Food trends for 2017: Watermelon juice & veg yoghurts

Next year, Britons are going to be snacking on Hawaiian raw fish salad and American-style vegetable…

Next year, Britons are going to be snacking on Hawaiian raw fish salad and American-style vegetable yoghurts, while quenching their thirst with watermelon juice, reports The Guardian.

The predicted new eating trends are contained in an annual survey of how Britons shop, eat and cook which lists the food fads of 2016 as churros, seeds, seaweed and Asian steamed buns.

The report, conducted by Waitrose among shoppers who use all supermarkets, also reveals that a third of those aged 18 to 34 regularly post pictures of their meals on social media.

The fourth annual report, published on Wednesday 2 Nov, is based on millions of transactions in shops and online, bolstered by a poll of 2,000 adults of all ages and supported by sessions with focus groups.

The UK may be in the grip of a national obesity crisis but according to Waitrose, eating healthily has become mainstream – though consumers appear to have ditched traditional calorie-counting. Instead, shoppers are opting for naturally lighter and fresher food than they did five years ago. An 18% jump in aubergine sales this year, says the supermarket, is the result of shoppers substituting them for “carbs” such as lasagne sheets or roasting them as “chips”.

Healthy chia seeds and grains (including ready-prepared grain bags), coconut flour, cactus water – a berry-tasting low-sugar alternative to fruit juice – and seaweed and a “veggan” diet (vegan but including eggs) all emerged as top food trends of 2016.

For next year the retailer is tipping more unlikely items such as cold-pressed watermelon juice – which in the US has the star backing of Beyoncé, who recently bought a stake in the WTRMLN WTR brand. Vegetable yoghurts flavoured with carrot, beetroot, sweet potato and tomato are also expected to be a big new seller.

Despite their obsession with social media and the appearance of food, Britons have also embraced “conscious” consumption, snapping up wonky or sub-standard vegetables and making better use of freezers to store food.