Food Service Management
C H A P T E R
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12
Trends and developments
Introduction
This chapter sets out to highlight a range of current trends affecting the food and beverage manager. It is naturally selective and provides only an initial insight into some of the emerging issues facing the industry. The importance of these issues to different industry sectors and in different countries will vary, but the chapter will help you to understand the basics and provide you with a foundation and further details of where to pursue particular issues in more depth.
Food and Beverage Management
Chapter objectives
After working through this chapter you should be able to:
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Understand a range of trends affecting the food and beverage manager. Identify the possible influence of the media on consumer behaviour. Discuss changes in consumer choices in the UK and USA. Understand current environmental issues. Be aware of recent trends in financing a food and beverage operation. Be aware of ethical issues in the industry. Understand the definitions of high tech food.
CONSUMER TRENDS
One of the biggest changes in the past decade in the food and beverage area has been the recognition of the importance of consumers and the choices they make. The industry has become more market led and operators who do not take account of their customers’ needs and wants have suffered. This change has been partly reflected in the growth of food-related issues reported in the media and the wide array of television programmes with food, cooking, chefs and restaurants as their focus. These programmes range from Jamie Oliver ’s School Dinners to Gordon Ramsay’s the F Word or Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant, alongside long running series of Hell’s Kitchen, Ready Steady Cook or the competition of Saturday Kitchen on BBC v. Saturday Cooks on ITV. Searching for programmes related to food on UK TV channels at the time of writing, resulted in 40 separate programmes in one week alone and that
• • • •
12
Trends and developments
Introduction
This chapter sets out to highlight a range of current trends affecting the food and beverage manager. It is naturally selective and provides only an initial insight into some of the emerging issues facing the industry. The importance of these issues to different industry sectors and in different countries will vary, but the chapter will help you to understand the basics and provide you with a foundation and further details of where to pursue particular issues in more depth.
Food and Beverage Management
Chapter objectives
After working through this chapter you should be able to:
●
●
● ● ●
● ●
Understand a range of trends affecting the food and beverage manager. Identify the possible influence of the media on consumer behaviour. Discuss changes in consumer choices in the UK and USA. Understand current environmental issues. Be aware of recent trends in financing a food and beverage operation. Be aware of ethical issues in the industry. Understand the definitions of high tech food.
CONSUMER TRENDS
One of the biggest changes in the past decade in the food and beverage area has been the recognition of the importance of consumers and the choices they make. The industry has become more market led and operators who do not take account of their customers’ needs and wants have suffered. This change has been partly reflected in the growth of food-related issues reported in the media and the wide array of television programmes with food, cooking, chefs and restaurants as their focus. These programmes range from Jamie Oliver ’s School Dinners to Gordon Ramsay’s the F Word or Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant, alongside long running series of Hell’s Kitchen, Ready Steady Cook or the competition of Saturday Kitchen on BBC v. Saturday Cooks on ITV. Searching for programmes related to food on UK TV channels at the time of writing, resulted in 40 separate programmes in one week alone and that