Consumers are seeking to rediscover traditional cooking methods and explore global cuisines.

BOULDER, COLO. — Consumers next year may be eating chocolate at breakfast, sardines with lunch and goat for dinner, according to a new list of culinary trend predictions by Sterling-Rice Group.

With nutrition, sustainability and authenticity top of mind, consumers are seeking to rediscover traditional cooking methods and explore global cuisines, and restaurants and packaged food companies are taking note, said Liz Moskow, culinary director at Sterling-Rice Group.

Elizabeth Moskow, Sterling-Rice Group
Liz Moskow, culinary director at Sterling-Rice Group

“Simply put, engaging with food is a conduit to engaging with the world,” she said.

To compile the trends, the group identifies shifts in the consumer landscape. Not all trends hit the mainstream, but key drivers suggest changes in consumer behaviors and need states that restaurant operators and food manufacturers may leverage in product development.

“We look at what’s happening in the economy, what’s happening in the digital space, what’s happening in the greater world, and then come up with what we call culinary shifts, anything from sustainability to food as medicine,” Ms. Moskow told Food Business News. “The more touchpoints a trend has, the more ability to ‘go viral,’ the way that we see it as trending in the real world and not on-line.”

Read on for 10 cutting-edge culinary trends for 2017.