This Year’s 10 Most Googled Foods

Posted in Food Policy,Food Safety on April 12, 2019

All hail the power of Google. It is hard to imagine our lives without Google in 2019. Readily available on our eager fingertips, the services on offer by the tech giant are extremely useful. Google provides data in an instant which should make the human race more intelligent. One would hope! This article will focus on a yearly Google searches related to food and provide analysis on the glorious food choices that months of deliberation has come to. So, here’s the year’s 10 Most Googled Foods :

The accessibility of Google should be applauded. Free, instant and helpful to all with a Google search opening a plethora of possibilities. This information of what people in the U.S. are searching on a daily basis can provide us with handy information that can give us clarity into the minds of consumers. Scary thought! The team at Make Food Safe can hazard a guess as to what delights the great American people are dreaming of. Our faith in the American people is always sky-high and this is our chance to put that to the test!

First, it is important to provide the boundaries before any conclusions are jumped to. Google each year releases comprehensive breakdowns of the topics that visitors to the site are searching. Food as you can imagine is popular, given our love of food and the importance of it in our lives. Alas, without further wait, here is the food that is on the mind and lips of Americans.

10 – Gochujan

This exoctic red chile paste is usually found in Asian supermarkets and restaurants. Mainly used as a marinade for meat dishes, its versatility ensures that it is used frequently. Usually found in Korean dishes, its long shelf life results in this ingredient being used in countless exoctic dishes. Could this search result in Americans branching out and trying new Asian foods?

9 – keto brownies, 8 – keto chili  7 – keto cookies 5 – keto cheesecake 4 – keto pancakes

THE UNITED STATES HAS GONE KETO CRAZY. For ease and to avoid repetition, we shall put keto together in this article. Keto is the latest storm to hit curious consumers across the U.S. The searches show the surge in popularity enjoyed by the food. The keto diet consists of mainly fats (75 percent of your daily calories), protein (20 percent) and a very small amount of carbs (5 percent). Eating a lot of fat and very few carbs puts you in ketosis, a metabolic state where your body burns fat instead of carbs for fuel.

Low carb diets have been popular in the past. The Atkins diet enjoyed rich publicity recently and keto is the latest to become heavily popularized with short term successes fueling the fire. Kathy McManus, director of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital, says that these diets are “everywhere, and people hear anecdotally that they work, but again, we don’t know about the long term. Eating a restrictive diet, no matter what the plan, is difficult to sustain. Once you resume a normal diet, the weight will likely return.” The searches by Americans are imaginative and demonstrate the desire to experiment with the keto diet. Loyal followers are becoming ambassadors and generating considerable Google searches.

6 – Necco wafers

Continuing with our countdown, necco wafers score highly on our esteemed list. These simple but delicious treats were in existence since 1847 being the oldest continuously running candy company in the U.S. They provided Americans a fat-free, gluten free and prided themselves on not containing high fructose corn syrup. These wafers were loved by generations and stood the test of time, until recently. Last year the Necco factory closed, leaving lovers of the biscuit wondering what will happen in the future. Necco proudly boasted during its prime that “approximately four billion NECCO Wafers are produced which is enough to wrap around the world…twice!” The high volumes of searches must come given the uncertainty of the food. As always, a trusty Google search can provide answers.

3 – CBD Gummies

CBD gummies is an innovative exciting development in medicine that has Americans using their Google searches to become more familiar. The gummies are a holistic intervention for anxiety and depression different to usual pharmaceutical goods, being effective and are currently not known to have any side effects. Given the current problems with poor mental health in U.S, CBD helps in a completely natural way. CBD is also commonly known as cannabidiol which is one of the main cannabinoids found in the cannabis and hemp plants. CBD is known to treat a number of illnesses, both mental and physical.

2 – Romaine lettuce

Romaine lettuce is commonly featured on the Lange Law Firm blog and food safety experts will be hopeful that these Google searches are to find prevention techniques for a foodborne illness. Unfortunately, these illnesses are way too common in romaine lettuce and regular readers of the blog should be an expert by now. Problems with romaine lettuce have become so frequent, the FDA announced a “special surveillance” plan to sample lettuce for contamination in early November and at Thanksgiving advised “consumers, restaurants and retailers not to eat, serve or sell any romaine lettuce as it investigates an outbreak of E coli”. Becoming familiar with the dangers of romaine lettuce is essential to keeping families safe. Better get Googling!

1 – Unicorn cake

Despite the variety in the previous entries, what makes America great is the constant demand to spend hours trawling through Google looking at unicorn cake. If you have survived this long and are either inspired to be a keto king or fearful to ever eat a lettuce again, a unicorn cake will restore your faith in the beautiful food industry in the U.S. Ultimately, in turbulent times people turn to their unicorn cake. Although it shouldn’t be underestimated how hard baking one is, it is definitely worth all the effort.

By: Billy Rayfield, Contributing Writer (Non-Lawyer)