What Will We Be Eating in 2027? Whole Foods Predicts Beans, Bolder Flavours and Simpler Food

Japanese comfort food, beauty-focused bites and a fresh look at everyday ingredients feature in the US retailer’s annual forecast.

Next year’s food discoveries could include a better bean lunch, Japanese comfort food and a drink with a pleasantly bitter edge. Whole Foods Market’s newly released predictions for 2027 suggest shoppers will be offered more adventurous flavours alongside a growing emphasis on straightforward ingredients and where their food comes from.

The retailer’s eight themes cover provenance, beauty-focused nutrition, Japanese comfort cooking, reinvented dishes, shorter ingredient lists, bitter flavours, waste reduction and a bean boom. Developed by its Trends Council of buyers, foragers and culinary specialists, the forecast offers a glimpse of what could be heading towards supermarket shelves.

The humble bean gets a better invitation

Perhaps the most welcome prediction is that beans are moving into the centre of the meal. Whole Foods points to convenient lentil bowls and snacks made from chickpeas, edamame and lupini, with protein, fibre and affordability helping drive their appeal.

For anyone trying to eat more plants, that opens up an appealing possibility: an easy lunch or dinner built around something familiar. The attraction is as much about what happens after a long day as what appears on the nutrition panel. Open it, warm it, add something fresh—and dinner should feel largely sorted.

Price will matter. Giving beans a more glamorous identity is one thing; keeping them within reach of the people who value their affordability is another.

Comfort food takes a Japanese turn

Whole Foods also expects Japanese comfort cooking to gain ground, alongside familiar dishes reappearing in unexpected forms. For shoppers, the appeal could be the pleasure of trying something different without having to learn an entirely new way of eating.

PFN sees room here for satisfying plant-based interpretations: a rich mushroom curry, a crisp vegetable-filled bun or a well-made tofu bowl. These are possibilities for developers, rather than specific predictions from the retailer. They put flavour and the eating experience first.

A little more bite in the glass

Bitter flavours are another of the retailer’s picks, spanning botanical drinks, dark chocolate and greens.

For those choosing an alcohol-free evening, this could be particularly interesting. There is pleasure in a drink with enough complexity to sip slowly alongside food. A herbal or citrus edge gives producers something to work with—and gives consumers another reason to explore beyond sweetness.

A closer look at the label

The forecast also anticipates greater interest in simpler ingredient lists and food origins. From a consumer’s perspective, both come down to understanding what is being bought. What is in it? Where did it come from? What makes it worth the price?

A shorter label may make that decision feel easier, although ingredient count alone cannot tell the whole story about a food’s nutritional value. Likewise, a named farm or region becomes more interesting when the difference can be tasted.

Making more of the food we already have

Waste reduction completes another practical strand of the forecast, with Whole Foods highlighting products made from surplus bread and food-processing by-products.

For the person standing in the supermarket aisle, the first question is likely to remain wonderfully ordinary: does it taste good? Turning an overlooked ingredient into excellent pasta, crackers or baking ingredients makes the environmental story easier to embrace. It becomes a good food purchase with another benefit attached.

These are predictions from a US retailer, so they will not arrive everywhere at the same speed. But there is plenty for Australian and New Zealand shoppers to find appealing: easier plant-rich meals, more interesting drinks and food whose origins are worth knowing.

Our pick? Give the bean its moment. Make it delicious, keep it affordable and help people get dinner on the table. That is a food trend we can happily live with.

ENDS: