diabetes—compared to those who stuck to their standbys.
The gut microbiome is incredibly important to your overall health, and it is best to have a varied population. The best way to achieve this variety in the gut? Consume a diet filled with assorted foods from all food groups. Not all fruits and vegetables are the same. Nutrients, fat type and content, protein type and content not to mention flavors and taste are different for all.
Just 15 annual crop plants provide 90 percent of the world's food energy intake, with three - rice, maize (corn) and wheat - making up two-thirds of this. Few perennial plants, best for regenerative farming, are used as food crops
We all have a vague awareness of the nutritional value of meats – fish being better than red meat, for example. The issue can be complicated, because all meats have pros and cons, research can come up with conflicting results, and studies can surprise us. For example, research suggests that, in terms of cholesterol alone, eating white meat chicken is as bad for you as eating beef.
It is clear that a varied diet is critically important to the health of the land, the seas, and our own physical and mental well-being.
Challenge Friends - Make it a game with friends to see who can try the most new types of foods
Swap Ingredients - Replace your regular ingredients with a similar food in your favorite recipes.
Cooking Classes - Classes are a great way to learn how to prepare unfamiliar foods
Meal Plan - Include one new food per week when you meal plan
Ethnic foods - Learn about foods you never knew existed
Dinner Parties - Its easier to try new foods with friends, so invite them for dinner
To-Table is passionate about the benefits of biodiversity. First, we know that meals and gatherings are much more interesting with foods so unique and so good that they must be talked about. But we also believe it is critical to help build demand and vibrant markets for the diverse foods that make biodiversity's benefits to the environment and our own health possible. If navigating the choices is overwhelming or you just need ideas, To-Table wants to help. Please contact us if we can assist in any way.
Click here to view our Collection of Game
Wild game such as deer and elk tend to be very lean due to their active lifestyle and natural diet. Their meat, therefore, is lower in total and saturated fat than red meat.
Back in the 1940s and 1950s rabbit meat was as common for dinner as chicken is today. It is the meat that got many people and their children through the lean times of the Depression. Rabbit lost its popularity after Big AGRA, who wanted to maximize profits by using government endorsed chemicals and handouts, pushed the rabbit out of favor with producers and consumers alike. With its qualities of tastiness and good nutrition, rabbit has everything to satisfy gourmets who are concerned about their health. It has less calorie value than other meats and is almost cholesterol free with a wide range of nutrients.
Goat meat is the most popular of all variants of red meat consumed worldwide, it accounts for 65% of the total red meat consumed all over the world. Many countries in North Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia consume goat meat as a staple food choice. Goat meat is lower in fat than chicken, but higher in protein than beef. Goat meat outshines traditional meat sources in most areas: it's lower in calories, total fat, saturated fat and cholesterol. The low levels of saturated fat and cholesterol, combined with its high iron and protein content, make goat meat a good choice for anyone looking for a healthy red meat. It's a leaner, healthier choice when compared to equal serving sizes of chicken, beef and pork.
Bison get to roam free, which leads to a healthier diet. Bison can be a naturally healthier option because their diets aren’t filled with hormones or questionable feed. A 3-ounce portion of ground bison contains 152 calories and 7 grams of fat, only 3 of which are saturated. And the flavor is even richer than beef.
This may sound off-the-wall, but pheasant is a great alternative to your go-to meats. Pheasant and partridge contain a high level of iron, protein, vitamin B6 and selenium, which helps to protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.
Veal is lower in fat than most kinds of beef. In fact, 3 ounces of ground veal contain just 146 calories, while the same serving of ground pork is about 252 calories.
Lamb is an excellent source of zinc and iron, and it’s super rich in B vitamins. Lean lamb is a source of healthy, unsaturated fats. Forty percent of the fat in lean lamb is heart-healthy monounsaturated fat.
The health-promoting benefits associated with fish, especially fatty fish, which is high in omega 3 fatty acids, males it important to try to consume at least two servings of fish per week, according to the American Heart Association.
Fish is a healthy, high-protein food, especially important for its omega-3 fatty acids, which are essential fats that our bodies don’t produce on their own. Yet, there are some risks associated with eating fish on a regular basis. Contaminants such as mercury, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and even radioactive isotopes find their way into ground, lake, and ocean water from our household and industrial waste, and then into the fish who live there. Diversifying away undue risk is an important strategy that enables one to also make good choices that minimize effects on endangered species of fish.
See Our Produce Collections Here
Celebrating and employing in our menus and cooking the enormous - almost limitless - variety of plants promotes health, ours and the planet's, in infinite ways. Herbs, fruits, vegetables, wild foraged fungi or plants often push meals from ordinary into gourmet categories. The minerals, the oils, the fiber, and the flavors enrich our lives.
]]>These same producers serving high end restaurants throughout the U.S. also grow, catch, forage, raise and produce the incredible foods available at To-Table.com.
]]>These same producers serving high end restaurants throughout the U.S. also grow, catch, forage, raise and produce the incredible foods available at To-Table.com.
Of all the industries threatened by the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, few have felt the impact as deeply and immediately as the hospitality industry. Eater reports that:
The economic effects are greater than just our restaurants. It affects our farmers. It affects our farmers' markets. It affects our producers. Everybody takes a hit in the hospitality industry
Without having to go to the grocery store and all the attendant risks that entails, you can help these producers in two ways:
To remind you of the creations of our sources, we have a few photos and descriptions below.
And , of course, there are the quirky movements in taste, like fashion, which drift on and off the food scene with little evident reason. These are the trends which provide interesting diversions and changes. But the more dramatic shifts based on how foods affect us and the planet in a time of fears from climate change should last several years or decades.
Here are the trends that To-Table forecasts dominating (along with a few of the quirky new tastes that come and go) in 2020:
]]>Welcome to the new year. And a new decade. How will the food industry and the food we eat change this year and throughout the next ten years? Following the preferences emerging from the younger generations that more and more dominate it, the direction of the food market is changing course.
Food selections, preparation, and production must now address the new generations' requirement that personal and environmental health drive purchasing decisions above historically more important characteristics such as price, tradition or abundant availability. Food now must be:
And , of course, there are the quirky movements in taste, like fashion, which drift on and off the food scene with little evident reason. These are the trends which provide interesting diversions and changes. But the more dramatic shifts based on how foods affect us and the planet in a time of fears from climate change should last several years or decades.
Here are the trends that To-Table forecasts dominating (along with a few of the quirky new tastes that come and go) in 2020:
The plant-based sector has been dominated by burgers so far as it's sort of the quintessential item at a fast food restaurant and the fact that it's ground gives food manufacturers the ability to simulate texture and so forth with various ingredients. But in this new decade, consumers will be looking for different meat alternatives to fill the centers of their plates. Chief among these are new fish and chicken substitutes.
Another thing that will shift consumers’ perception of plant-based meat is seeing it included in other products in the grocery store. Nestlé announced it will be adding its plant-based ground beef product to some of its iconic products, including DiGiorno Pizza and Stouffer’s Lasagna. 2020 will see an uptick in people who call themselves flexitarians, aka those who follow a largely plant-based diet but also eat meat and animal byproducts on occasion. 37% of the people purchasing meat alternatives are people who identify as such. As this number rises, so to will trends that are already popular with the veg-head set, like Meatless Monday and meat-free fast food alternatives.
It should be noted that despite a barrage of studies that have cautioned consumers that raising livestock for protein in the diet contributes a dangerous amount of methane and is a major cause of climate change, meat consumption is at an all time high in the U.S. Meat consumption has grown twice as fast globally over the last five years as the population.
Country of the Year : Japan
With the 2020 Summer Olympics set for Tokyo and a rise in travel to Japan, the country’s influence will extend into the American culinary landscape.
So-called functional foods have been sold in grocery stores and specialty outlets for years — think calcium-fortified Tropicana orange juice or Activia loaded with probiotics — but a growing push by consumers to eat healthier and watch what goes into their bodies has increased demand for items that deliver an added benefit.
65% of consumers seek functional benefits from their food and drink. The top five ingredients perceived to deliver these kinds of benefits were omega-3s, green tea, honey, coffee and probiotics.
Today, the dairy aisle is crowded with alternative products, from oat and almond to hemp and soy, and that growth is expected to accelerate in 2020 with better innovation in texture, nutrition and ingredients. At the moment almonds, oats, coconuts and peas dominate, but other seeds and nuts are going to come into the fray.
Lab-created dairy, such as using fermentation to make milk without a cow, is of growing interest in the industry.
A continuing trend from last year. While the regulatory roadmap remains ambiguous, one thing is clear: the next decade for the hemp-based CBD market has the potential to be a game changer for the traditional consumer food and drink products and the retail industry. Despite the regulatory issues, analysts predict that companies will push past that by developing a marketing strategy that tells a story about the substance and educating consumers on the different types of cannabinoids.
More people are making purchases from home. That includes restaurants. In 1955, 25 cents of every $1 spent on food went to restaurants. Today, it’s more than half. 38 percent of adults in the U.S. - and a whopping 50 percent of millennials - are more likely to have food delivered than just two years ago. Off-premise sales (most often meaning delivered or drive-through) account for the following volumes at various types of restaurants:
The Olympics and presidential elections could serve as an accelerator for the off-premises trends. Even more people are likely to stay in instead of go out to restaurants.as consumers opt for their couch versus a restaurant dining room.
A resulting phenomenon that will be more often be seen this year is a ghost kitchen in which restaurants strip the setting of any in-house dining options, creating a large commercial space that can churn out more food. This results in delivery- or pick-up-only restaurants.
Emerging as one of the most popular diets in 2019, intermittent fasting was the most Googled diet of the year. But its benefits go well beyond weight loss. Intermittent fasting, as a means of caloric restriction is gaining in popularity. Growing evidence from research suggests that either time restricted fasting (only eating between 8AM and 2 PM) or alternate day fasting supports a healthy metabolism, heart health, and brain health as well as healthy blood sugar levels.
