Future in the pink.

Pink drinks, pumped-up foods and food shopping in cyberspace will be among 1995's top food trends, according to the National Food Processors Association.

"The future is now for the food industry," says NFPA's resident futurist, Timothy Willard. Gathered from a number of food trend trackers,

* Pink drinks and foods. Pink will join blue and other bright colors on grocery shelves. Guava puree increasingly will be used to color juice blends, yogurt drinks and other beverages and foods a rosy pink. An obvious application - baby food.

* Pumped-up foods. Foods high in nutrients may add nutrition benefits for consumers. Vitamins will be added to juice drinks and maybe even candy, and bakery products will be fortified with calcium. As the line between meals and snacking blurs, these pumped-up foods may play increasingly important roles in many diets.

* Label literates. Shoppers using the new nutrition labels could change American food buying habits. "By having nutrition information on all foods, many shoppers may increase the variety of products they purchase and consume, including more fun foods," notes NFPA's food label guru Regina Hildwine. "Rather than simply assuming that certain foods are either 'good' or 'bad,' these shoppers will use the nutrition information on food labels to see how a wider variety of foods - including some they may not have bought before - will fit their overall dietary needs."

* Greater variety of biotech food products. Some of these products will offer strong consumer benefits, such as slower-ripening tomatoes that do not reach optimal ripeness until they arrive at the grocery store. Others, such as beetle-resistant potatoes that produce internal bio-pesticides, have environmental benefits. These foods, which were reviewed by the FDA, "are being held to the same safety standards as every food," says FDA spokesman Jim O'Hara.

* Food shopping in cyberspace via interactive computer software. A growing number of consumers will do their marketing without ever leaving the house. By the year 2000, the use of on-line food shopping services is likely to grow rapidly, with future generations of computer software including nutrition information and even menu-planning options.

Contact Timothy Willard, NFPA, at 202/639-5900.