Food of the Future

Today's trends may be predictors of what will be the foods of the future. One scientific trend is molecular gastronomy, which at its core is the transformation of food via science, quite often for entertainment value. Foods are also being transformed in the farmer's field, where new varietals of fruits and vegetables such as the pluot (a cross between a plum and an apricot) are being grown. When certain foods that once were abundant but are now becoming less so (such as many fish species), other foods need to take their place. Such is recent vogue in jellyfish as food. Another current trend is eating healthy, such as eating foods that contain omega-3, probiotics and prebiotics. Nestlé would like to take it as far as personalizing its food to the individual needs of each and every person it feeds. Bloggers are gaining influence in the culinary world, they who have a mass audience of people just like them. But celebrity chefs have even more influence as witnessed by what Jamie Oliver has been able to achieve in transforming the way Britons eat. And with more and more people moving to cities and space becoming an issue, vertical farming - growing food in skyscrapers - may be the wave of the food future.