Regenerative farming practices have the potential to not only sustain, but to restore our land by: moving away from synthetic pesticides and herbicides, maintaining and building soil health, and improving biodiversity. Regenerative agriculture can be practiced by organic and non-organic farmers alike and includes five key practices: minimize soil disturbance, maximize diversity, keep the soil covered, keep a living root in the ground year-round and integrate livestock.
Permaculture, a term falling under the umbrella of regenerative agriculture, applies to farm systems - better described as ecosystems - that incorporate the cultivation and conservation of trees as an integral part of their design rather than traditional commodity-oriented operations.This summer, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's report, detailing the adverse effects of modern agriculture on climate change, suggested the need to evolve from current agricultural methods (i.e., by shrinking farms and cultivating more trees) to prevent the most dramatic consequences of climate change.
Regenerative agriculture will be a very strong trend this decade as the world looks to feed the growing population, estimated to grow to at least 10.8 billion by the end of this century, with a lessened impact on climate change.
In recent years, a series of studies revealed a large portion of compostable and paper food packaging is contaminated with PFAS. The compound, also called per- and polyfluoroalkyl chemicals, are part of a class of about 5,000 fluorinated compounds that companies like DuPont and 3M have produced for decades. They’re dubbed “forever chemicals” because they don’t break down, and they’re linked to a range of serious health problems.
PFAS and other “forever chemicals” are used in everything from flame retardants in carpet to non-stick cookware (i.e., Teflon) because they make those products water- and stain- resistant. Those same qualities have also made them attractive to food packaging manufacturers.The packaging industry’s push is part of a larger effort to remove PFAS from the nation’s food supply. Though the PFAS crisis seems to be broadening as the scope of the issue becomes clear, a wide-ranging and urgent response is taking shape.
Among other serious health issues, fluorinated compounds have been linked to cancer, liver damage, immune disorders, pregnancy complications, and much more.
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I think we can all learn from the millennials about entertaining. I know it seems odd to seek advice from a generation with such reputation for entitlement, but they offer some good lessons. I highlight here two in particular: 1.) How to use the internet, the cause of many bad cooking habits and lack of skills, as a source of good in entertaining. 2.) How to enjoy your own party more.
Millennials generally get a bad rap about many behaviors at work and play, but I think we all can learn some good tips that are emerging from how the time-pressed, frugal millennial prefer to entertain. Several years ago, Millennials were less likely to eat at home either for entertaining or day to day meals. Now, the reality of children, higher expenses and planning for the future is changing those habits. Millennials are entertaining at home a lot, but they are finding new ways to entertain that make the experience even more enjoyable.
In years past, Millenials, and whatever they call the age group that are younger, ate at home 5+ days a week less that 40% of the time and this is now moving to greater than 50%. And entertaining is changing as well in frequency and enjoyment:
So what do we learn, Millennials and other groups alike, that can beneficially improve our own entertaining. The top two reasons people cook at home and entertain at home— saving money and eating healthier — plays into Millennials’ interests. Nothing new to learn here.
On the other hand, Millennials are seen as more time-pressed than older generations. They already eat out and purchase prepared meals more, and they’re less likely to have learned to cook from their parents versus older generations. According to a study commissioned by the British retailer and service provider Co-Op, one third of millennials rely on a handful of dishes they know well.
The cooking and entertaining journey starts with a spark—a curiosity about what to cook and what beverages to serve. These what-do-I-make moments can be confusing to millennials, with 31% of them saying that choosing what to cook was the least enjoyable part of the cooking process.
In her article, Why food-obsessed millennials suck at cooking, By Rebecca Santiago, The New York Post; October 3, 2017, Santiago postulates that the cause of this "what do I make" issue emanates from the internet. In a new article published in the journal Memory, researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz and University of Illinois, Urbana Champaign have found that 'cognitive offloading', or the tendency to rely on things like the Internet as an aide-mémoire, increases after each use.
Dr. Benjamin Storm says that skills themselves stagnate, too. “Offloading robs you of the opportunity to develop the long-term knowledge structures that help you make creative connections, have novel insights and deepen your knowledge,” he says. Nicholas Carr, author of What the internet is doing to our brains, describes this process as “essential to the creation of knowledge and wisdom”. The unappetizing result: rote, uninspired dishes that would make your granny scoff.
Despite the pitfalls of cognitive offloading, there exists an nearly infinite universe of sources for the most delicious foods in the countless blogs, videos, articles and other sources of recipes and cooking techniques. What will solve pain and indecision of the "what do I make" moment evolves by developing the confidence for trying new foods and recipes and establishing the knowledge and wisdom through experimentation. Use the internet as a great source of information about what to try. The pleasure and excitement of trying new foods and recipes will become a pleasurable rather than painful part of the entertaining experience.
Quick ways I have found to navigate the choices and internet searches:
Research also reveals a change in how parties are constructed. In an Allrecipes survey, "A quarter of the people we surveyed say they're less likely to cook a three-course meal when they entertain at home than in the past. A similar proportion say that no matter how many courses they're preparing, they avoid cooking labor-intensive dishes more than they once did. But now, over-complicated food is a thing of the past, apparently, as hosts prepare dishes in advance that allow them to enjoy their own party.
Lesson #2 - Prepare Early and Enjoy
Having fun at your own party is all about preparation. The preparation begins with menu planning and shopping. Included in the preparation is choosing the foods to serve that give you as much freedom just before and during the party as you need and want. A casserole is on one side of the equation but many other types of dishes require little or limited activity right before the meal. You can still have quick get togethers without planning, but for a memorable party, give enough time to:
Speaking of beverages, setting up a simple beverage station can help you better enjoy your own party. The cornerstone of any beverage station is a signature, big-batch cocktail. It can be as simple as a pitcher of lemonade with some vodka or something more complex like a rum punch. The idea is simple: Make a gallon or two, put it in pitchers, and let your guests pour it over ice. Also have beer, wine and soft drinks at the station. I also let people mix simple drinks using soda, tonic, water ice and cut up limes and lemons. I usually make the first drink and let guests handle the refills.
An even better way to enjoy your own party: hire a server or two and really be a guest at your own party. Not that expensive and and a great way to enjoy.
Two key arguments rage in the debate. One is centered on the nutritional value of food that is frozen versus fresh. Second, frozen foods, which certainly do suffer from freezer burn and the like if left too long or frozen improperly, may be affected by freezing water in the food and damage by the resulting water crystals.
Anything that is fresh should have more nutrition than something that isn't — the older food gets, the more nutrition it loses. But frozen food can have more nutrition if it's frozen quickly and efficiently, because it decays more slowly. Fresh food that's been kept longer will have less nutrition than frozen.
Another issue is that freezing creates ice crystals. Large crystals that form when food is frozen slowly, or partially thawed then refrozen, or repeatedly frozen, or held at not-quite-low-enough temperature - these crystals tear cells and lead to more fluid leaking out of the food when it cooks.
Arguments in the debate first require a segmentation of foods. There are different theories and opinions for red meats, white meats, vegetables and fish. Probably one of the most common pieces of food we all store in the freezer, meat fares very well when frozen. However, red meat stays better in the freezer than white meat. White meat such as chicken and pork lacks high fat content, and therefore has higher water content. Water in the meat freezes and turns to crystals, which eventually alters the structure of the meat. Looking at freezing vegetable first, the arguments are as follows:
Fresh vegetables
Frozen vegetables
After defrosting, vegetables can have a soggy texture, because ice crystals damage the vegetable cell walls.
White meat such as chicken and pork lacks high fat content, and therefore has higher water content. Water in the meat freezes and turns to crystals, which eventually alters the structure of the meat. However, in a study in 1981 by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a professional taste panel could not significantly distinguish between fresh and frozen thawed paired halves of roast poultry. Objective testing by shearing and expressible moisture losses also failed to show a significant difference.
In other words, unless you’re catching it yourself, there is no such thing as fresh, wild-caught fish. Farm-raised fish, on the other hand, often is shipped and sold without being frozen first. Lean, white varieties such as cod tend to become dry when frozen, but the fattier types, such as tuna and salmon, should be fine even when frozen. Higher fat content seafood such as prawns, shrimp and other crustaceans freeze quite well and retain their flavor consistently.
According to Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education in 2012, "Our experience has been that there is no difference in quality [between frozen and fresh]. In fact, our frozen beef may be more tender because fresh, conventionally marketed beef goes through its aging process during trans-port.". Frozen Meat must be aged before frozen. This results in variable aging periods for fresh meat versus the consistency of frozen. Stanbroke Steak School further states, in 2018:
Some people think that freezing dry-aged beef is a bad idea because it can further dry out your already dry-aged steak, but in actual fact, having less water in the cut is a good thing when it comes to freezing. Because it doesn’t have the water that a normal fresh cut of beef does, it isn’t affected in the same way.
There seems to be consensus that how it is frozen and thawed is a strong determinant of the quality of frozen meats. According to Jerry Lanuzza, dean of culinary education at Johnson & Wales University in Charlotte, N.C, " If you handle it right, frozen meat should be just as good as fresh." The answer is to freeze the meat very quickly and thaw it in the refrigerator over night.
To freeze meat faster at home, wrap it well to keep out air, then put it in a single layer on a metal sheet that you have placed in the freezer for a few hours. Once frozen, put it in another bag, vacuum seal-able if you have it, and replace in the freezer. Of course, be certain the freezer maintains temperatures well below freezing.
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Food trends in 2019 are expected to continue to move towards healthier, more sustainable and increasingly convenient foods. But not by hearkening back to the days of yore for a simpler life. Instead, bold new food frontiers in laboratory- developed proteins and meats from cells, plants and insects, new plant based packaging, and potions and superfoods are taking foods in new directions. Replacing meat as the primary source of proteins is a dominant effort, while getting CBD and other cannabis extracts into all manner of foods and beverages is an obsession. Below you will find the primary trends in food for 2019 currently being discussed by various experts in the industry.
