Scanning the changing food environment is interesting but sometimes scary. Note this: Is the future of food the future we want? It describes the future of food while at a (wait for it) ’Food on Demand’ conference. And consider retail grocery’s digital personalization strategy: to customize the shopper experience and take meal planning off the shopper’s plate. Lastly, the food environment is changing with regard to the number of U.S. dairy farms – they’re declining. Read about more food environment changes…
Social media…
TikTok’s new community guidelines bans information promoting disordered eating but doesn’t address calorie restriction, excessive exercising or fasts/cleanses; this writer wonders how/if this will qualitatively change TikTok. And in the ‘we could have seen this coming’ file…Denny’s debuts menu items influenced by Tik Tok stars available through June 21.
Tracking the consumer/buying more…
QR codes have ‘issues’..they track consumers and may be risky to scan. Food subscriptions give companies customer data and promote loyalty: 7-11 offers a subscription; Taco Bell’s subscription – members visit more often and buy more .
Grocery stores…
Target tests adding Starbucks orders to grocery order; joins DoorDash app. Delivery of prepared meals from select grocery stores via the Ready Meals Hub within the Instacart app – users ordered more frequently and added more items to orders. Walmart’s 24/7 InHome delivery (direct to your kitchen or garage when you’re not home) in select Florida locations. Some online food packages don’t have nutritional and other nutrition information – nutrition information appeared, on average, 36.5% of the time across products and retailers in this study; the journal article. Do you think it’s easy to sell food online? Even big name brands find it daunting to navigate the different online requirements of grocers – including differing formats, word counts, descriptors, images, definitions of terms such as vegan, and more.
The metaverse…
Fast food and the metaverse…it’s coming: McDonald’s and Chipotle have filed trademarks. Haven’t heard of Roblox amid all the focus on the metaverse? Maybe you should – more than half are under 13 years of age.
Food/food waste…
Caffeinated doughnuts that are bigger and have about the amount of caffeine found in a cup of coffee arrive. Starting January 2022 California food retailers are required to donate surplus edible food they would have thrown away to food banks or other food distribution organizations. Others, like schools, hotels, and restaurants have until 2024 to comply. Vermont has already passed such a law.
Miscellaneous…
Stars and former government officials are increasingly on the boards of food tech companies such as animal-free dairy and cell-based meat companies. Consumers will get a lot more information about the foods they eat by 2027 when a new barcode replaces the current UPC (Universal Product Code) barcode which is data-heavy – the current UPC bar code can hold up to 48 characters, the 2D ones can hold up to 7,000. Canadian doctors can prescribe free park passes. Food mascots: they convince us to spend and spend more. Chipotle to link executive compensation to environmental goals and goals such as increasing diversity. Track the supply chain with this dashboard.