Continuing on from yesterday’s food trend predictions, here are a few more suggestions for how our eating habits might alter over the course of 2016.

As before, we have filched ideas from the National Restaurant Association, the ever readable Baum + Whiteman, Minteland The Food People.

We can all look forward to/suffer yet more food health gurus.

As a portly, middle aged man, this blogger is not the target market for Deliciously Ella, Madeleine Shaw, the Hemsley sisters or indeed Gwyneth Paltrow.

Fake food allergies

The idea of ‘eating clean’ seems like a nebulous fad to a man who has no ambitions to ever own a spiraliser. I can’t help but feel that it is all too closely tied in with the rise in the number of people claiming to have food allergies.

This blogger has a lot of sympathy for people with a genuine intolerance to gluten, dairy or other types of food. I accept that our current food system may be responsible for more people developing allergies.

I also have a sneaking suspicion that many people confuse the idea of having a food allergy with not liking something.

A couple of years back, the 5pm Dining blog ran a Chewin’ the Fat piece with Mark Greenaway. Like other chefs, Mark will happily bend over backwards to accommodate customers with food allergies.

He found it harder to satisfy diners who would specify that they were allergic to, say, red or green foods.

I may be wrong but I would suggest that the rise in people with bogus allergies correlates closely with the rise in the number of health food gurus.

Not that my bitching will do anything to slow their proliferation.

Classy booze-free drinks

Moving on to happier ground, some drinks experts are predicting strong growth in interest for sophisticated non-alcoholic drinks.

The UK population is drinking less alcohol. The licensed trade in Scotland has also seen sales tumble after the government passed stricter drink driving limits.

One result is that there are more people who want to drink something more interesting than a soda, fruit juice or water.

Earlier in the year, the blog reported on the £2500 a kilo tea being grown in Scotland. While in conversation with Jon Cooper, owner of PekoeTea, he predicted that ‘tea and food pairing is going to be more visible. Especially with Scotland’s drink driving laws, people want to be able to choose a sophisticated and complex non-alcoholic drink when they go out for a meal.

‘Tea can provide that and companies such as Riedel, the specialist wine glass makers, have been looking at making glasses designed to bring out the best in tea. We have been experimenting with cold infused silver needle white tea served with cucumber and mint. It is a fascinating drink.’

OK to poke

To wrap things up, here is a handful of quickies:

Look out for charred and smoky flavours on both restaurant and bar menus

Poke – pronounced poke ay – is a Hawaiian take on ceviche and is said to be the next big thing

The Rio Olympics will mean a spread of Brazilian BBQ restaurants and caipirinha cocktails

Finally, some restaurant consultants reckon that pasta is in trouble. Sales dropped 8% in Australia, 13% in Europe and 25% in Italy. It seems as though many people are shunning carbs or swapping them for pulses and grains.

The blog has no hard facts or figures for this but we’re pretty confident that Glasgow’s ever buoyant and expanding Italian restaurant scene will prove an exception to the rule.