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Something not discussed is long term food fads. You could get me to eat pop tarts and pizza rolls in the 80s because they were new. I knew they were bad, but
by VLM 11y ago
Something not discussed is long term food fads. You could get me to eat pop tarts and pizza rolls in the 80s because they were new. I knew they were bad, but new and interesting enough to try. Pizza rolls in 2015? Dude I was eating those when Reagan was president, boring, try my homemade carnitas instead. Unfortunately I go food shopping every week, and there isn't anything processed that is interesting enough for me to try for a couple years. I'm always looking for something interesting, but there isn't anything new.
Specifically, I'm claiming processed foods follow a fad trajectory, unlike, say, apples or steak, and fad trajectory shows natural decay over time, and there simply are no new processed food fads that are gaining traction.
The closest thing I can find to a current processed food fad, is about a year ago there was an attempt to push greek yogurt into freaking everything, but that seems to have failed. A few years ago there was a push for ready to eat rice on shelf stable bags, but that kind of rice tasted like contaminated styrofoam so I only bought it a couple times.
Its hard to believe but just a few decades ago things like frozen pizza, hot pockets, and pop tarts were new and vibrant food fads. What we call processed food in 2015 was actually NEW in maybe the 80s. There just isn't anything new anymore.
- saboot 11y agoThere are definitely industry wide food fads. Thinking recently we had added protein in everything, the pretzel bun craze, and for a brief period mango flavoring was offered in several chains suddenly. I didn't save the comment but I had read a user discussing previously that these are usually introduced at industry events and conferences to businesses looking for the next 'new' thing
- mdm_ 11y agoI've noticed, at least here in Canada, there's been this real push with avacado over the last two years. Subway seems to be the biggest pusher, but I've seen all kinds of other advertising about avacado, which previously had been this sort of weird fruit they'd stock in small quantities at the grocery store, and which I'd never seen anyone eat.
- dneronique 11y ago> I'm always looking for something interesting, but there isn't anything new. Agreed. There's been a shift where the focus isn't on introducing new products. Instead, focus has been on expanding the options within already established items. Eg. more flavors of chips, more types of hummus, different sizes of the same products, gluten free/HMO/low sugar versions, etc. Have you been in the cereal section lately? There are about 10 flavors of frosted mini wheats. Part of this trend could be that consumers are facing severe decision fatigue and end up opting for simpler (and in most cases cheaper) products.