It can take a decade or longer for dishes to make their way from a handful of restaurant menus to grocery store shelves. Now, some food trends are moving more quickly, as diners seek out flavors that are new to them and packaged food marketers try to spot the next “it” dish.

People familiar with dishes such as Mapo tofu might have made Mapo beans to try something new during the pandemic, or a restaurant might put Cacio e pepe potatoes on the menu rather than making the pasta dish, said Claire Conaghan, associate director at Datassential, a food market research company.

“Food trends are, of course, moving faster than ever before,” Conaghan said on the latest episode of the “Marketer’s Brief” podcast.

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One dish that seems destined for an expanded audience in years to come is Congee, a rice porridge from Asia that could find its way to U.S. grocery stores as a frozen entree, Conaghan suggested. “It might not be called that, maybe it’s savory rice pudding, but something like that you might see in 10 or 15 years,” she said.

Flavors that started in specific dishes, such as Nashville hot chicken, expand into other categories. Conaghan's seen Nashville hot fish, as well as Nashville hot chicken, on pizza.

Elote is a quickly-growing comfort food term on menus, said Conaghan, who is seeing the combination of spices, mayonnaise and Cojita cheese appear beyond corn, such as on a cauliflower dish.

“This thing that was once a dish becomes a flavor because it makes it make more sense for different brands or different restaurants,” said Conaghan.

U.S. shoppers may begin seeing flavors inspired by Gobi Manchurian (gobi means cauliflower in Hindi) and Mapo tofu used on different foods. “Those two in particular, because they started with more of a plant-based trend, could have some interesting movement,” Conaghan said.

Conaghan also shared thoughts on comfort food. Some 44% of baby boomers think casserole is comforting, while only 16% of Gen Zers agree, according to data from Datassential.

This year, traditional dishes that might be comforting for holidays could get overhauled for a combination of reasons. Gatherings such as Thanksgiving still might not look the same as usual because of the pandemic, some go-to ingredients may be harder to find due to supply chain constraints and budding at-home cooks might update their family recipes. Someone who has had the same green bean casserole for years could try to include caramelized onion, Conaghan said.

“I think there’s some opportunity to veer and maybe even excitement to veer away from those traditional flavors,” Conaghan said. And if shortages mean the favorite brand or ingredient isn’t available, “embrace the opportunity,” she added.

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