1 Zeno Youths



Zeno Youths are the core demographic of tomorrow. Proudly urbanite and digitally native, they are typically in the 16 to 24-year age range, like their food decidedly synthetic and vitamin-laced and see genetically modified crops as a way of ensuring there's enough food for everyone.

Too young to bother with weekly one-stop shops, Zenos are into convenience and would sooner eat cheaply than squander money that would otherwise be spent on going out.

When they get hungry, which is often, they eat whatever they feel like. That's not to say they live on junk food or are immune to the healthy-eating message. But their diet tends to veer wildly between healthy and unhealthy taking in cereals, fried chicken, fish and chips and vitamin tablets en route.

If they opt for healthy food, it has to be quick. Zenos are the shoppers who buy fruit pre-prepared and chilled. They're also into enriched foods, be they dairy products with additional Omega-3 or vitamin-enriched juices and breads, but unlike other groups don't automatically equate organic with quality.

Zenos are constantly 'on', whether they're in contact with their friends via online network sites such as Facebook and MySpace, microblogging using Twitter or Jaiku, or networking on the hoof with Bluetooth-enabled applications such as Cityware. They are the wacky racers who cycle around the city on customised fixed-gear bikes battered from street slams. They like their food wacky, too. The chefs and scientists experimenting with two-dimensional foods - such as the inkjet printer-produced edible images developed by Chicago chef Homaro Cantu - are doing so with Zenos in mind.



Shop at convenience stores

Eat AND DRINK Berocca multivitamins, Wall's sausages, Lucozade Sport Caffeine Boost, vitamin-infused Y Water (if they live in the US - see over).

EAT OUT AT fast food chains, coffee shops

2 Extreme Connoisseurs



The more obscure the ingredients, the more complex the cooking process, the more fulfilling the dining experience for the Extreme Connoisseur. Predominantly 35 years plus and male, Extreme Connoisseurs work hard and play hard and are in the position financially to splash out on the finer things in life.

If they have moved out to the country, then a vegetable or herb garden is par for the course, but for the urban dwellers, weekly shops are conducted at specialist luxury delis and through organic suppliers.

Keen chefs, they are driving the revival of British cooking and game sales. The most adventurous of the typologies, they're early adopters of foreign cuisines tried on their travels. Probably behind the growing interest in Afghan cooking.



Shop at Daylesford Organic, Valvona & Crolla

EAT luxury foods and anything unusual such as ortolan (an endangered bird) or pufferfish

3 Food Thrifts



Food Thrifts use the concept of thrift as a metaphor for how they want to live their lives. Ranging in age, income and occupation, they have a deep knowledge of food and quality. Their motto is waste not, want not.

Though the economic climate has forced them to reassess their expenditure, they're not penny pinchers. However they do pick cheaper cuts and try to use up leftovers. They pride themselves on cooking from scratch and opt for restaurant or home-made food at lunchtime rather than a run-of-the-mill sandwich.

Even for the less wealthy in this group, the quest for quality means they shop at stores such as Waitrose. This is the group that has inspired supermarkets to launch premium labels such as Tesco Finest.



Shop at Waitrose, Whole Foods Market, Marks & Spencer, farmers' markets and local greengrocers

Eat cheap, full-of-flavour cuts

Eat out at gastropubs

4 Armchair Explorers



One of the biggest groups, Armchair Explorers have left the couch and are spending more time at restaurants and in the kitchen. They tend to see cooking as a leisure activity and are hungry for global food knowledge.

Average earners, they've driven the 'hometainment' trend of staying in rather than going out and relate strongly to food TV, but are more interested in MasterChef than Jamie Oliver.

They have a bit of a lazy streak and regularly order in takeaways or purchase convenience meals. The plethora of new takeaway options, from Persian to Japanese, Kurdish to Lebanese, thrills the armchair explorer. They would have been among the first to buy Reggae Reggae Sauce, the brainchild of Dragons' Den winner Levi Roots.