Consumers have long been looking for sustainable options to replace beef and poultry — and they've found it in the form of cricket powder.
It takes much less land, water and food to raise crickets than it does cows, offering an environmentally friendly alternative protein source to the typical American livestock.
While crickets haven't quite taken off with mainstream consumers, there are plenty of instances of cricket powder appearing in protein bars, pancakes, breads and even dog treats.
Oat milk doesn't need as much water as almond milk to make, which is enticing to consumers who are conscious about conservation. Oat milk is made by soaking steel cut oats in water, blending the mixture and then straining it. The result is a creamy beverage that can be used over cereal, in lattes or just in a cup.
Laboratory-grown proteins will enter the mainstream. KFC, Tyson Foods and Cargill are investing heavily, and the products are catching on so fast that ranchers have started campaigns to stop the engineered proteins from being called “meat,” according to Forbes.
“Jackfruit is a popular meat alternative already being used in place of items like barbecue pulled pork,” according to the Whole Foods trend report. The fruit is native to Southeast Asia, and is also grown in parts of Africa and South America. Americans have been using it as a meat substitute for a few years now (thanks to a stringy texture that mimics pulled pork or beef), but 2019 will be the year that pulled jackfruit really takes off.
Cannabidiol-infused foods and beverages are becoming more trendy in the culinary world.
CBD, as it is more commonly called, is a cannabis compound that is believed to help relieve anxiety, help people sleep and stabilize moods. Although there have been few scientific studies to prove these benefits, CBD is becoming more mainstream.
But CBD is just the beginning. Marijuana is also an up-and-coming food and beverage ingredient. Currently legal in some form in 33 states and Washington, DC, industry watchers predict full federal legalization of marijuana by 2021. According to a report on the cannabis edibles market from BDS Analytics, which specializes in granular market research on the substance, spending on cannabis edibles is expected to grow to $4.1 billion by 2022 from $1.5 billion in 2018.
In recent years, Mediterranean and Asia Pacific flavors have become more mainstream, with diners indulging in the Hawaiian dish poke and falafel rice bowls.
However, in 2019 you'll likely see more of a North African and Middle Eastern influence. No need to get rid of your poultry seasoning and ground cumin, but plan to make room for flavor-packed seasonings like harissa, berbere, dukkah, and ras el hanout, all of which are heavily used in African cuisine.
If it has to do with fermenting, probiotics or gut-friendly food like kimchi, you will likely be eating more if it. Smoothies with kefir will be popular, and kombucha will show up in unexpected places like salad dressings.
Salad-making robots will show up in hospitals and airports, where freshly made food is not easy to find at all hours. The systems rely on chilled containers of fresh ingredients that are restocked during the course of the day. Push a few buttons on a keypad and the robot makes a custom salad topped with dressing.
Mushrooms - which have acquired what food marketers call a health halo and are expected to pop up in teas, desserts, jerky and cocktails — and sea vegetables, which most people just call seaweed are experiencing the fastest growing demand. Seaweed is wildly popular across many cuisines in Asia, and this marine plant will gain more traction in the U.S. in 2019. We expect eaters all over the country to be adding it to their DIY salads and bowls to reap the benefits of the plant’s good-for-you vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.
Because of the E-Coli scare with romaine lettuce, expect to see little-known lettuce varieties showing up on menus, and an explosion in lettuces grown hydroponically, many of them in urban container farms. Some chefs are rallying around celtuce, a lettuce with a leafy, bitter top and a stalk that’s kind of a cross between celery and asparagus.
The "keto" ( the name of a high-fat, low-carb diet ) diets may be losing steam but is still the top diet fad. The term “pegan” — a cross between a paleo and a vegan diet — will take hold.
Water Lily Seed is a traditional Indian superfood (known as phool makhana) that US consumers are view as a vegan/paleo/gluten-free snack food that has protein content and assists in weight loss. It is being promoted as a puffed snack by two Indian-US brands.
Interest in MCT oil, a distillation from coconut and other natural sources, exploded after it was widely used as a supplement in paleo and keto diets. Now, products are being introduced with MCT oil as a featured ingredient to promote weight loss and other features. It has no flavor or odor and is also used as an additive in coffee, smoothies and other drinks.
Cooking dinner in foil packets is poised for popularity as it requires barely any clean-up and is a blast from the past (camping trips). Millennials want convenience - they love easy when it comes to food. Millennials are the drivers behind meal kits, grocery delivery services, food trucks, online ordering and the growth of heat-and-eat options at grocery stores.
Looking ahead, a new wave of food preparation shortcuts will be available offering new conveniences such as single serve meal kits at retail and a new generation of prepared meals, sauces and sides that emulate the foods found at restaurants. Millenials consider themselves foodies but they still want convenience.
Peanut butter is a classic, and alternative nut butters like almond and cashew have been popular for years. And, while seed butters like sunflower seed butter and tahini (sesame seed) are nothing new—in fact, tahini has been a staple in Middle Eastern cuisine for centuries—expect to start seeing them everywhere in 2019.
“Keep an eye out for sunflower, pumpkin, and watermelon seed butters, which share the same good fat profile of nut butters, but may offer an alternative for those with nut allergies,” reads the KIND 2019 Healthy Snacking Trend Report.
In recent years, U.S. consumers have been looking for some form sustainability from food industry practices. From packaging to production, shoppers have been willing to pay more to feel like they are helping the environment. As sustainable business practices across the food and beverage industries become the norm, companies have begun to change their ways to gain a competitive edge and boost profits.
According to the 2018 EcoFocus Trend Study conducted by EcoFocus Worldwide, grocery shoppers have greater expectations of packaging than ever before – especially when it relates to healthy food and beverages – and greater expectations for brands and grocers.Whether it is related to the topic of recyclability or the use of less plastic, 68% of grocery shoppers say it is extremely or very important “to choose foods or beverages that are packaged responsibly.” This is up five points in four years. Just over half of grocery shoppers agree or strongly agree that they have changed what they were buying due to the type or amount of packaging.
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Current prices on a frozen turkey, that could be a year old, are less than $1.38 today - in some places less than a $1.00. That got our farmer doing some math. He ran some numbers on a flock of 50 turkeys (this is 4 years ago). He determined that, before any labor or indirect expenses ( and important direct expenses like shipping and flock shrinkage), a conventional turkey cost $2.71 per pound and a heritage turkey cost $4.03 per pound. He calculated some, not all, of the labor (at minimum wage - !) and indirect costs and concluded he would maybe make $5.20 per turkey on average. If he sold at $1.38 to compete with the local store, he would lose $36 per bird.
He summed up his post saying: "This post is about arming you with the basic knowledge about the production of food so that you too can look at a price like $1.38/lb and wonder how it is possible. Some of the answers are wrapped up in the economies of scale and that’s why a lot of farms get big, but there are other answers that should alarm us.".
If we did ask the questions, what might some of the answers be? The economies of scale of a large turkey farm would certainly be part of the answer. But those operations leave to us, the consumers, the social and environmental costs including the red tide and other catastrophes from the effluent of these operations and their suppliers. And who ends up paying for the health issues associated with the kind of antibiotic exposure necessary to keep birds in the industrial environment alive?
Other answers would likely include the large grocery stores desire to attract more customers by making the price of a turkey a loss leader. Because it is a Thanksgiving requirement, consumers will be attracted to the low price, come into the store, and shop for everything else while they are there. The loss on the turkeys is a conscious promotional cost that negatively affects only the artisan farmer and his retail distributor whose product's price now compares poorly to the competition.
In a new world in which 66 percent of global consumers are willing to pay more for sustainable goods (and 73% of Millennials), why does the "loss leader for an unsustainable industrial turkey" ploy work? Why are consumers attracted to genetically engineered broad-breasted turkeys that are harmful in so many ways over the smaller farmers' sustainable and natural heritage breed animals for price alone?
To-Table would love to hear your thoughts on this conundrum. Please add them below.
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Origin of Diversity in Cuisine
Breadbasket of the World
America had quickly become the breadbasket of the world. America offered an abundance of seafood, wild game, and crops.
Fusion of Cuisine Diversity - American Innovators
The demand for ethnic foods in the United States reflects the nation's changing diversity as well as its development over time. Cooking icons like Julia Child, Irma Rombauer, and Martha Stewart taught Americans to view food through a lens of pleasure and art rather than convenience - despite American cuisine's deep roots in convenience, simplicity, and survival.
To honor American cuisine requires us to cherish the “melting-pot” that our culture creates and to define our cuisine as the most diverse cuisine in the world!
Let’s celebrate it!
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The reduced level of social connections significantly and adversely affects:
1. personal health,
2. societal and government function,
3. and the mental stability and equilibrium that the happiness of social connections brings.
We will give you a 10% Discount on your Purchase for your answer
The upshot of 50 years of happiness research is that the quantity and quality of a person's social connections—friendships, relationships with family members, closeness to neighbors, etc.—is so closely related to well-being and personal happiness that happiness and social connection can practically be equated. Further research concludes that this happiness from strong social connections is a vital contributor to good health and longevity.
"It is as important to encourage individuals to build broad and good social relationships and increase social skills, interacting with others" as it is to encourage them to eat a healthy diet and be physically active, said Yang Claire Yang, a professor of sociology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Researcher Dan Buettner discovered that 100+ Year Old people had several things in common. They ate “close to the ground” (unprocessed, whole local foods), stayed physically active (many walking several miles a day into their 100’s), and had a robust social network. They had close family and friends who they got to see on a regular (some daily) basis. Being with others and interacting is imperative for a long, happy life. In fact, the researchers found that “those with close social ties and unhealthful lifestyles (such as smoking, obesity and lack of exercise) actually lived longer than those with poor social ties but more healthful living habits,” John Robbins wrote in his book, "healthy at 100".
