Keeping up with food trends is tricky business but this next movement might be here to stay

Unicorn coloured everything is out and food sustainability is in. Chefs are choosing local ingredients over imported and that facts are black and white why. Is buying imported ingredients losing on freshness and sustainability? How does imported ingredients impact our farmers? How does your diet impact the sustainability of our food supplies?

Many restaurants have initiated a “paddock-to-plate” menu. Paddock-to-plate can have many different meanings. It can come direct from the restaurants own farm or from any farm a chef has a relationship with. This ensures your food will be more flavourful than produce that has been shipped from overseas or has had a middle man vendor. This will also maintain as much nutrients as possible in the food as it has not been frozen or “put to sleep”, to be ripened with hormones months later. Maintaining quality has become a very important part of restaurant culture as fresh food is always the tastiest. Letting your diners know that your food is fresh is a perfect selling point.

Buying local ingredients not only taste better but it is more sustainable for the world and for Australia. Reducing the distance your food has to travel helps our farmers and also our carbon footprint. The life-cycle of food is an important factor in freshness and sustainability. Buying imported food and ingredients takes away sales from quite literally, our own backyard. We are lucky here in Australia with amazing fruit, veg, dairy and meat farms, so why not choose fresh and local?

Most of us know, that junk food is not only bad for your wallet, it is bad for your health and for the environment. A 2017 Science Direct study found that things such as processed meats and dairy based desserts make up the highest carbon footprints of Australian consumption. Opting for sustainably farmed meats found in Australia may be better for your waist and for the planet.

The entire process of your produce-to-plate life cycle is something that is very much a consumer focus at present, and will kep the customers coming, at least in the short term.