The Top 10 Food Trends of the Entire Decade
There’s always at least one person who exclaims “See you next year!” when January 1 is just a few short days away … (Y tho?) This year, the trite send-off will get an upgrade, though, since we can officially head out for the holidays and say “See you next decade!” in earnest.
The magnitude of starting a new decade, the 20s (!!!), is not lost on us. It’s a chance for us to reflect on what’s happened in the world of food over the past 10 years — and look ahead at what’s to come. With the help of statistical support from Google Trends, here’s our official list of the most important food moments in the 2010s.
1. This was the dawning of the age of the Instant Pot.
Although at this point it feels like the Instant Pot has been around forever, the game-changing appliance was invented by Robert Wang only as recently as 2009. As 2019 comes to a close, we’re more than certain that the appliance is here to stay (with a few more bells and whistles, of course). To prove our point, please allow us to present you with 100+ reasons why the Instant Pot is taking over the world.
2. We ditched low-fat for low-carb.
Fat is no longer Public Enemy #1 the way that it was a few years ago when every single food label needed to read “low-fat” or “no-fat” in order for the item to make it into our grocery carts. Instead, our collective target is now hovering over carbs, thanks to a swell in the popularity of sugar/grain-free regimens like the Whole30, keto, and Paleo diets.
3. We optimized our food for Instagram.
In October 2010, Instagram emerged on the scene and slapped a filter onto the food landscape as we once knew it. The platform fished for our “likes” with over-the-top milkshakes, rainbow bagels, color-changing noodles, edible cookie dough, infinite cheese pulls, gallon-sized Moscow Mules, pickle-flavored soft serve, and Flamin’ Hot Cheeto-dusted everything, removing a very important part of the equation: actually eating said foods. For better or worse, because of Instagram, we eat with our eyes more now than ever before.
4. Chickpeas asserted their dominance.
Name a food product that chickpeas haven’t infiltrated in the past decade … I’ll wait. This decade brought us chickpea pasta, chickpea cheese doodles, chickpea rice, chocolate-covered snacking chickpeas, DESSERT HUMMUS — the list goes on. We credit the meteoric rise of chickpeas to the fact that they’re an undeniably economical, fiber-rich, plant-based protein source when our collective appetite for all of those things seems to be insatiable right now.
5. We reached peak yogurt.
In our team brainstorm, News and Culture Editor Arie Knutson announced that “yogurt had a good decade,” and truer words have never been spoken. In the past 10 years, the yogurt aisle has become a beacon of choice and opportunity where consumers can choose between way more than flavor and fat content. With varieties like skyr, kefir, and a plethora of new non-dairy options on the rise (from Greek yogurt giant Chobani, no less), 2020 might be the start of the end of yogurt as we used to know it.
6. We swapped soda for seltzer.
In 2015, The New York Times boldly asserted that “the drop in soda consumption represents the single largest change in the American diet in the last decade,” and had the data to prove it. As people became more attuned with the consequences of excessive soda consumption, a different kind of bubbly beverage took its place: sparkling water! The numbers don’t lie, either. Last year Americans purchased nearly three times as much sparkling water as they did in 2008, according to the Beverage Marketing Corp. And the options are abound with trendy cans of LaCroix,
mythical-flavored Polar,
7. Cauliflower soared to new heights.
No vegetable had a better decade than cauliflower, which took advantage of its chameleon-like qualities to morph into anything we needed it to be. This decade ushered in the age of whole-roasted cauliflower, buffalo cauliflower, riced cauliflower, cauliflower smoothies, cauliflower tots, cauliflower tortillas, cauliflower latkes, cauliflower pizza crust, cauliflower gnocchi, cauliflower mashed “potatoes,” cauliflower grilled cheese, cauliflower FLOUR — we could go on.
8. Avocado toast nearly broke us.
Remember when that millionaire egregiously declared that if millennials ever want to be able to afford houses they should probably stop buying avocado toast? While very, very wrong about the fact that an entire generation’s obsession with avocado toast caused the millennial housing crisis, he was right, at least, about the avocado toast obsession part that swept the past decade. Luckily as we turn the corner into 2020, most of us have learned that it’s a lot cheaper to make avocado toast at home (and that it’s not really all that good in the first place — sorry).
Read More: This Is How Many Avocado Toasts It Costs to Buy a House
9. Meal Kits came on strong.
When they first hit the U.S. market, meal kits like Blue Apron (2012) and HelloFresh (2011) blew American grocery shoppers’ minds: A box that arrives on your doorstep with every ingredient you need to make a meal, perfectly packed and proportioned, plus instructions? Um, yes. After lots of initial hype, the meal kit sector was booming with new companies cropping up left and right, including Plated, Home Chef,
Purple Carrot
10. Plant-based proved to be best.
According to data from Mintel, the number of new food and drink products that included the term “plant-based” grew 268 percent between 2012 and 2018. The now-ubiquitous labeling term is meant to lure to carnivores and dairy-lovers (as opposed to just vegetarians and vegans) to healthier and more environmentally friendly options. A trip to the grocery store is all the evidence you need to prove this shift in our dietary preferences. Consumers want to know where their food comes from — and preferably that it’s derived from plants.
Please note that the timeline graph that leads this story is based on statistical information on when a certain term spiked on Google. It is NOT when the product was “invented.”