Social Interaction Is Critical for Mental and Physical Health", The New York Times) "For those seeking a health-promoting lifestyle, it’s not enough to focus on eating your veggies and getting regular exercise.Don’t forget to connect.” She continues: "Absent social interactions, blood flow to vital organs is likely to be reduced and immune function may be undermined. Even how genes are expressed can be adversely affected, impairing the body’s ability to turn off inflammation. Chronic inflammation has been linked to heart disease, arthritis, Type 2 diabetes and even suicide attempts."
Beyond physical decline, the lack of solid social interactions can gravely affect mental health. In a study that looked at how social activity affected cognitive decline, over 1,100 seniors without dementia at baseline were measured on their social activity levels and then tested periodically on their cognitive functioning over a 12-year period. The rate of cognitive decline was 70 percent less in people with frequent social contact than those with low social activity.
Harvard professor Robert Putnam's seminal book, Bowling Alone, describes how Americans are becoming less and less connected to one another. To paraphrase Putnam, “the culture in which people talk to each other over the back fence is the culture in which people vote.” Apparently, when you feel part of a group, you’re more likely to contribute to it — such as by voting. Putnam documented a broad decline in civic engagement and social participation in the United States over the past 35 years. Citizens vote less, go to church less, discuss government with the neighbors less, are members of fewer voluntary organizations, have fewer dinner parties, and generally get together less for civic and social purposes. At the societal level, social disengagement is associated with more corrupt, and less efficient government and more crime.
In his book The Loss of Happiness in Market Democracies, Robert E. Lane, Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Yale, brings together much of the research done on social capital over the last several years and shows how social ties not only affect our personal health, but also our societal health. He observes that as prosperity in a society increases, social solidarity decreases. Happiness not only declines, people become more distrustful of each other as well as their political institutions. Lane argues that we must alter our priorities; we must increase our levels of companionship even at the risk of reducing our income.
"In how many communities do zoning and planning bodies require sidewalks and front porches and community gathering places? And in communities where homes have no sidewalks or other natural gathering places, who organizes block parties, progressive dinners, and community poker games? Those who care about community connection have relatively simple remedies at hand — taking the time to organize and prioritize to build it" writes Margaret Krome in Remedies for Social Isolation are Simple, but Require Effort, Capital Times, June 6, 2016.
Anthropological research theorizes that, in the early stages of food management, storing foods for one's own needs only went so far because there was only so much that could be consumed before it spoiled. This extra was deployed toward social means by individuals looking to establish reciprocal relationships. Group meals were a social contract. They formed a social network that could be deployed in times of need.
While our modern-day group dining efforts are largely celebratory in nature on the surface—birthdays, weddings, holidays, etc.—psychologically and socially they serve the same need: they gather our allies (both family and friends) and renew our social obligations to each other.
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1. For Interim Medal Count #1 (Medal count as of the end of day (in Korea) on February 15: Spring's Triple Crown. A pound each of Wild Morel Mushrooms, Wild Foraged Ramps and Wild Foraged FiddleHead Ferns (delivered in season - about 45 days from now)
2. For Interim Medal Count #2 (Medal count as of the end of day (in Korea) on February 20: Large Stone Crab Claws (with mallet and mustard sauce) for 2
3. For the Final Medal Count: A Clam Bake! 6 Live Hard Shell Maine Lobsters, 3 pounds of Live Clams, and 3 Pounds of Live Mussels
To-Table celebrates the international gathering of the finest athletes and the coming together for them and for all of us that it creates. Connecting, whether it be for athletic competition or for a meal with friends and family, is among the more important elements building understanding and cohesiveness in our lives.
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The food trends for 2018, as for any year, are a collection of the movements and tastes into which consumers are progressing and not a description of the foods that dominate. As we look where food is headed, keep looking at your local grocery store to see where in fact we are. Great strides have been made that are creating more healthy and more sustainable products, but we still eat mostly beef and chicken, 3 major grains, a handful of major vegetables, 3 types of fish, and a whole lot of packaged processed foods.
Nevertheless, the trends for 2018 move us closer and closer to the concept of "mindfulness" in procuring,cooking and eating (the #1 trend that Phil Lempert identified in Forbes "10 Food Trends That will Shape 2018", Dec 13, 2018) which he defines as “the quality or state of being conscious or aware” . This leads to greater focus on what is good for us as the eater, what is interesting to create in flavor, touch and other senses, and what is best for an environment that must feed more and more people. More plant-based and science-based (laboratory produced) foods, more interest in labeling and transparency, and the use of more exotic spices evolve from the "mindfulness" trend.
There are interesting other trends for specific foods that indicate a continued movement to drinkable meals, more emphasis of food presentation and its tactile qualities, and, yes, cannabis infusion. And Gordon Ramsey has added his list of the 3 trends that must go, in his opinion, in 2018.
In Food Dive (Jan 23 2018), Cathy Siegner offer a very good list of the key trends emerging in 2018:
Plants and flowers are springing up in food and beverage items as more consumers become interested in their potential healing properties. They include the leaves of the moringa oleifera tree, Indian ginseng, lavender, and curcumin, the active ingredient in turmeric.
Try it at home (according to Leslie Wu in Forbes, Dec 30, 2017):
2. Transparency
This trend began with the clean-label movement, driven by consumer demand for more product information, fewer artificial ingredients and more sustainable production and packaging. Recently, it has extended beyond labels to include product traceability as shoppers grow more interested in where their food comes from and how it was handled along the supply chain.
Asian and Middle Eastern flavors have struck a chord with consumers who are seeking new and intriguing items beyond the well-known standbys such as sushi, tempura, hummus, tahini and yogurt. "It's a wonderful way to travel without having to leave the comfort of your home. It's only going to grow," according to Molly Siegler, Whole Foods' associate culinary and hospitality coordinator.
Try it at home (again accoring to Wu):
Although hotpot may seem specialized in terms of equipment and ingredients, it makes for a relaxed and social atmosphere for entertaining.
Food made from technology — such as cell-cultured meat and highly realistic plant-based meat analogues — is no longer the stuff of science fiction. Plant-based meats account for 2.1% of sales in refrigerated and frozen meat products sold at retail. Cell-cultured meat also is gaining traction, and startups have begun to experiment with fish as well as beef and poultry. Science-based foods certainly can carry an "ick" factor, but the purported environmental and nutritional benefits of "clean meat" may prove enticing.
Options are a good thing (like sushi-grade "not-tuna" made from tomatoes or a "bleeding veggie burger!), but make your choices carefully. "There are some vegan "meat" and "diary" products that I think are great when natural, but often people see the word vegan and they think that means it's healthy – just because something is plant-based does not mean that it isn't processed," cautions Dr. Greuner. Stick with real plant based foods! Some veggie burgers, for example, are high in protein and low in carbohydrates, which is great, but are also very high in both fat and sodium, so it's not something you'll want to eat every day. (Readers Digest, Sharon Feiereisen, Jan. 2018)
This trend has moved beyond merely producing food in an environmentally conscious ways and selling it in recyclable packaging. Consumers are taking a more active role in the battle against food waste, a mindset that is leading many shoppers to try and use all parts of a plant or animal, rather than cherry-picking some and throwing the rest away. Also called "root-to-stem" and "nose-to-tail" eating, this expanded type of sustainability is likely to appear equally in meat and produce departments.
Comfort foods containing butter, lard and other fats and oils are back in style. Today's consumers seem more interested in reducing the amount of sugar and sodium they consume than about the amount of fat in their diet. It is noted there is growing recognition "that certain fat and oils can actually make positive health contributions."
In the last couple years, we’ve witnessed the new phenomenon of meal kit delivery services. Kind of like an Ipsy bag… but for dinner? Or is it more like Postmates-ing uncooked food to your house every week? However you want to think of it, the cook-it-yourself box of meals delivery service trend is only going to get bigger — and more competitive — in 2018. Meaning it’s about to be incredibly affordable for none of us to set foot inside an overcrowded supermarket for the rest of the year. Bless. (The Everygirls, Jan 11, 2018, 7 Food trends that will be huge in 2018)
Hydrogen water - Dr. Cody Cook, the owner of HTWO brand, claims that more than 16 gold medalist athletes are using the stuff, which purportedly helps boost energy, provides antioxidants, and quickly removes lactic acid. (we always thought that was what the H in H20 was).
Pea Milk - No Nuts for those who have allergies and the like. More non-dairy milks are on their way.
Drinking Soups. Move over, green juice. Drinkable soups are tastier, heartier, just as convenient, and more filling.
Golden Milk - Tumeric (curcumin) anti-inflammatory properties
Tahini - Anything and everything made with Tahini.
Cannabis-infused foods 65% of American support legal marijuana.
Timut pepper - Spiky, zesty and suprisingly grapefruity - with a tingly residual heat on the palate.
Floral Flavors - lavender lattes, rose-flavored everything, bright pink hibiscus teas and elderflower cocktails are going to be a big hit, so get excited for recipes that bloom.
Tactile - According to Phil Lempert, the second most important food trend in 2018 after mindfulness is tactile food qualities. "If I had to point to one trend that I believe will have the biggest impact on our industry, it is tactile — the sense of touch. There is probably no profession more tactile than being a chef. Multi-sensory is the new secret weapon for food in products, their packaging and in-store. 3D printing will create more tactile food experiences and become a more efficient and less wasteful food production method." Until then, things like "Poke bowl restaurants... are popping up everywhere, offering a variety of colors and textures and challenging fast food and quick service restaurant formats."
Finally, what three trends does Gordon Ramsay think must stop?
First, he is tired of culinary foams. He thinks they have run their coarse and now look more like pond scum on food than the great beginnings of culinary gastronomy.
Second, he believes Wagyu is too special to have every meatball at a restaurant made out of it.
And finally, truffle oils are wildly over-used, Ramsay believes. They are used too often and in too high an amount. Truffle essence is a subtle flavor, he believes and must be used sparingly and for special occasions.
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Is your dairy-free, non-GMO “milk” made from "free-range trees"? This one is. The company, Mikadamia, is trying to set its macadamia nut milk apart from almond milk by highlighting that its trees do not require irrigation like the almond tree.
