Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Meat Moves Over -- US Food Trends

Caterer Search, a hospitality industry website, has an article today about the steady rise in demand for meat-free options in eating establishments around the US. Unfortunately, many of the chefs quoted cite using oodles of cheese in their meat-free menu items, but not all of them. It's still quite interesting to read something like this on a trade website. The focus seems to be on the overall greater healthiness of meat-free options, as well as on the increasing diversity available as they're offered up on menus around the US. There are statistics on vegetarianism and references to the many reasons some people shun animal products, as well as the reasons some are now seeking to limit their consumption of them. It presents the trend in a completely positive light, which is good to see.

2 comments:

J said...

I'm going to check out that article. It is nice to see that people are starting to move away from meat. I was touched the other day when a local blogger - who tries to eat as local as possible, and for him that means A LOT of animal products - sent me an email saying he and his family had tried a vegetarian pumpkin gnocchi recipe and they all loved it, even without meat.

I've been happy to see the rise in vegetarian options at restaurants, I hope the trend continues. We have such a health and obesity problem in this country that eating less meat simply for health reasons would be a good idea.

M said...

I keep stumbling across articles by food writers here and there about how the vegetarian or vegan "fads" are over, but then I'll see something from the food industry itself that states the opposite.

One of the things I find unfortunate about vegetarian options at most restaurants is that they're still generally drowning in cheese or still based around refined carbs (e.g. Asian dishes on rice noodles or white rice, pasta dishes). That's starting to change too, though.