Happy Halloween! This year’s holiday will certainly look different, but I know I will be checking out the full moon, making my own chocolate peanut butter cups, and watching The Shining. Maybe you can find joy in creating a candy chute or developing your own candy delivering robot for trick-or-treaters. Or, you can spend some time catching up on food tech news like Tik Tok’s new food menu, biodegradable Bacardi bottles, Whole Foods’ predictions for new food trends, and adaptogen coffee pods.
Tik Tok partners with Postmates for “Creator’s Menu”
Tik Tok has skyrocketed in popularity amongst millennials this year, with the majority of its users between the ages of 16-24. To capitalize on this demographic, Tik Tok partnered with Postmates to create a menu of this year’s most popular food trends that millennials are salivating over. Available from October 28 to November 22, local restaurants in Los Angeles will be serving up their versions of whipped coffee, cloud bread, pancake cereal, and a bento box. These are the food trends on Tik Tok that have reached between 259 million to 3 billion hashtags. With the whipped coffee going for $7.50 and the bento box $20, this is a price only a millennial could justify.
Biodegradable Bacardi Bottles
Bacardi has started using bottles that look exactly like regular plastic, except for the fact that these bottles are apparently able to break down in the trash, both outside and in the ocean. The material used to make the bottle is called polyhydroxyalkanoate (PHA), and its main component is canola oil. Danimer Scientific, which makes this material, feeds canola oil (which contains carbon dioxide that was stored in the plant) to bacteria. The bacteria then turns this into PHA, which is extracted to make plastic-like products. Companies like Nestlé and PepsiCo are also using this material for packaging.
Whole Food predicts food trends of 2021
Whole Foods released its annual food predictions for the upcoming year, and it should come as no surprise that plant-based foods are a trend that is predicted to continue on an upward trajectory next year. Healthy baby food, chickpea-based foods, vegetable jerky, and upcycled foods are some on the list. Out of all the predictions made, my personal favorite is alcoholic kombucha.
Adaptogenic, compostable coffee pods from Hong Kong
Hong Kong-based Beams Coffee combines the trends of gourmet coffee and adaptogens in its compostable pods. Adaptogens are plants and herbs that are supposed to help the body combat stressors, and Beams Coffee uses medicinal mushrooms like Cordyceps, Lion’s mane, Reishi, and Tremella. These mushrooms are paired with specialty coffee from Sydney and Melbourne and come in pods that are 95 percent sugarcane-based. The coffee pods are available in four varieties including beauty, mind, energy, and immunity, and are compatible with the Nespresso maker.
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