The food labeling craze coupled with banner headlines about the dangers of gluten, GMOs, and hormones are leading to increasingly absurd results. For example, you can purchase "premium" water that’s not only free of GMOs and gluten but certified kosher and organic. Never mind that not a single drop of water anywhere contains either property or is altered in any way by those designations.
Up to 1960s:
Perpared foods offered and were required to tell consumers veru little about the content of prepared foods
Early 1970s:
Growth in processed foods led to a system of voluntary and mandatory nutrition labeling.
1990s
The Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 gave the FDA the authority to require companies to list certain nutrients and other details on food packages.
After 1990 Act to Present
Food labeling has gotten wilder. Federal guidlines offer strict rules to follow for certain labels such as "organic". Other labels, such as "natural" are not regulated. And conflicts arise such as "cage free" (not regulated) and "free range" (regulated) or "grass-fed" (not regulated) and "hormone-free" (regulated). As the price of the product can be affected by its labeling claims, spurious or not, the problem is more that just a transparency issue.
food labeling is designed to overcome the problem of "asymmetric information". The seller of a product knows more about the product than the buyer. With food, its characteristics can be sometimes be partially judged with the 5 senses, but the characteristics, such as flavor, of an apple you purchase can never be fully known until after you eat it. Contents of a box, jar or can of processed food are even more asymmetrically aligned. That's where food labels can help.
Mandated labels have helped narrow the knowledge gap disclosing calories and other data we have come to rely on. Some companies exploit the knowledge gap by preying on consumer concerns to sell at a premium or increase market share. As an additional example (other than gluten free water and Free range trees), while federal law requires that hormones not be used in pork or poultry, companies that advertise a chicken breast as "hormone-free" are simply trying to charge more or help its product stand out against others.
A new law taking effect in the summer of 2018 makes GMO labeling of some foods mandatory. An economic theory related to asymmetric information called the signaling effect comes into play. The mere fact that label information concerning GMO facts signals that there is a problem with bio-engineered foods. However, all we really know is that While some countries have banned the use of GMOs, such as in Europe, the FDA has said that “credible evidence" has demonstrated that foods from the GE plant varieties marketed to date are as safe as comparable, non-GE foods.” But "GMO-Free" labels are showing up all all sorts of products now playing on the concerns of the consumer.
The worry is that consumers will become ever more mystified as more businesses make increasingly absurd claims on their labels so that their products stand out from the competition in the grocery store aisle. The only thing consumers will get in return for these “fake transparency” labels is a higher price tag.
See Quartz, Glutten free water shows how ridiculous food labeling has become, Brandon Mcfadden, September 4, 2017.
On each page of the To-Table.com website, you will find this lovely person with a text balloon imploring: "Refer Your Friends". Click on that ICON and fill in the information for each of your referrals. We will track it from there!
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Converting data to actionable solutions is what needs to happen to make all this technology worth the investment. The smart farm uses hundreds of variables from weather to soil condition to the weed populations and make up and many others to help increase yield, lower costs and minimize water usage. The buzz word is "precision farming" through which all input variables enable the best timing, location, amounts and hundreds of other calculations for optimum efficiency and yield at the lowest cost.
Understanding a crop’s DNA sequence also means that breeding itself can be made more precise. You do not need to grow a plant to maturity to find out whether it will have the characteristics you want. A quick look at its genome beforehand will tell you.
Other interesting, and some may say less palatable biological influences include growing meat muscle biologically in lab dishes to replace meat from farmed animals. And scientists are working on other mutations like making cheese from chemicals for the vegan market.
Such technological changes, in hardware, software and “liveware”, are reaching beyond field, orchard and byre. Fish farming will also get a boost from them. And indoor horticulture, already the most controlled and precise type of agriculture, is about to become yet more so.
In the short run, these improvements will boost farmers’ profits, by cutting costs and increasing yields, and should also benefit consumers (meaning everyone who eats food) in the form of lower prices. In the longer run, though, they may help provide the answer to an increasingly urgent question: how can the world be fed in future without putting irreparable strain on the Earth’s soils and oceans?
The technological rationale for precision suggests farms should continue to consolidate, though in an industry in which sentiment and family continuity have always played a big part that purely economic analysis might suggest is irrational, this may not happen as fast as it otherwise would. Still, regardless of the speed at which they arrive, these large holdings will come more and more to resemble manufacturing operations, wringing every last ounce of efficiency out of land and machinery.
Understanding a crop’s DNA sequence also means that breeding itself can be made more precise. You do not need to grow a plant to maturity to find out whether it will have the characteristics you want. A quick look at its genome beforehand will tell you.
Such technological changes, in hardware, software and “liveware”, are reaching beyond field, orchard and byre. Fish farming will also get a boost from them. And indoor horticulture, already the most controlled and precise type of agriculture, is about to become yet more so.
In the short run, these improvements will boost farmers’ profits, by cutting costs and increasing yields, and should also benefit consumers (meaning everyone who eats food) in the form of lower prices. In the longer run, though, they may help provide the answer to an increasingly urgent question: how can the world be fed in future without putting irreparable strain on the Earth’s soils and oceans?
The hype generated by Amazon’s purchase of Whole-Foods for $13.7 billion has been palpable and enduring. It has afforded the behemoth online retailer a key entry point into the grocery business, a collection of stores from which it can evolve its e-commerce footprint, and an opportunity to gather valuable shopper data it could use to further disrupt the $800 billion food retail industry. Indeed, when the news first broke on June 16, Amazon’s stock price rose 2.4%, increasing its market capitalization by $11 billion. At the same time, the price of SuperValu plummeted 14.4%, Kroger dropped 9.2%, and Sprouts fell 6.3%.
Whole Foods is best known for its organic foods, building its brand on healthy eating and fresh, local produce and meats. It has also long been caricatured as “Whole Paycheck” for the high prices it charges for groceries. That conflicts with a core tenet of Amazon, which has made low prices part of its mission as a retailer.
This acquisition seemed to signal a tidal change in grocery retail that has left many wondering what the larger impact will be on the industry. For all the advantages Whole Foods potentially brings, however, there is looming uncertainty as to how much Amazon, an online giant that has never run a grocery company, will benefit from an inefficient, slow-to-adapt retailer with 460 stores and a major pricing problem.
According to sources interviewed by Food Dive, Amazon could do a lot to improve Whole Foods’ operations, given that it is strong in many areas where Whole Foods has struggled. But early reports that Amazon wants to leave Whole Foods as-is, including keeping the contentious John Mackey in the CEO post he’s occupied for nearly forty years, could prove problematic. If Amazon does prove to be a more active manager than it has with other acquisitions, the inexperience factor, not to mention a vastly different corporate culture, could make for a rocky relationship.
Analysts speculated that Amazon could use its $99-a-year Prime membership service, which gives customers free, two-day shipping and other benefits, to offer Whole Foods customers a better price on groceries, as it does for books in its bookstores. The stores could also serve as an advertisement to get more customers to sign up for Prime; in September the financial firm Cowen & Company estimated that Prime had 49 million subscribers in the United States, representing about 44 percent of households.
Amazon has been on a multiyear offensive to open warehouses closer to customers so it can deliver orders in as little as two hours, and Whole Foods stores will further narrow Amazon’s physical proximity to its shoppers. The stores could become locations for returning online orders of all kinds. Amazon could also use them to cut delivery times for online orders.
The $13.4 billion deal, which does not include net debt, immediately raised questions about whether Amazon’s experiments with automation, like the cashier-less checkout technology it is testing in its Amazon Go store, could eventually lead to job losses at Whole Foods stores.
Even with the bigger physical presence Amazon will gain through Whole Foods, it will have far less reach than Walmart and its Sam’s Club warehouse chain, which together account for about 18 percent of the grocery market. Walmart has almost 10 times the number of stores as Whole Foods does.
If the deal goes through, Amazon and Whole Foods will still only account for about 3.5 percent of grocery spending in the United States, making it the country’s fifth-largest grocery retailer, according to estimates by John Blackledge, an analyst at Cowen & Company.
Read More:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-wholefoods-m-a-amazon-com-idUSKBN19Z1LI
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/16/business/dealbook/amazon-whole-foods.html
http://www.newyorker.com/business/currency/what-amazons-purchase-of-whole-foods-really-means
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Many people enjoy chocolate as a nice treat. But now, you can snort cocoa to get a buzz of energy.
Coco Loko, a snortable chocolate powder, is a drug-free product that's marketed as providing a buzz that lasts about 30 minutes to an hour—without the side of effects of a sugar crash, according to The Washington Post. The substance is made of cacao powder, as well as gingko biloba, taurine and guarana, ingredients commonly found in energy drinks. It has a chocolate flavor and provides a rush of energy when snorted, although it can also be made into a drink.
Coco Loko aims to tap into demand for club-drug alternatives, as snorting raw cacao has become a growing trend in Western Europe. Users claim cacao has a mild euphoric effect, with active components that flood the brain with endorphins, while magnesium is said to have a muscle relaxant effect. Cutting the cacao with ingredients usually associated with energy drinks may increase its appeal to those looking for a legal stimulant while clubbing — although fears over damage or irritation to the nose may mean others prefer to consume chocolate and energy drink ingredients in more traditional formats.
Doctors aren't sure about the health consequences to snorting the substance due to a lack of studies, Dr. Andrew Lane, director of the Johns Hopkins Sinus Center, told the paper. The health community has, however, raised concerns about the ingredients used in energy drinks, such as caffeine, taurine, and guarana, all of which have been shown to cause heart palpitations and high blood pressure in some circumstances.
Senator Chuck Schumer is giving push back on this chocolate snorting craze. He’s is calling on the FDA to investigate calling it a “brazen example of ‘narcotic marketing’ – a product that is marketed like a drug, as well as made to be consumable like a drug while seeming cool to teens and young people.”
