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In Focus: Foodservice & Social Media

Beverage Trends, Breakfast Trends, Consumer Insights, Dessert Trends, Food Trends, Foodservice, Global Flavors, Innovation, Menu Trends, Restaurants

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Like food and beverage trends and social media? Make sure you follow along because you’re really going to ‘like’ what’s to come about how social media shapes current food trends.

Platforms like Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube create visually-driven spaces where food can become an art form. Viral food content not only captivates the public’s attention but also encourages them to try new items, often propelling these concepts into mainstream menus. However, the fleeting nature of social media can make it hard to differentiate a long-lasting trend from a momentary fad.

But how can food and beverage professionals predict whether a new food or flavor is in fact a trend or just a short-lived fad? How do you know what will stand the test of time, and be worth the investment to put it on a menu?

The secret: Embracing data. And safe experimentation.

Data is the key to telling you whether a food or beverage trend on social media indicates it will be here for the long term – and also what consumers think of them.

New to Datassential’s 2024 TrendSpotting suite of publications is Social Media Sensations, a publication developed for clients to get a real-time pulse on what’s trending on social media, and see how it could have far-reaching applications beyond the small (phone) screen.

Each issue, released bi-monthly, showcases the latest foods and beverages to go “viral” on social media, includes data from consumers (have you heard of this item? how interested are you in trying it?), and highlights the social media trends that have been transformed into “IRL” (In Real Life) menu items and retail products.

Datassential subscribers can follow the full list of items we’ve covered so far, but below is a small sampling on a few, along with a peek at how they rank on #TheIndex, created as a way to showcase how each social media food or beverage fares in consumer interest compared to all of the items we’ve tested to date (now nearly 70). The higher #TheIndex number, the better it could perform on your menu or product line.

This article will be updated regularly as new issues are published and the latest in viral food and beverage trends is revealed. See below for more information on how to get a copy of the reports.

#TheIndex

SOCIAL MEDIA
SENSATION
WHAT IT IS INTEREST
IN TRYING
INDEX
Smashburger Tacos Ground beef smashed onto a tortilla, cooked until crisp. Topped with classic burger toppings and eaten like a taco 46% 94
Chocolate Strawberry Cup Sliced strawberries layered in a cup and topped with melted chocolate 45% 93
Scrambled Pancakes Pancake cooked like scrambled eggs, yielding crispy funnel-like pieces 44% 92
Dubai Chocolate Bar A chocolate bar filled with pistachio, tahini and crispy bits of knafeh 43% 91
Croissant Egg Tarts A croissant and Chinese egg tart mashup (croissant filled with sweet egg custard) 39% 86
Pastina Italian soup made with chicken stock, tiny pasta, butter, cheese, and egg 38% 84
Brie Butter Equal parts brie cheese and butter and used as a condiment or spread 38% 78
Brazilian Lemonade Frozen lemonade blended with sweetened condensed milk and whole limes 34% 72
Cajun Onion Boil Hollowed-out whole onions stuffed with butter and Cajun seasonings and baked in foil 35% 70

Renee Lee Wege is a Trendologist and Senior Publications Manager at Datassential.

The Social Media Sensations reports that feature these items above, are available only to subscribers, who can find this and hundreds of other presentation-ready reports in Datassential’s vast research and insights library. For more information or to become a subscriber, reach out here