British cuisine and sustainability top food and drink trends for 2022

According to Bidfood, which surveyed 1,502 UK consumers, Brits are also looking to treat themselves when out of home such as having decadent desserts as well as experiencing experimental style dining and activities.

Health is another trend set to continue into next year and Bidfood cited data, which found eight in 10 people are consciously looking for menus with healthy options when eating out and about a quarter would go elsewhere if they didn’t see any healthy options.

Experimental food choices

Consumers were also asked what they were doing to be healthier and 37% were drinking lower calorie or lower sugar drinks, 53% calorie count or check sugar content and a third (33%) were limiting alcohol consumption.

Furthermore, more than half (56%) of UK adults are deciding where to eat based on the venue’s stance on sourcing British products and the majority (86%) choose British cuisine more often than they did in 2019.

In addition, continuing travel restrictions has resulted in consumers being more experimental with food choices.

Creativity scope

Six in 10 people are choosing venues that offer new and interesting cuisines. Bidfood outlined some of these that are gaining traction including Peruvian, Scandinavian, Burmese, Pacific Rim and Filipino.

Bidfood head of corporate marketing and insight Catherine Hinchcliff said: “This year we’re excited to see that the food and drink trends surfacing are all about adventure and experience, giving chef’s lots of scope for creativity. Unsurprisingly, consumers are looking for something a bit special on menus to look forward to, balanced against a clear desire to live a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle.

“For our 2022 trends, we’ve worked with CGA to run our own exclusive research, which not only surveys consumers, but also draws from the opinions of food influencers, as well as a Futurist. This means that we can help customers look further ahead, and future proof their menus."