“The thing to keep in mind is that there’s no research done on this at all,” Dr. Alex Osborn, an ear, nose and throat physician and medical director of The Voice Clinic, said to Global News. “We have no idea what it will do or how dangerous it is.”
The product’s ability to deliver a high is, well, high, especially since it’s ingested through the nose. However, the same effect can likely be achieved just by putting it on your tongue.
“Chocolate-covered espresso beans get you pretty jittery, and it seems that this would have the same effect,” says Dr. Alex Osborn, an ear, nose and throat physician and medical director of The Voice Clinic, said to Global News. “By snorting it, you’re taking some risk with no perceived benefit compared to just eating the product.”
You know, like club kids have been doing for decades.
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This summer, using the hashtag #totableburgerbattle, post pictures of your culinary creations on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or Instagram, and don't forget to tag and share with your friends! By posting pictures with the hashtag, you increase your odds of winning various prizes ranging from $25 to $275 in value. For more information on the different contests, consult the links below. Happy grilling!
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The hamburger is one of the world’s most popular foods, with more than 40 billion served up annually in the United States alone. Although the humble beef-patty-on-a-bun is not much more than 100 years old, you can’t tell the story of its origin without outlining a far greater lineage, linking American businessmen, World War II soldiers, German immigrants, and medieval traders.
Prior to the disputed invention of the hamburger in the United States, similar foods already existed in the culinary tradition of Europe. The Apicius cookbook, a collection of ancient Roman recipes that may date to the early 4th century, details a preparation of beef called isicia omentata; served as a baked patty in which beef is mixed with pine kernels, black and green peppercorns, and white wine. This nutty and peppery meat-pie may be the earliest precursor to the hamburger.
In the 12th century, the nomadic Mongols carried food made of several varieties of milk and meat (horse or camel). The cavalry-dominated Mongol army of Genghis Khan was fast moving and typically unable to stop for a meal, so they often ate while riding. They wrapped slices of meat under their saddles that, under constant pressure and motion, would crumble and get cooked by the heat generated from the constant friction. This "recipe" for minced meat spread throughout central Asia. When Genghis Khan's grandson Kublai Khan (1215–1294) invaded Moscow, he and his warriors introduced minced horsemeat to the Muscovites. This was later called steak tartare.
Russian ships brought recipes for steak tartare to the port of Hamburg, Germany during the 17th century. The Germans took to this ground meat product and created many of their own dishes by adding capers, onions and even caviar to the blend. During the first half of the 19th century, most of the northern European emigrants who traveled to the New World embarked on their transatlantic voyages from the port of Hamburg .
New York City was the most common destination for ships traveling from Hamburg, and various restaurants in the city began offering the Hamburg-style steak in order to attract German sailors. The steak frequently appeared on the menu as a Hamburg-style American fillet, or even beefsteak à Hambourgeoise. Early American preparations of minced beef were therefore made to fit the tastes of European immigrants, evoking memories of the port of Hamburg and the world they left behind.
The hamburger as it is known today has multiple invention claims ranging between 1885 and 1904, but it is clearly the product of the early 20th century. It seems to have made its jump from plate to bun in the last decades of the 19th century, though the site of this transformation is highly contested. Lunch wagons, fair stands and roadside restaurants in Wisconsin, Connecticut, Ohio, New York and Texas have all been put forward as possible sites of the hamburger’s birth. Whatever its genesis, the burger-on-a-bun found its first wide audience at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, which also introduced millions of Americans to new foods ranging from waffle ice cream cones and cotton candy to peanut butter and iced tea.
Two years later, though, disaster struck in the form of Upton Sinclair’s journalistic novel "The Jungle," which detailed the unsavory side of the American meatpacking industry. Industrial ground beef was easy to adulterate with fillers, preservatives and meat scraps, and the hamburger became a prime suspect.
The hamburger might have remained on the seamier margins of American cuisine were it not for the vision of Edgar “Billy” Ingram and Walter Anderson, who opened their first White Castle restaurant in Kansas in 1921. Sheathed inside and out in gleaming porcelain and stainless steel, White Castle countered hamburger meat’s low reputation by becoming bastions of cleanliness, health and hygiene (Ingram even commissioned a medical school study to show the health benefits of hamburgers). His system, which included on-premise meat grinding, worked well, and was the inspiration for other national hamburger chains founded in the boom years after World War II: McDonald’s and In-N-Out Burger (both founded in 1948), Burger King (1954) and Wendy’s (1969).
Led by McDonald’s (and helped by the introduction abroad of U.S. hamburger culture by millions of members of the American armed services during World War II), the hamburger—and American-style franchised fast food—soon spread globally. By 2013 there were more than 18,000 McDonald’s restaurants worldwide.
Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_hamburger
http://www.history.com/news/hungry-history/hamburger-helpers-the-history-of-americas-favorite-sandwich
Meat |
Key Facts | Nutritional Facts per 4 oz. serving | Wine Pairing | Beer Pairing |
Wagyu Beef | finest quality of beef, high in oleic acid, beneficial to human health | 330 cal., 28g fat, 18g protein | Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Zinfandel | Amber Ale, India Pale Ale |
Grain Fed Beef | higher fat content, richer flavor | 240 cal., 17g fat, 21g protein | Merlot, Shiraz, Zinfandel | Lager, Irish Red Ale |
Grass Fed Beef | contains more omega-3 fatty acids than grain fed, | 170 cal., 8g fat, 24g protein | Cabernet Sauvignon, Shiraz, Zinfandel | India Pale Ale, Porter, Stout |
Bison | humanely slaughtered, North American heritage, organic, grass fed | 130 cal., 3g fat, 26 g protein | Sangiovese, Malbec | Belgian-Style Flanders |
Goat | environmentally friendly animal, healthy alternative to beef, virtually no fat | 125 cal., 1g fat, 23g protein | Sauvignon Blanc, Pinot Grigio, Chardonnay | Lager, Blonde Ale, Hefeweizen |
Wild Boar | sweet with notes of nuttiness, leaner than farm raised hogs, the ultimate humanely raised natural meat | 200 cal., 8.8g fat, 28.8g protein | Chianti, Shiraz | Dark ales |
Lamb | high in protein, fat contains healthy CLA, rich in vitamin B12 | 316 cal., 24g fat, 28g protein | Zinfandel, Pinot Noir | Hefeweizen, Amber Ale |
Alpaca | lean and sweet, nutritionally superior to other red meats, trendy new protein | 160 cal., 6g fat, 25g protein | Rich White/Light Red | Hefeweizen, Blonde Ale |
Elk | extremely lean, high in B vitamins, all-natural red meat | 175 cal., 9g fat, 22g protein | Shiraz, Zinfandel, Pinot Noir | Lager, Ale, Stout |
Duck | umami rich flavor, tender texture | 180 cal., 13g fat, 18g protein | Pinot Noir, Merlot, Chianti | Hefeweizen, IPA, Irish Red Ale |
This breed of Japanese cattle is renowned for its rich flavor and marbling. In Japanese, the word Wagyu literally means “Japanese Cow.” Our suppliers at Lone Mountain Wagyu are proud to exclusively raise 100% Fullblood Wagyu cattle that have never been crossbred. Each cow is individually DNA-Certified to ensure direct lineage to its Japanese heritage.
By not handling the burger too much you allow the full flavor of the juices to baste the meat and enhance its flavor. Enjoy with a glass of Cabernet.
All beef cattle start their lives on mother’s milk and are then weaned to graze on pasture grasses until they reach about 400-500 lbs. When calves reach these weights they are sold off to feeders where they either remain grass fed, or are sent to feedlots. In each case, the calves will remain in the pasture or feedlot until they reach desired harvest weights.
Each feeding method has benefits and detriments that vary markedly, not only in diet, but in cost, taste, consistency and time. Is one system better than the other? The answer is truly subjective – personal preference, palates, and beliefs play heavily on consumer preference.
Grain fed cattle are started on grass and then sent to feedlots to be finished on formulated feed rations designed to make the animals grow as much and as fast as possible. In most cases, the formulated feed contains as much as 75% corn grain. Grain fed cattle normally reach harvest weight between 18-24 months of age.
Grain fed beef is "juicier" and more tender than grass fed. It has a higher fat content; higher fat levels deliver more flavor. Grain fed also grades out higher in quality scoring and is desired by most American palates; furthermore, it is coveted by restaurants offering USDA Prime and Choice beef.
Grass fed cattle start on grass and remain on grass until they reach harvest weight – usually between 30-36 months of age. Grass fed cattle must reside where grass is easily available; inclement weather may force cattle to be moved to pastures where grass exists. During the winter months when grass is dormant, grass fed cattle must be supplemented with feed, usually hay and grass silage, to maintain nutrition and sustain their grass fed status.
Grass fed beef is also very lean. The low fat content in grass fed beef requires greater attention to cooking to prevent an unpleasant eating experience. The tenderness of grass fed steaks can also be inconsistent. Thus, grass fed is better when cooked slower than its grain fed counterpart. When properly aged and cooked, grass fed beef is delicious. Some even say it tastes the way beef “used to taste”.
Grass fed beef is leaner and higher in protein than grain fed beef and averages 1.5 times more protein than typical USDA Choice grain fed beef. Research indicates that eating lean beef can help lower total, LDL and VLDL cholesterol, and triglycerides while increasing beneficial HDL cholesterol. It can also help lower blood pressure, aid in weight loss, and improve insulin sensitivity and glycemic control.
Environmental Issues: One of the main differences between grain and grass fed beef is how they are raised. Grain fed cows are raised in feed lots, wherein they are given large amounts of antibiotics throughout their lives to prevent infection. To humans, this may have the effect of increasing our already growing resistance to antibiotic drugs. The detrimental effect of feedlots on pollution is also cause for concern, as their downstream effluence continues to wreak havoc on the environment. Grass fed beef, on the other hand, does not have the aforementioned issues posed its grain fed brethren. Our grass fed cows are all raised naturally without antibiotics, and are "never ever" given hormones or steroids. These cows have never known the stresses of the feedlot, nor have they contributed to their hazardous downstream effluence.
