It is officially the Christmas season. Unless you’ve been living underneath a rather large rock recently, you’ll know that coffee shop chains have started adding seasonal syrups to their drinks and one well-known British retailer has launched their annual festive advert to (as usual) widespread acclaim.

But before you know it, Christmas is out of the way and the New Year is upon us. The past twelve months has seen the avocado rise to prominence, the continued growth of pop-up stalls and street food vendors, and it has been the year when plates (literally) went out of the window in favour of shovels, sinks and terracotta plant pots.

So what’s going to be big in 2016? What trends are going to take the industry by storm and, importantly, what will consumers want?

We’ve taken a look around, gazed into a crystal ball, and come up with a few predictions.

Back to Basics – Again

Instead of looking forward, many of the biggest food trends this year have been inspired by the past. From ancient grains that have been resurrected to become supermarket and restaurant best-sellers through to paleo-inspired diets and diners, there’s been an upturn in historical ingredients and menus recently.

We predict that this momentum will continue. Mintel’s analyst Jenny Zegler has indicated that more and more consumers are taking an interest in historical ingredients and while we might not see Tudor-style takeaways or Baroque burger joints, but don’t be surprised to see stripped down meals populate menus in 2016.

#foodporn

Whether you love it or loathe it, customers are (still) taking photos of their food and sharing it across a number of social platforms.

Food presentation has always been an important aspect of the dining experience, but with the rise of Instagram and other similar applications we’re predicting that chefs are going to devote more and more attention to the visual appeal of their handiwork.

As a nation, we’re increasingly eating with our eyes and we like to make our friends green with envy, so we recommend that you get creative and serve up an experience with a visual wow factor.

Brinner

A survey found that nine out of ten Americans eat breakfast for dinner, with over half doing so at least once a month and many respected food bloggers and trendsetters have predicted that brinner will be big in 2016.

Unfortunately for our friends across the Pond, with our All Day Breakfasts we’ve been leading the way with this trend for decades without realising it!

Brinner, however, won’t all be about portions of sausages, bacon and black pudding. As Mareya Ibrahim explains, it’s all about eggs:

“Eggs are a great form of inexpensive protein and fat and offer endless menu options.  You can add in crab or smoked salmon and enjoy it with a glass of white wine for dinner, or you can offer savoury zucchini crepes with a light ricotta filling and topped with a roasted tomato sauce for a new take on an Italian specialty.”

As well as eggs, crepes and waffles are also becoming increasingly popular and like many traditional breakfast-centric items they are high margin products that can really help caterers increase profits.

Community

Darren Tristano of the food consultancy firm Technomic has pointed out that many high growth areas and enterprises are all ingrained to their local communities.

At a simple level, this could be a coffee shop offering a free platform to local musicians, or a restaurant running a charitable campaign to support nearby schools and nonprofit groups. But you could tailor your menu to showcase regional specialities and add certain dishes that can be made solely from locally sourced ingredients.  Rhubarb curries for the rhubarb triangle, for example…