Eating trends come and go at speed, but one trend which has remained constant in recent years is the healthy eating trend inside and outside the home.
This is not only limited to the rise of the ‘free-from’ trend (gluten free, lactose free, alcohol free) or the reduced salt, reduced sugar, and reduced fat alternatives that abound. There’s also a fundamental shift in the kind of dishes and the openness consumers have to new styles of eating. And Asian fusion dishes are playing a big role.
It’s no surprise that Poke, which started appearing in top food trends around the world in 2015, is topping charts today. Interest has peaked every summer since 2015 and as of January 2018 global interest was more than 17 times higher than in 2016.
In many ways Poke has all the ingredients to make it a top healthy eating trend. With a lot of similar flavour profiles to sushi, Poke is an easy to understand and easy to reproduce dish at home.
There’s a familiarity with dishes such as sashimi, ceviche and tartare and in its latest iteration as the Poke Bowl, there are many similarities to chirashidon, Buddha bowl, chipotle burrito bowl and Korean bimbimbap. People feel confident in recognizing something familiar, yet still keep a sense of newness and discovery.
Key to Poke’s success as a healthy eating trend is its freshness, the quick preparation approach and the creativity people bring to making their own versions and combining their own favourite elements. No strict recipe to follow and plenty of freedom make Poke fun and flexible.
If you’d like to find out more about our experience in food trends, contact Rob.