5 Things We're All Going to Eat in 2021

There's a running joke in my family that my Grandma Sally would talk about what she wanted for dinner while she was eating breakfast. Never content to focus on the meal in front of her, she loved food and cooking so much she was always thinking ahead to what's next. I guess I inherited a little bit of that because I'm not just thinking about dinner, but a whole year's worth of food at once!

Without further ado, let's get to the trends.

1. SPICY-HOT EVERYTHING

Aside from the general mental health desire to feel something (seriously, spicy foods increase endorphins and dopamine which we all need right now), spicy food has been rising in trendiness. You might remember when everything was sriracha flavored a few years back - we're going beyond that in 2021 with more emphasis on everything spicy. Of course, new and hotter hot sauces will come onto market, especially with international flair. From hot honey on pizza (and, well, everything) to hot pepper jelly to extreme hot wings, 2021 will be a year steam comes out our collective ears.

2. HOME PRESERVES

Step back, bread-baking, a new vintage hobby is in town: home preserving. Going far beyond grandma's jams and jellies (which are still popular with new hobbyists, leading to the mason jar shortage of 2020), the new generation of home preservers are smoking jerky (once just a venison hunter's hobby, folks are now buying meat to preserve), fermenting everything that will pickle or bubble, dehydrating veggie chips and fruit leathers, and even dabbling in homebrewing beer, country wine, ciders and meads.

3. MORE INTERESTING CITRUS

Here in Missouri, I look forward to the brief time every December when my local grocer gets such ~exotic~ citrus as blood oranges and pink grapefruit and one sad singular Buddha's hand citron (I'm not crying, you're crying). Citrus flavors, fresh or bottled, are exploding onto the scene. While us midwesterners may have been fooled into thinking there are only a few citrus flavors, the rest of the world is coming to enlighten us (finally). Forget plain old orange soda, this is the rise of yuzu seltzer.

4. HERITAGE FOODS

Other folks are calling this category "international foods" or even "vacation foods" (looking at you Today) but I really think the roots are much deeper than sampling foreign flavors like a taste tourist. All this time at home, with new home-based hobbies like baking bread, gardening and canning, people are developing not just an appreciation, but a deep longing for cultural and ancestral heritage ties. We're going to see more foods with roots in black culture, more meat smoking and braising techniques used by Native Americans, more authentic regional Mexican ingredients with less adaptations to suburban Tex-Mex. (Hopefully all that will be welcomed with open arms and not subject to the demonizing of POC cultural offerings as "unhealthy" despite often being packed full of veggies... a girl can dream.)

5. SUSTAINABLE & FAIR TRADE OFFERINGS (HOPEFULLY)

If anything, 2020 highlighted how much we're all in this (gestures vaguely at everything) together. Despite hope of an ended pandemic, we're still very much still on this rapidly-climate-changing planet together and we're all seeing the effects of oppression, both global and homegrown, which will not easily be forgotten. ADM reports 65% of consumers want their groceries to be environmentally friendly, the biggest percentage yet. This next year is going to increase consumer focus on how our food (including spices!) is made, who it's made by (plus how humane their workplace is and if they're paid enough to live), and what that's doing to the Earth.

BONUS: Trends that will just keep growing

"Superfoods" from the sea like sea moss and kelp. Charcuterie boards for every theme, far beyond the cured meat and cheese platters of yore. Botanical (herbal and floral) flavors, especially in drinks and desserts. Gourmet raw and wild honey for both foodies and new age aficionados (maybe backyard beekeeping will be the next hobby boom?). Flexitarian options like sausage augmented with veggies and generally just stretching meat with more affordable ingredients. Meatless substitutes like vegan jerky going mainstream. Carob substituted for chocolate as a beauty superfood (vegan collagen! double trend). Homemade popsicles ('nuff said).

Whatever else may happen, 2021 is shaping up to look like quite a delicious year.

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Andi Kahclamat lives and breathes food and agriculture. She has visited farms, farmer's markets, restaurants and grocery stores in 30 states of the United States, plus Mexico, the Middle East and Africa. She has been quoted on industry topics by Forbes, Mashable, US News & World Report, Los Angeles Times, Sydney Morning Herald, and dozens more. Andi lives in Kansas City with her husband, three pets and far too many plants.