Food Sustainability Trends for 2019

Each new year brings new trends in beauty, finance, fashion, sports and so on for the following 365 days, but what about trends in food sustainability? As the realities of waste and pollution continue to grab our attention, the support for and demand of sustainable practices continues to increase.

Circularity
One top trend for 2019 is the extension of sustainability from simply a product to a product’s entire lifecycle, meaning that all resources involved in the process of farm to retailer to fork to bin are in use as long as possible. This will require a lot of collaboration and cooperation between suppliers, manufacturers, governments, retailers, nonprofit organizations and consumers.

Recycling
Another trend deals with the next generation of responsible packaging, with an emphasis on the use of bio-based packaging materials. With an estimated 18 billion pounds of plastic waste entering the Earth’s oceans each year, major food companies are expected to adopt innovative changes in 2019. Aside from simply improving access to recycling, companies will be creating incentives for customers to recycle.

Emissions
Food is one of the most significant sources of heat trapping gas emissions, and food production accounts for more human-generated greenhouse gases than does transportation. Because of this, food production companies will face more scrutiny in the coming year regarding the reduction of their emissions.

Organic and plant-based foods
Organic food sales are expected to continue to rise in 2019 with a growing distribution via mass-market retailers. Another trend expected to grow in popularity: veganism. In the last five years, sales of meat-free foods in the UK alone have increased by 22 percent. With the introduction of fish-less fingers and chicken-less tenders under way, you can definitely count on seeing more plant-based product launches in retailers this year as consumers strive to diversify their diets.

The support for sustainable practices is incredibly important, which is why we should focus our attention on keeping perfectly good food out of landfills this year. Second Helpings Atlanta is devoted to fighting the effects of food waste through its work to rescue and deliver unused food. It only takes 90 minutes of your time to pick up excess food from one of SHA’s Food Donors and transport it to a Partner Agency. By donating $50 you would allow 318 pounds of food to be rescued, instead of taking up space ina landfill. Take part in what’s trending: keep food out of landfills and help make the world more sustainable this year.