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Which food trends will catch on in 2017?

After all the January cleanses are over and regular eating resumes, what, exactly, will be in our shopping carts in 2017 and beyond?

Beyond Meat, a form of plant protein with the taste and texture of meat, was first seen in Philadelphia in November 2012.
Beyond Meat, a form of plant protein with the taste and texture of meat, was first seen in Philadelphia in November 2012.Read moreFILE

After all the January cleanses are over and regular eating resumes, what, exactly, will be in our shopping carts in 2017 and beyond?

Phil Lempert, a.k.a. the "Supermarket Guru" and Today's food-trends editor, has been reporting on packaged goods and supermarkets for decades. His annual report looks more at the driving forces behind trends than at specific products that may surge in popularity this year.

In Lempert's view, 2017 will be largely about the convergence of food and technology. For one thing, he is betting on the successful launch and rapid nationwide expansion of Amazon Go stores. These will be brick-and-mortar food markets that are a grocery/convenience store hybrid. Amazon Go's defining feature will be checkout-free shopping. A smartphone app is your key to a world where lines, cash, paper coupons, and plastic credit cards are all in the past. Your phone and the store's built-in technology (which tracks what's in your cart) do the rest. Amazon is promising a true grab-and-go experience; you're billed electronically after you leave the store.

"The Amazon Go stores will start to open this year, and we'll see them everywhere in 2018," Lempert says, though the first round of locations has not been announced.

Lempert also foresees other new apps that allow shoppers to learn all kinds of things with the click of a camera: nutrition information, ingredient lists, possible allergens, GMOs, food miles traveled, farming practices, businesses involved in production, and more. "There's no app exactly like that now, but the technology is there. It's coming. This is what Generation Z wants," Lempert says. That's the group ages 5 to 20 now. Starting this year, Lempert expects they'll shape our food landscape. Raised on the Food Network, they are more active in the kitchen than their predecessors, and they demand transparency about their food.

Another group is set to influence the way we eat in 2017 - immigrants. "The demographic is quickly changing in the U.S. Globalization is moving fast," says David Dafoe, founder of Flavorman, a beverage-development company. His trend report predicts an uptick in global foods, especially spicy ingredients. This bears out in the other trend reports, which all cite different pathways global cuisines are taking into the mainstream. McCormick, the dried-spice company, reports that the Middle Eastern spice blend baharat (you've likely tasted it if you've eaten at Zahav) will become part of the American pantry in 2017. "Kids in the school culture today, well, it's less PB&J and more burritos," says Lempert, who notes that 25 percent of Generation Z is Latino.

The younger generation's environmental concerns drive another big trend for 2017, something Lempert calls cellular agriculture - basically, fake meat and dairy. Of course, we've had veggie burgers on supermarket shelves for many years, but meatless patties have recently taken a major leap forward, thanks to new technologies and big investments. Two companies in particular are poised to become household names in 2017: Impossible Foods and Beyond Meat.

Both companies make plant-based burgers that "bleed" and sizzle like actual beef. Impossible Foods' burger is available only in a few restaurants for now (none in the Philadelphia area), and Beyond Meat has focused on supermarkets (you can get the burgers locally at Whole Foods). Vegan mayos, milks, and egg substitutes are also supposedly on the rise. The already popular Just Mayo, a vegan version made from pea protein, has a new competitor in Sir Kensington's Fabanaise, which is made from aquafaba, a fancy word for chickpea cooking water.

The other major trend projected for the supermarket in 2017 is the continued growth of meal kits. Whole Foods has meal kits already. Wegmans has something it calls "EZ Meals," which are basically the same thing. Most people now think of meal kits as something delivered to your door, but in the future, this business model will likely flourish more in supermarkets than for delivery because of the operating costs associated with delivery. Lempert also mentioned food waste - some meal kit companies waste up to 20 percent of the food they buy (before it ever gets to consumers inside the kit). In a supermarket setting, this is less of a problem. Leftover odds and ends can become part of a house-made soup in the prepared-foods section, for example.

Lempert thinks more supermarkets will get into the game, offering their own branded meal kits (Amazon Go will have them) for you to pick up in the produce section or at the meat counter and have everything you need (including a recipe) to cook up a foolproof and food-waste-free dinner at home.

Lambert believes there is one food poised for a comeback that's conspicuously absent from the many trend reports: cottage cheese. It's been sitting there in the dairy case, high in protein (itself a trend) yet low in carbs, right next to the piles of Greek-style yogurt that have been proliferating for a decade, waiting for its turn to be trendy. And that moment may finally have arrived with new brands (and new packaging for old brands) that have paired the curds in single-serving yogurtlike cups with fresh fruit and even savory stuff, like olives.

The Wall Street Journal asked, "Can cottage cheese ever be cool?" in a November article, and all signs point to yes. Lempert thinks so, but he admits: "I'm biased. I love the stuff and never stopped eating it."