Whatever your preference, there are economic, environmental, dietary and culinary benefits to both grain fed and grass fed beef.
Bison offers a healthy and nutritious red meat product that meets the demands of a growing number of health-conscious consumers. Searching for alternatives to traditional red meats without sacrificing an excellent eating experience, bison has become a crowd favorite. Its flavor is similar to prime beef, however, after the first bite it will become apparent that bison is noticeably sweeter and more tender than its Bovine relative. One pound of ground bison boasts an impressive 34 grams of protein, and when grilled as a burger, is 90% lean and only 10% fat.
The mission of our supplier, Wild Idea Buffalo Company, is to preserve the Great Plains ecosystem by returning buffalo back to their native homeland. In 1997, Wild Idea was founded to pursue this mission and offer an alternative to the industrialized food system. The idea was simple: supply delicious, healthy, 100% grass-fed meat to consumers interested in sustainability. The incredible flavor of this meat is the result of the animals’ lives being lived more naturally and without unnecessary human interference. Its clean, rich, slightly sweet taste has subtle notes of grass, sage, and they swear – sunshine.
Their humane prairie harvests ( the bison are not sent to a slaughterhouse, but rather are harvested in the field) ensure that the buffalo are not exposed to any undue stress that would spoil the flavor of this natural meat. Wild Idea buffalo are given respect, dignity, and care throughout their lives. The buffalo tastes better because they are raised better. This is unique among most other buffalo producers.
The molecular structure of goat meat is different than that of beef or chicken, making it easier to digest. Goat is the world's most consumed meat, eaten by three quarters of the world's population. The trend is rising in the United States, as we are catching on to what the rest of the world already knew about.
Goat is surprisingly healthy compared to the usual meats we consume - even chicken! Indeed, a 3 ounce serving of goat is just 120 calories, but contains 25 grams of protein and only 3.5 grams of fat. Being naturally lean, it is much lower in saturated fat and cholesterol, and has a higher HDL count (the good cholesterol) and a naturally low LDL count (the bad kind of cholesterol). Just remember that goat meat is best slow cooked over low heat due to its lean nature. We recommend pairing goat with a cold glass of Pinot Grigio or a dry Reisling.
Wild Boar has been dubbed as "the ultimate humanely raised all natural meat." No antibiotics, no growth hormones, and no gestation crates. Why? Well, Wild Boar are feral hogs, and in order to be sold to American consumers, they must be taken alive and humanely handled for harvest purposes. Hunters also have the option of live capture for transport to slaughterhouses to be processed and sold to grocers, butcher shops and restaurants as exotic meat. So, when sold commercially, wild hogs must be taken alive.
The most common names for boar are Wild Boar, Wild Hog, Old World Swine, and Razorback. In Europe and Asia, boar is farmed for their meat and treasured for their taste. Called, “Sanglier” in French, and “Cinghiale” in Italian, boar can be commonly found in butcher shops and offered as a staple in restaurants. Ground Wild Boar is popular in Italian Bolognese, and it's even thought of as an aphrodisiac in China.
Hogs, wild or otherwise, are not native to the United States. They were first brought to the new world by Christopher Columbus who introduced them to the Caribbean. Hernando De Soto brought them to Florida in the 1500’s, and they made their way across the Southern United States. Half a millennia later, the boar population is in the millions in the U.S., and Wild Feral Hogs are wreaking havoc across the Southern states. Traveling alone or in packs, they devour whole fields of rice, wheat and/or vegetables. This makes it is a free range animal: no gestation crates, no antibiotics, no growth hormones.
Unlike domestic pork, wild boar is a bit sweeter with notes of nuttiness and a clean taste that’s neither gamey nor greasy. They are leaner than pork with one-third less fat, calories and cholesterol; furthermore, they are higher in protein than pork, beef, lamb and chicken. Their diet is responsible for their unique flavor: acorns, hickory nuts, pecans, grass, roots, apples, and just about any farmed crop they can invade. Adding Wild Boar to your menu gives you something unique to offer your guests with the benefits of all natural, free range and humanely handled marketing. You can help the environment, offer a healthy protein and provide a delicious feature with Wild Boar.
Lamb is the meat of a young sheep less than a year old. It has high levels of protein that make it an excellent component of a healthy diet. Lamb is also rich in vitamin B12, selenium, zinc, niacin, phosphorus, and iron. Lamb fat, known as tallow, contains conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). CLA is a naturally occurring fatty acid found in meat and dairy products, and it helps people lose fat, maintain weight loss, and retain lean muscle mass.
The reputation of Colorado lamb is well deserved. Eighty percent of lamb consumed today is a foreign product - primarily because of its lower price. Because Australians and New Zealanders breed for wool, the quality of their meat is secondary to Colorado lambs, who are bred for their meat, resulting in superior flavor and texture. Cuts are also much larger than imports.
The alpaca came to America in 1984 and was bred for its fiber. Alpaca fiber prices have been in decline since their peak in 2006, and this is one reason behind its emerging presence in the meat and leather markets. While demand for alpaca meat has been constant in South America (where it originates) for millennia, in recent years, demand has been growing in Australia and the United States.
Alpaca meat is the byproduct of culling the herd – but it’s a tasty byproduct. Each mature alpaca harvested equates to about 60 pounds of meat – roughly the same amount of meat you can get from a deer. Lean, tender and almost sweet, alpaca meat is nutritionally superior to many of its red meat counterparts. Lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol, this high-protein, exotic meat is beginning to appeal to those seeking out alternatives to domesticated meat like beef or pork, and even wild meat, like venison. Ground alpaca is versatile enough to be substituted in place of ground turkey or beef in most recipes. This trendy, new (and exclusive) gourmet delicacy is a low fat alternative to supermarket staples, and one that provides a quality protein perfect for summer grilling. It's a perfect candidate for high-heat cooking that is best served medium to medium-rare, and with a glass of Argentinian Malbec.
Elk was once the popular exotic meat at high end restaurants. It is becoming more popular with home cooks as the price decreases. Although termed venison, elk meat is known for tastiness, and when properly processed has none of the gamey taste associated with some wild shot meats. Elk sold commercially are always farm raised. As farmed elk meat animals, elk are usually given an abundant grass and alfalfa diet with an occasional grain supplement. The extra supplement can be corn, oats or barley and perhaps even potatoes. They are never given any steroids, growth promoting chemicals, or general antibiotics. Elk meat is delicious and all natural.
Nutritionally, elk are superior to most other meat producing animals. Some have even dubbed this lean, nutritious animal as "the Cadillac of red meats." Elk burgers are renowned for being low fat and rich in flavor, as they are typically 92-94% lean. Indeed, a 3 ounce serving of elk contains 164 calories, 22.6 grams of protein, and just 7.4 grams of fat. Its mineral content is similar to ground beef, but it's a great alternative for those seeking a burger with significantly less fat and cholesterol. Since it is very low in fat, it will dry out quickly upon extended cooking, so the rarer you can take it the better. A glass of Shiraz or Pinot Noir will bring out its best flavors.
Our duck meat comes from the Moulard, which is the result of a cross between the Muscovy duck and the Pekin hen. It has the robust texture of red meat with the lean, nutritional benefits of chicken, making it a great option for burgers. The tender texture and umami rich flavors of the ground duck breast shine through when you take your most creative sauces and techniques and embrace them enthusiastically. The product is a truly elegant lead element of the best meals you prepare.
Duck fat has similar health benefits to olive oil and other unsaturated fats. Even though our duck meat, sourced from Hudson Valley Foie Gras, is comparable in fat and calories to a skinless chicken or turkey breast, it has a rich, bold flavor. Through our natural breeding and feeding programs, our ducks have less fat and more lean meat than ever before.
Due to it being a fatty meat, duck tends to need a wine with some sharpness and acidity to cut through and contrast with its rich flesh. We suggest pairing your duck with Pinot Noir, Merlot, or Chianti.
Sources:
https://www.lonemountainwagyu.com/products/ground-beef
http://www.buedelmeatup.com/2013/09/24/the-benefits-of-grain-and-grass-fed-beef/
http://www.buedelmeatup.com/2014/01/20/wild-boar-a-unique-delicious-all-natural-meat/
http://modernfarmer.com/2014/05/alpaca-red-meat/
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The modern renaissance man is the beneficiary of a renaissance in real food. The real food movement is the promotion of food which "truly nourishes producers, consumers, communities and the earth. It is a food system--from seed to plate--that fundamentally respects human dignity and health, animal welfare, social justice and environmental sustainability. Some people call it "local," "green," "slow," or "fair."" (The Real Food Challenge ( The realfoodchallenge.org has a goal to replace $1 Billion of industrial food purchases and colleges and universities with "real food " purchases)).
Markets are moving to more real foods - a real renaissance in foods produced in a new culture that eschews the environmentally challenging and less healthy foods first written about by Upton Sinclair at the turn of the 20th Century and followed by nearly a century of increasing industrialization.
The rise of industrial agriculture is summarized:
Environmental concerns started to change consumers habits at the end of the 20th century moving agriculture very slowly to a more sustainable format. And a more subtle change has been occurring with the renaissance in real food more recently - a desire to enjoy the diversity of foods and produced, foraged or caught in sustainable processes and environments. This renaissance is just beginning. Signs are everywhere. Forbes (Greg Maloney, May15,2017) outlined the following trends in 2017 which highlight the changing cooking styles of chefs who are both leading and reacting to altered eating habits:
Back to My Roots
Chefs are increasingly using traditional cooking methods with a modern twist on ingredients, preparation styles, and techniques. Ekstedt in Stockholm uses primal, back-to-basics cooking, to take the Nordic food movement in a new direction.
U-Turning
Restaurants have become complex, demanding more equipment and skill, but now they are returning to simplicity, the way food once was. The Meatball Shop in New York prides itself on serving up quality food with no strings attached.
