Cross-country road trips and group hikes in the woods have replaced flat screen TVs and treadmills on gift lists. Now, food and beverage companies are catering toward this new demand for experiences by promising to make products more “tactile.” That means that visually-enticing trends like unicorn lattes, charcoal lemonade and blue algae acai bowls are just the start on this voyage to food play.
[See: 7 Ways Grocery Shopping Will Change in 2017.]
The next stop? Sound and texture. Acoustics are no longer reserved for background dinner tunes, now — thanks to eating practices like slurping, chewing, nibbling, crunching, swishing and crinkling — eaters can create more memorable multi-sensory experiences with their food. For brands and restaurants, this opens up an opportunity to help consumers create musical memories. While for consumers, this could present deeper, more satisfying eating experiences.
While tactile foods may be giving it a twist, psychological marketing is nothing new. This type of selling has been a brand tactic for decades. But chains like Pokeworks, Juice Generation and Sweetgreen are proving just how marketable (and financially lucrative) tactile foods are.
Think of the poke bowl franchise, for example, which is offering sushi lovers bowls filled with a variety of textures and colors. Carrots and raw tuna. Sprouts and yellowtail. Seaweed and mango. Scallops and cucumber. Together, the oranges, pinks, greens and whites are like paints on a canvas. Meanwhile, the slimy, crunchy, squiggly and squirty textures add to the oral overload. Even salad bar franchises are popping up and showing how unique presentations and combinations like spinach and soba noodles, wild rice and avocado, Parmesan crisps and tomatoes and marinated mushrooms and beets are changing the fast-food landscape.
[See: 8 Food Combinations to Embrace (and 3 to Avoid).]
In that way, tactile foods are as much about the individual foods themselves (for example, a cantaloupe cut into a variety of shapes) as they are about color and texture blending. Making food a sensory experience is what Phil Lempert, known as the Supermarket Guru, predicts will help ground consumers in an era of food information overload.
For the past few decades, consumers have been provided an overwhelming amount of resources to learn how food affects their health and well-being; they absorb information on the internet, on social media, in magazines, everywhere. This nonstop deluge of information has transformed the food landscape so that it’s not just chefs, foodies and wellness gurus who are tuning into how food tastes and makes them feel in the short and long term. Now, everyone seems to be doing it. Over the last decade, consumers have also begun to use these resources to create their own healthier food. Lempert predicts that in 2018, tactile foods are the next step for dieters, foodies and weight-watchers for tuning into their meals and (here’s the catch) enjoying it.
Here’s the thought: If a meal is more satisfying from both a tactile and taste perspective, then tactile foods could become the solution to overeating. In other words, the satisfaction of eating could begin to take place in the mind, as well as in the mouth and stomach. While research is limited, a 2017 study published in Appetite found that tactile food play with fruits and vegetables encouraged the enjoyment of the taste of fruit and veggies in children, more so than just visual exposure and non-food play. For kids, that might mean allowing them to finger paint with mashed bananas, slide around sliced melons, pour pureed veggies or pick up frozen peas.
And for adults, that means two things. One, if healthier meals are physically exciting, eating healthfully could actually be enjoyable. And two, if eater satisfaction is increased with a single serving, the less likely a person might be to eat two, three or four servings of a less-satisfying meal.
But can too much fun with food actually lead to overeating? Of course — junk and fast food companies have known this for years, and use it to your health’s disadvantage by luring you with colorful packaging, satisfying sounds like the crunch of a potato chip and advertisements of people having a blast while munching on cookies, drinking soda and eating candy bars. But even when it comes to healthy foods, if portions go unchecked, there is such a thing as too much. The key is eating slowly enough to appreciate all of the sensory experiences so that you notice — and stop — when you’re satisfied.
[See: How to Make Healthful Dietary Changes Last a Lifetime.]
According to Lempert, the next step is for manufacturers to make more foods that are fun to touch and manipulate. And creating tactile foods can begin in your own kitchen: Experiment with shapes, textures and temperatures. Buy that spiralizer. Combine those orange and purple ingredients. Puree that vegetable. Who knows, you might be able to create an uncanny and intense pleasure on your tongue (one that might even be described as sensual) in the privacy of your own home — just in time for Valentine’s Day!
More from U.S. News
7 Ways Grocery Shopping Will Change in 2017
9 Cooking Tricks That Will Make Everyone Think You’re a Great Chef
8 Ways to Eat Well and Save Money at Home
Tactile Foods: What to Know About This Emerging Trend originally appeared on usnews.com
