Are you one of the many who see the “low fat” label and think you’re eating the best thing for your body. You want to eat what’s good for you. You depend upon getting correct information from the labeling of the packages. After all, the US Department of Agriculture gives specific directions on how foods are labeled. What you don’t know is how the food industry isn’t interested in you, they only want to be sure you buy their product. The buzz phrase is “fat free” so that’s what they give you. Some of the products contain the buzz phrase because they naturally have no fat in them. What about those in which it is removed?

You enjoy food because it tastes good. If it doesn’t taste good you won’t buy it and the food industry doesn’t make any money. A big source of flavor is in fat. Remove that and you have a tasteless chewable substance that satisfies neither your taste buds nor you. To put the taste back in, the food industry puts in sugar… and not any sugar. It’s often high fructose corn syrup. The corn industry has done a marketing campaign to tell you there is nothing wrong with high fructose corn syrup. What they actually do is show that people don’t know why it’s bad for you. The ads would be useless if some responded with “It’s bad for you because it makes you insulin intolerant which will lead to Type 2 Diabetes.” Yet this is what is being increased in your food to make it taste good.

If you have a perishable product, wouldn’t you want to do what was necessary to assure that it lasts as long as possible? After all, you would lose a great deal of money if you had to throw away your product because it spoiled. The food industry needs to find a way to cut the loses from spoilage. They found out how to process oils so they would last longer. The result is what we now know as the harmful partially hydrogenated oils resulting in transfats.

While these are nothing new, portable foods continue to be a food industry trend. Providing convenience for our ‘on-the-go’ society is a must and consumers continue to spend their cash on handy packaging that allows them to skip portioning themselves and simply grab something out of the kitchen, throw it in their bag and go. The cost of the packaging drives up the cost of these pre-portioned gems, however the convenience continues to beat out the cost and consumers keep this food industry trend going. Our more health conscious society is driving many food industry trends, the rise of whole grains is one of the biggest. The 3 biggest things whole grains promise are better heart health, satiety and weight-loss. These grains contain fiber to fill you up, thus help you to eat less. Food companies are not only putting whole grains in cereal and bread, but you can find them in yogurt, pasta, tortilla chips, and even in fruit smoothies.

Probiotics are micro-organisms that live in the human intestinal tract, also called ‘healthy bacteria’, these intestinal friends are also found in certain foods. Probiotics can be found in yogurt, milk, miso and some soy products, amongst other things. These foods are not new to the food industry, however the fact that probiotics are in these foods are being heavily marketed by the food industry. Many more yogurts that are marketed to help regulate the digestive tract have surfaced in the past year. Soy has not only been recently marketed for its probiotics, but also for its cancer preventing benefits.

Over the past decade food industry trends have pushed cancer-fighting antioxidants and taught us that eating a variety of colors of fruits and vegetables is most beneficial for our health. Blueberries and cranberries have been pushed as having some of the highest levels of these cancer-fighting miracles. Just like other trends, the food industry is always seeking the next biggest thing. As far as antioxidants are concerned, this is where ‘superfruits’ come into the market. Acai berries, are small berries come from the acai palm, and have been marketed not only in juice form, but also pulp and pill form.

Food industry trend, like portable packaging, is fueled by the convenience factor. Favorite foods without having to add extra ingredients, get out a pan, wash the pan and put away the pan, this is what ready-to-cook packaging offers busy consumers. Frozen foods offer steamable packages for vegetables, which not only offer convenience, but health benefits. Flavored rice that you can put directly in the microwave and not worry about sticking to the pan and have it always come out perfect is very appealing to cooks on the go. This food industry trend is wide spread, with oatmeal, pasta dinners and frozen dinners providing just some of the foods you can prepare in the package you buy them in.