Slow Cooking
Quality ingredients are becoming costlier, but slow cooking is one way restaurants have reduced overhead while still providing an appealing, quality menu. NURU in Mallorca features fusion treats like a tender Korean barbecue-style Angus rib, which has been slow cooked for 20 hours.
Bigger industrial food companies are being forced to react:
Food and drink megabrands are seeing their sales chewed away by smaller, nimbler, cooler rivals. They can't beat them - so now they're joining them.
Nine of the world's biggest industry players, including Danone , General Mills , Campbell Soup and Kellogg have launched venture capital units over the past 18 months, a Reuters analysis of the sector shows.
The aim of the strategy, according to interviews with executives, is to buy into - and learn from - the kind of start-up innovation that has become their nemesis, from micro-distilled spirits and cold-pressed juices to kale chips and vegan burgers.
Food and drink multinationals spend far less on R&D than their counterparts in many sectors like tech and healthcare. They have been wrongfooted over the past five years by the shifting habits of consumers who are increasingly shunning established brands in favor of small, independent names they regard as healthier, more authentic and original.
This is forcing the companies to take a leaf out of Silicon Valley's venture capital playbook - and their success or failure in harnessing promising new trends at a very early stage could help determine how well they adjust to the changing landscape, and whether they ultimately emerge as winners or losers.(Reuters, Martinne Geller, May 24, 2017)
So, as we approach fathers day and rejoice and celebrate the renaissance man that our father is, a convergence with a renaissance in real food makes it all the more meaningful.
Give dad the ability to achieve his full potential this Father’s Day
The market has answered demands for an enhanced eating experience, so why not provide the man who demands so little a treat from To-Table to feed his renaissance soul.
“A cauliflower is nothing but a cabbage with a college education.” — Mark Twain
There are several fad diets that tell you to avoid any white or colorless food, but the lowly cauliflower is a potent exception. Cauliflower ranks among the top 20 foods in regards to ANDI score (Aggregate Nutrient Density Index), which measures vitamin, mineral and phytonutrient content in relation to caloric content. To earn high rank, a food must provide a high amount of nutrients for a small amount of calories.
“It’s absolutely everywhere,” says Elena North-Kelly, managing editor at the James Beard Foundation, a culinary arts organization. “Cauliflower’s moved from the boring side dish, and now we’re seeing it take on a starring role.” The boom is thanks to converging culinary trends: low-carb, gluten-free, and healthful eating, which often means vegetarian. “It’s similar to what we saw with kale a few years ago,” says Erik Brown, global produce buyer for Whole Foods. And the vegetable’s popularity is reflected on BuzzFeed’s Tasty channel, which posts dozens of DIY options—cauliflower mac and cheese, pizza with cauliflower crust, etc.—to Facebook feeds, where they’ve been viewed hundreds of thousands of times each.
For cauliflower converts, there are two types of recipes: ones that use the vegetable as is, and ones in which it replaces meat or bread. Cauliflower-as-staple-substitute recipes range in authenticity, from Buffalo cauliflower (definitely not a chicken wing, but still spicy and delicious) to cauliflower grilled cheese, in which grated cauliflower “bread” patties supposedly hold the sandwich together.
As part of the brassica family, more commonly known as cruciferous vegetables, cauliflower contains antioxidants and phytonutrients that can protect against cancer, fiber that helps with satiety, weight loss and a healthy digestive tract, choline that is essential for learning and memory as well as many other important nutrients.
If cauliflower isn't your favorite vegetable, don't worry. You can get many of these same benefits by eating other members of the cruciferous vegetable family. Broccolii is one of them, but there are others too, including:
Broccoli | Turnips | Brussels sprouts |
Cabbage | Bok choy | Chinese cabbage |
Arugula | Collard greens | Horseradish |
Kale | Kohlrabi | Radishes |
Mustard greens | Rutabaga | Wasabi |
Daikon | Watercress |
A Little Cauliflower History
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According to the latest data, sugarcane is the world’s third most valuable crop after cereals and rice, and occupies 26,942,686 hectares of land across the globe. Its main output – apart from commercial profits – is a global public health crisis, which has been centuries in the making.
The first chemically refined sugar appeared on the scene in India about 2,500 years ago. From there, the technique spread east towards China, and west towards Persia and the early Islamic worlds, eventually reaching the Mediterranean in the 13th century. Throughout the Middle Ages, it was considered a rare and expensive spice, rather than an everyday condiment. The first sugar was recorded in England in 1099 and is further recorded being available in London at "two shillings a pound" in 1319 AD. This equates to about US$100 per kilo at today's prices so it was very much a luxury.
Governments recognized the vast profits to be made from sugar and taxed it highly. In Britain for instance, sugar tax in 1781 totaled £326,000, a figure that had grown by 1815 to £3,000,000. This situation was to stay until 1874 when the British government, under Prime Minister Gladstone, abolished the tax and brought sugar prices within the means of the ordinary citizen
This food – which nobody needed, but everyone craved – drove the formation of the modern of the world. There was a huge demand for labor to cultivate the massive sugar plantations in Brazil and the Caribbean. This need was met by a transatlantic slave trade and great fortunes were made in the production, importation, and refining of "white Gold". History of sugar manufacture changed forever in late 18th century when German scientists identified sucrose in beet root. Production of sugar from beet did not properly start however until Napoleonic wars, when trade blockades forced Napoleon to start local production of sugar, managing eventually to produce from beet 30% of European sugar.
In many ways, the story of sugar and tobacco are closely aligned. Both products were initially produced through slave labor, and were originally seen to be beneficial to health. And although both sugar and tobacco have ancient origins, it was their sudden, mass consumption from the mid-17th century onward that created the health risks we associate with them today. And while tobacco is widely acknowledged to be addictive, sugar can also drive behavioral responses that are indistinguishable from addiction.
In 2013, sugar crops made up 6.2% of world’s agricultural yield and 9.4% of its total monetary value. But many postulate that the fantastic economic growth of the 18th century owed much of its strength on the foundation of a burgeoning sugar trade.
All sugar, whether natural or processed, is a type of simple carbohydrate your body uses for energy. Fruits, vegetables and dairy foods naturally contain sugar.
"Added sugars" are the sugars and syrups added to foods during processing. Desserts, sodas, and energy and sports drinks are the top sources of added sugars for most Americans, but many other foods contain added sugars.
Sweetness has an almost universal appeal. So adding sugar to processed foods makes them more appetizing. But sugar is also added to foods because it:
Over 75% of foods purchased in the U.S. contain added sugars From the mid 1970s to the mid 1990s, US consumption of added sugars increased by 35%, More recent studies suggest that, through 1990 to 2008, added sugar intake in adults and children in the US is decreasing - primarily due to reduced soft drink consumption. Soft drinks are the primary source of added sugars. The love affair has been relatively brief as the first soft drink, Coca Cola was not introduced until 1886.
Some sources of added sugars are easy to spot, such as:
However, added sugars can hide in some surprising places, including:
The American Heart Association advises a strict limit for added sugars — no more than 100 calories a day for most women and no more than 150 calories a day for most men. That's about 6 teaspoons of sugar for women and 9 for men. One teaspoon of sugar has about 16 calories.
To put this into perspective, a 12-ounce can of regular soda has about 160 calories, or about 10 teaspoons, of sugar.
Unfortunately, U.S. adults get 13 percent of their total daily calories from added sugars, which exceeds the recommendations.
Making a few adjustments to your diet can help you cut down on unnecessary sugar consumption:
If reduceing added sugar makes health sense, how can we make food that is still enjoyable?
As a general rule you can reduce sugar as much as 25 or 33% without starting a science project (and having to add applesauce and change lots of other stuff to make it work), but it’s best to start with a less drastic change and work your way to your own sweet spot: the point where you still like the results! Do this by first cutting 10 or 15% of the sugar, then continue until you start not liking your results.
For fruit desserts, consider going in the opposite direction—adding instead of subtracting. "I add sugar to the pie or galette filling about a tablespoon at a time, tasting as I go until the fruit tastes like the best version of itself. And if the resulting pies are too tart, just add a scoop of vanilla ice cream to balance it out!”, one chef states.
Increase the flour. Use this to make up the missed volume of sugar. For most recipes this will work but you do need to experiment.
Be careful of reducing sugar in recipes using yeast. Yeast requires the sugar to activate. If you can discern how much sugar the yeast needs and set that aside and only fiddle with the rest of the sugar, that's ideal. If not, experiment with daring, and you'll discover by trial and error what does and does not work.
Reconsider any sugar based toppings for baked goods. Icing sugar, granular sugar, fine sugar, etc., are all still sugar and adding them to your freshly baked goods can increase the sugar overload. Find topping substitutes that are healthy, such as fresh fruit, spices like cinnamon, or sugar-free grated chocolate. Or why not just leave it bare?
"I recommend using fruits and vegetables that are naturally sweet when baking or cooking," said Kelly Pritchett, PhD, RDN, CSSD, who is a spokesperson for the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. "Examples include bananas, sweet potatoes and apples. You can add a mashed banana to your oatmeal in the morning and microwave it for a minute, which adds sweetness to the oatmeal."
"For beverages, I recommend water, milk, unsweetened tea and sparking water," she added.
You also can reduce added sugar intake at home by cooking from scratch. By making your own granola, pasta sauce and condiments and serving homemade baked treats, you are in control of the ingredients used. "I also reduce the amount of sugar I use in recipes," says Pritchett. "Watch out for added sugars in things like granola bars by making your own at home. Opt for plain yogurt and sweeten your own with frozen fruit or a drizzle of honey." This trick works with cereal too. As your family's taste buds adjust, gradually use less and less of the sweetened varieties.
Make a healthy relationship with food the overall focus instead of a completely sugar-free diet. Encourage positive associations with foods such as fruits and vegetables by playing up their good qualities and fresh taste — and save the sweet stuff for special occasions.