Top 7 Food Trends to Watch for in 2022

Here’s the Top 7 food trends to watch for in 2022. At Alberta Food Tours we keep our fingers on the pulse of food news and here’s what we think you’ll be seeing, eating and drinking this year.

1. Alcohol free cocktails and beverage.  This trend came on strong the last few years and will continue as local spirit and beer producers expand into the ever-growing market on non-alcoholic beverages and mocktails. We love Village Brewery‘s CR*FT, Partake and One for the Road’s line of non-alcoholic beers.  From IPA, Blonde and Stouts, there’s a flavour for everyone.
2. Nostalgic food items.  We’ve already seen re-birth of the espresso martini in recent months.  Grubhub’s 2022 Forecast predicts trends based on rising orders using their food delivery app. They foresee that several of the top five dishes fall under the nostalgia umbrella, including apple cobbler and tater tots.
3. Hyper local stores. With the supply chain issues of 2021 still fresh in our minds, there’s an increase in shoppers seeking independent grocers and markets to but as much local as they can.
4. Smaller dining menus.  Restaurants have been hit hard over the past two years. First with shutdowns and lower in-person dining, and now with lingering supply chain issues, higher food costs, and a strained labor force. Restaurants, also looking to source as close to home, will mean smaller menus driven by decreased choices in products.
5. Market style food halls.  With an excess of commercial space and the continued demand for grab and go style dining, Food Halls are booming.  Calgary’s First Street Market Urban Food Hall and Bar and Edmonton’s 5^th Street Food Hall Just Cook Kitchens are two of our favourite openings.
6. Focus on soil. With 50% of the planet’s soil already degraded, the threat of soil extinction is real.  The U.N. Food an Agriculture Organizations’ theme for this year is to halt soil salinization and there is a worldwide movement called Conscious Planet – Save Soil. We encourage you to read and learn about this rising movement.
7. Growing and preserving. As we become more aware of ‘food miles’ and the concern about our carbon footprint, the grow-your-own movement is on the rise. A recent statistic is that 80% of millennials garden to produce their own food.  There is greater understanding of the importance of soil, growing produce in urban or rural spaces, and keeping what has been grown year-round with classic culinary art of canning and preserving.  This trend will only GROW over the next decade.