Menu Trends

  • Health, environmental consciousness driving plant-based demand

    June 28, 2022
    Consumers’ physical health goals and concerns about the environment continue to be the leading factors in driving demand for plant-based food. That’s according to the new “2022 Plant-Forward Opportunity” report from Datassential in collaboration with The Culinary Institute of America, Food for Climate League, and the Menus of Change University Research Collaborative. The research found that more than one in five (21 ...
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  • Revealing Canada’s top trending international cuisines

    June 23, 2022
    Canada is a notoriously multi-cultural country, and that is certainly reflected in the international cuisines that are on offer from coast to coast. Online restaurant reservations provider OpenTable has revealed its 2022 list of Canada’s top trending international cuisines. With Canada’s population growth and cultural diversity, it comes as no surprise that 136 types of international cuisines are ...
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  • What is Canada’s most wanted menu in mid-2022?

    June 20, 2022
    By Vince Sgabellone Canadian consumers have shifted the way in which they access and consume from a restaurant menu over the past two years. How they place orders, why they choose to eat out, where they consume their meals, and who is consuming. And what about the “what”? Have Canadians changed what they have been eating? The ...
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  • Breakfast pizza trending highly as daypart rebounds

    June 15, 2022
    Breakfast took a big hit during the last two years of the pandemic, but it appears the daypart is rebounding slowly but surely. With so many people moving out of the office on a temporary or permanent basis, consumer traffic at breakfast fell drastically after the onset of the pandemic, with people increasingly sourcing breakfast at ...
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  • Concepts to Watch: La Cubana, Goodfellas, Dineen Coffee

    June 10, 2022
    By Katie Belflower A bold and decisive restaurant branding and concept are important for success. Every month, with Technomic’s Concepts to Watch, we highlight three restaurants that demonstrate this across the country. This month, the focus is on Ontario, with Toronto Cuban restaurant La Cubana, southern Ontario pizzeria Goodfellas, and Toronto coffee company Dineen spotlighted. Source: La Cubana ...
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  • Guess who’s coming to dinner? (Plus breakfast and lunch)

    May 29, 2022
    By Asad Amin No, this title is not the opening to a classic Sidney Poitier remake, although one does exist. It regards the new diner who visits restaurants after a two-year hiatus. It’s not that nobody ordered from foodservice through the pandemic, but considering our lives are very different now than in 2019, there are significant behavioural ...
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  • How is restaurant chains’ recovery manifesting?

    May 24, 2022
    You’ll have heard this before by now, but the pandemic has changed the restaurant industry forever. Datassential’s fourth annual Firefly 500+ restaurant report highlights many of these core shifts, such as restaurant chains focusing on key markets and unit growth rather than simply sales. The food industry market research and insights company’s Samantha Des Jardins recently ...
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  • Technomic experts highlight the 5 Ps of menu innovation

    May 24, 2022
    At the US National Restaurant Association Show last week, experts from Technomic offered advice on how to best tailor a menu to encompass trending flavours and combinations and appeal to consumers’ desire to try new things when dining out. Ultimately, the conclusion was that menu innovation doesn’t require a huge menu overhaul if new options ...
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  • Plant-based meals are now a menu must-have

    May 17, 2022
    By Riana Topan The skyrocketing interest in plant-based meals has moved the industry from a “trend” to a global movement, and the growing market shows no signs of slowing down. Canadian consumers have demonstrated a consistent appetite for plant-based options, especially plant-based proteins, in recent years, with over 6.4 million people reducing or eliminating their meat consumption. Moreover, ...
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  • Should menus display food’s carbon footprint information?

    May 16, 2022
    What should a good menu include? The names and prices of dishes are a given, and other menus often display other details such as a description, dietary information such as calories, and the source of local products. But what about food’s carbon footprint? A team of researchers at Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg in Germany are ...
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  • Why cooking oil could cause surging menu prices

    May 16, 2022
    Restaurants are already grappling with numerous crises that are causing pressures on menu prices, from climate change to the lasting effects of COVID-19 to the devastating effects of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on food production. In recent months, cooking oil has been adding to the maelstrom. Global cooking oil prices have been rising since the ...
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  • Canadian foodservice’s midterm trend report

    May 12, 2022
    By Katie Belflower At the start of the year, amid what was still significant COVID-19-related turmoil and evolving restrictions and operations, Technomic mapped out a predicted trend report for the Canadian foodservice industry. Now, five months into 2022 and after so much has changed (again) in the industry and beyond, Technomic has compared its new year predictions ...
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  • Bowl value meals & spicy sauces trending; take-home meals, cheese declining: Technomic

    May 6, 2022
    Technomic’s latest Ignite Canadian menu data report found that while the like of bowl value meals, spicy sauces, and lighter alcoholic beverages are trending strongly year over year, cheese and straight spirits have notably declined. The Ignite data noted declining overall year-over-year counts in entrees (-4 per cent), appetizers (-2 per cent), and sides (-5 per ...
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  • Diners expect smaller portion sizes as inflation continues

    May 5, 2022
    A new survey from back-of-house restaurant management software company MarketMan has found that three-quarters of Americans believe restaurants will cut down on portion sizes as inflation continue. Responding to the survey, 74 per cent of Americans said they think operators will manage increasing food costs by cutting portion sizes while charging customers the same price, and ...
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  • Trend Watch: Sake kasu, amba, devil’s club

    April 28, 2022
    By Katie Belflower Our latest edition of Trend Watch with Technomic highlights three menu trends that are being seen across Canada right now, and how Canadian restaurants are utilizing them to unique and great effect on their menus. Sake kasu Japanese paste-like condiment sake kasu is derived from the sake brewing process. Since it is a by-product of ...
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