A dozen major food trends for the new year

Watch 'em in 2005

1. McPlastic – The fast fooders find credit cards so successful that they’ll begin offering their own affinity cards. A McDonald’s Visa card with Ronald McDonald’s picture anyone? Or a Wendy’s MasterCard featuring the dearly departed Dave?

2. Grain – Whole grain, that is. After a half decade of being Atkinized out of favor, artisanal breads make a comeback touting the health benefits of whole grains. Pass a slice of the nine-grain “made with cracked whole wheat, rye and corn meal, oats, rye flour, soy grits, barley flakes, millet and flaxseed” bread please.

3. Soda – The diet variety will far surpass its high fructose cousins in total sales. A #3 super-sized with a Diet Coke will not trim the waist line, however, even if you use McPlastic. Is aspartame really better for you than corn syrup?

4. Juices - Fruit “drinks” that contain as little as 0% real juice will be “outted” as outrageous imposters, especially after the contents (odd ingredients like wood ester) are revealed. For those not in the juice or chewing gum business, wood ester is used as an emulsifier or stabilizer and it’s a close relative of pine tar.

5. Organics – Organics and “all natural” foods grab more and more shelf space as echo boomers, the newest generation of young adults who are replaying their grandparent’s hippy generation attitudes want to return to the romance of an agrarian society no one ever knew. A new pure food and drug act, anyone?

6. Cereality – It’s a back-to-the-fifties, comfort-food-for-breakfast concept that’s just finding its sea legs. Could it be the next Starbucks? Could Kellogg’s be any happier and why didn’t some bright light in Battle Creek come up with this idea in the first place?

7. Coffee – Speaking of Starbucks, after putting a coffee shop on every other street corner and in most of the Target stores in North America, they’ll finally hit the wall. Over-stored in most markets and facing stiffer competition from local mom and pops and regional chains like Gloria Jean’s Gourmet Coffee and Peet’s as well as a decline in overall consumption, they’ll put the brakes on U.S. expansion as their overseas stores start to take off.

8. Donuts – If the coffee craze hits the wall, can the donut craze that swept the country with the expansion of Krispy Kreme be far behind? No. KK with its accounting irregularities diverting management’s attention goes down hard. Dunkin’ Donuts weathers the KK marketing storm and survives nicely, thank you. Great cuppa joe there, too.

9. Food Pyramid – The USDA publishes an updated food pyramid which might not even be a pyramid this time. It satisfies no one in the food industry but everyone starts to introduce products that are at the top of whatever the new shape might be.

10. RFID – Driven by Wal-mart, Albertsons, Target and Britain's Tesco, all large marketers who want to pass some of their distribution costs back to the suppliers, RFID gets some traction and the food industry will rush to climb aboard a fast accelerating bandwagon.

11. Beverages – We’re a nation of hard-drinking caffeine lovers so what can possibly replace coffee, Red Bull and Mountain Dew? Teas and enhanced waters, that’s what. Had a cup of chai lately? This tea-based second cousin to a latte should hit it big this summer as a cold, refreshing, beat-the-heat drink. Pick up a cup at Starbucks, the tea store. Look for more “water, caffeine added” at your local supermarket, too.

12. FAT – Hardee’s started it with their Monster Thickburger, a full day’s supply of almost everything that’s bad for you in one enormous sandwich: 2/3 pound of certified Angus beef, three slices of American cheese, a half dozen slices of bacon, mayonnaise, butter-flavored shortening on a sesame seed bun that crushes the fat-o-meter at 1418 wide bodied calories. The food industry rediscovers the joys of serving their biggest consumers (pun absolutely intended}, switches to stealth mode and quietly tip-toes after an extremely lucrative market.