Food for thought: All the new food trends to watch out for this year

What will characterise this year's food trends? Whether it is Scandi producers growing exotic ingredients, vegan caviar or a new obsession for 'newstalgia', there's lots of changes afoot this year when it comes to cuisine. These are the ones to keep an eye on:

One trend derived from the uncertain times is creativity and a boost of new ways of thinking – also in the kitchen. Frugality will boost creativity in the fields where we are already in a transition. We know we need to eat less meat, more greens, more climate conscious and more locally produced. The crisis will reinforce those trends.

During the Second World War, a wide range of food substitute products was seen. The phenomenon will reappear big-time this year. The difference from the war substitutes is that this time they will be of a completely different quality, and they won't be considered them second class. Get ready for chocolate made from beer production residues, cakes from materials normally used for animal feed and ice-cream and other 'dairies' made from old bread.

In times of crisis, people look back with nostalgia, thinking that everything was better in the good old days. That goes for food too – and calming ourselves with food is a classic. That means we'll see plenty of food, recipes and dishes with familiar tastes that recall childhood and good, safe times: pizza, warm buns with butter or cheese (this is inevitable in Copenhagen, called the 'BMO': bolle med ost), mashed potatoes, meat balls, simmered dishes and pasta galore, classic cakes and desserts like chocolate mousse and homemade loaf cakes.

Dishes that unite the family and gather everybody around the table. If the nostalgic food is interpreted in a new context, you’ll probably hear about the term 'newstalgia'.

It has already been gaining traction, but the low- and no-alcohol drinking scene is going to explode. We will see more non/low alcohol bars pop up and the sober curious movement gain terrain. Nordic wines and ciders with great freshness and low alcohol percentage compared to wine from more sunny regions will have wind in their sails.

A derived tendency of nostalgic cooking is, of course, comfort food. When things are getting hard, we don’t need a complicated diet or a whole lot of rules, we just need something soothing, the food equivalent of a warm blanket wrapped around us. And here it’s worth mentioning: carbs are back in business. The comfort food movement will especially manifest itself during and before feasts and holidays. The Swedes have even invented a new occasion for worshiping traditions with Novent, where November is turned into one long prelude to Christmas.

Convenience is nothing new, but it’ll be affected by megatrends like sustainability and health, that will change the requirements for takeaway and other food solutions. The packaging will change radically, so by the end of the year you might be able to eat that too.

Classical dining is so last year, and casualness is the new fine dining. The food – whether served at home for guests or at a restaurant – should be careless and sloppy, yet beautiful and delicious. Think curly linen tablecloths and Italian family long table vibes. After years of pressure and incarceration, we're going all in on colour and imagination to compensate for what has been difficult and uncertain – and still is.

Visually, at least, there is no doubt that there is light ahead. The food will be more colourful than we've ever seen it and no chef will neglect aesthetics, texture and tactility. That's why you can rest assured that the extended Mediterranean cuisine – food from what we might call the 'pomegranate belt' – is here to stay: any dish you can sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, pistachios and some fresh herbs is a winner.

What happens when you mix a whole lot of pent-up joy of travelling, a heightened awareness of sustainability, maybe a bit of flight shame and a love of local? A desire to invite the world into your kitchen and make global food with local produce. We will see Scandi producers growing exotic ingredients, quirky fusion cuisines and wonderful mashups. Prepare yourself for Nordic-Japanese, French-Peruvian or Italian-Mexican.

A significant focus will be placed on reducing animal protein intake and figuring out vegan alternatives to fish. The plant-based trend is not new, but we'll be seeing more of it. And we will not compromise when it comes to taste and deliciousness.

A greater focus on making our food sustainable not only for the planet, but also for our bodies pushes the industry to think differently. Classic dishes are given a new vegan interpretation, the whole rethinking of the meat-centric meal, substituting protein from alternative sources will continuously be a thing this year. Food that can meet our demands for taste, health and sustainability will be big and thus seaweed and kelp farms, producing everything from vegan caviar to seaweed salt, are popping up all over Scandinavia. This is a superfood we will be seeing a whole lot more of.