Eat Gourmet fast food from the likes of Bombay Bicycle, Itsu, Room Service and DeliverDiet

Buy authentic curry sauces, premium ready meals

5 Ethical Eaters



For Ethical Eaters, food is a political issue. Ethical Eaters were early adopters of Fairtrade, organic and locally produced foods. Usually students or in their late 30s or 40s, they tend to be low or middle-range earners who do their jobs for love rather than money. They shop relatively slowly, checking labels for nasty additives, "editing" the supermarket's mass-market offer.

Sensible, healthy, no-nonsense eaters, Ethical Eaters were fans of soya milk and brown rice before they were readily available. They strongly support the drive to reduce excess packaging, use bags for life, and tend to be anti-capitalist so try to buy from local stores and individuals rather than corporations. They are keen localvores for whom provenance is key.



Shop at major supermarkets, local stores, farmers' markets, online

Buy organic fruit and vegetable boxes, Fairtrade

6 Cultural Chasers



For many second-generation Asians, Africans and West Indians, home is the UK, but their culinary heart lies halfway between the UK and the place of their parents' birth. Cultural chasers have grown up eating the traditional food of their parents and are fussy about authenticity.

Though they shop at multiple or specialist supermarkets they prefer to buy their jerk chicken or saag paneer from the local takeaway rather than make it themselves, and perhaps because of their high standards are not particularly competent cooks. The 25-to-35 year olds, in particular, prefer dining out, ready meals and fast or convenient Western food.



Buy food from local takeaways, multiple and specialist ethnic supermarkets

Eat microwaveable rice, mum's cooking and traditional British food

Eat out at ethnic restaurants

7 Raw Foodists



No longer confined to the ranks of US vegan hippies, the raw food movement is starting to resonate with time-poor, pollution-sensitive and health-conscious UK consumers.

The first raw food cafés have opened and raw foods are developing a niche offer in retailers, too. The Lärabar, an energy bar made from pure whole ingredients, is listed at several organic stores and in Selfridges; Whole Foods Market has a whole section devoted to raw food; and Waitrose is hot on its heels - Andrew Davis, co-founder of The Raw Food School in London, plans to launch a raw food range with the retailer.



Eat the Lärabar

Eat out at Red Sugar in Edinburgh, one of the UK's first raw food cafés, or vegan eatery Saf in Shoreditch

8 Microsizers



Waist and waste-conscious, Microsizers are highly attuned to the obesity debate, bored with current diet fare and looking for smaller portions. A bigger trend in the US, where 47% of people have vowed to eat smaller portions [Harris Interactive], microsizing is also starting to take off here, with a bit of help from the manufacturers.



Eat Mini Magnums

Eat out at Le Cercle in London, which specialises in French "petit plats". T.G.I. Friday's with its Right Portion, Right Price menu

9 Securivores



This group is motivated by anxiety over food security and concerns over GM. More interested in provenance than some of the other groups, Securivores want to see more transparency in the food chain and take greater control by producing their own food. Dominated by parents worried about what their children are eating, this group has driven the rapid growth of organic babyfood and kids' food.



Buy organic babyfood

Eat home-grown produce

10 Food Medics



The mother of Zeno Youth, the Food Medic wants food with added health, beauty or energy benefits. Into self-diagnosis, food medics are early adopters of new super or functional foods, but will only buy if they believe products have proven health benefits. Top of their shopping list are products containing Omega-3, vitamins, goji berries and blueberries.

This is the group that could turn antioxidants into this year's probiotics. Satiety products such as SlimFast's Hunger Shot are also likely to find fans in this group.



Eat and drink Sip and Borba Skin Balance waters, The Food Doctor bread, anything with blueberries or Omega-3

Eat out at healthy chain Leon

For more information, contact Hester Chan on 020 7870 1995 or email: hester@thefuturelaboratory.com