Top 10 Breakfast Trends in 2011

What should be there in the most important meal of your day – breakfast? Energy drinks and fresh coffee prepared at home or oatmeal served as mainstream staple?

The Food Channel offers its “Top Ten Breakfast Trends for 2011.”  By partnering with CultureWaves and the International Food Futurists, The Food Channel has identified the most significant food trends in breakfast for 2011. The announcement was made Friday, March 4.

“In our breakfast survey of Food Channel readers, one thing quickly became clear. Most of us still recognize breakfast as the most important meal of the day,” said Kay Logsdon, editor of The Food Channel. 

“It’s all new, though. Now it’s OK to eat chocolate for breakfast, and we are eating our morning meal in two parts—grabbing that first cup of coffee at home and adding to it with something at the office.”

The Food Channel Top 10 Breakfast Trends in 2011:

Oatmeal in Overdrive—oatmeal is becoming a real mainstream staple

Chocolate for Breakfast—with its healthful benefits, chocolate is being promoted as a breakfast product

Fast Foods Battle Over Breakfast—the breakfast daypart has become the key battleground in the quick service restaurant category

Haute Coffee Comes Home—to save money, caffeine-seekers are opting to brew their own coffee at home

Ethnic Invasion—global influences start to creep into the morning meal

Beverage Choice Choke—breakfast drink menus keep expanding beyond coffee and O.J.

Hot Pizza in the A.M.—pizza is predicted to be one of the hottest menu items for breakfast

Breakfast Ingredients All Day Long—breakfast ingredients work their way into other parts of the daily menu

The Breakfast Two-Step—a pattern of people fueling up with caffeine and protein in a two-stage process

Eggs Crack the Top Ten—eggs to hatch a big comeback this year

Top 10 foods to watch in 2011 include sausage, moonshine, grits, fin fish and the latest in antioxidant-heavy fruit.