Instructions: "Products that pop, fizz and rocket through your mouth are going to increase this year," says Lynn Dornblaser of the Global New Products

She bases her prognostication on 2001s introduction of carbonated juice from Switch Beverage and the arrival of White Soda and eMoo, both carbonated milk beverages.

Soy will also be big, she forecasts. "Look for strong marketing campaigns aimed at the 5- to 12-year-old market. These products will have unusual flavors, colors and positionings, but will get young consumers sold on soy."

They will be jockeying for position with grapefruit-flavored medicine, Hispanic-inspired flavors (such as dulce de leche-flavored M & Ms) and spray-on tooth whitener that temporarily whitens teeth.

Some things well see in 2002:
Comfort food: Home cooks will continue to yearn for the foods of their memories. Things grandmother used to make: stews, meat loaf, roast chicken, mashed potatoes and layer cakes.

According to New York City industry consultant Clark Wolf, "Now, cooking is comforting - and when entertaining, its no more show-off cooking, its communal cooking."

One-dish dining: With the recession officially under way, look for more meals to be prepared at home. But American diners, accustomed to the convenience of takeout meals and restaurant cooking, are even less interested now in spending a lot of time fixing dinner. Thats why youll see a steady growth in fix-it-fast meal kits and comfort food in stores, such as the new Stouffers Slowfire Classics, Campbells Supper Bakes and Ragu Express pasta dishes.

Even the side dish is disappearing, as consumers skip the extra step needed to make an extra dish and instead throw vegetables into one-dish meals such as stir-fries, stews and casseroles.

Greens go global: With the multi-ethnic makeup of American diners, look for more markets to stock edibles such as mustard greens, water spinach, sea vegetables, chards, bok choys, "dinosaur" and other hearty kales.

Upscale goes down market: On restaurant menus, look for some high-ticket ingredients replaced by less costly alternatives. For example, lamb shank instead of rack of lamb, or chicken instead of duck. Look, too, for more daily special items such as filled omelets and hearty soups that offer chefs an opportunity to recycle ingredients.

Dish of the year: Macaroni & cheese earns Good Eatings predictions as the most yearned-for dish in 2002, at least until the weather warms up again.

Who can resist? Plump pasta nestled and baked with creamy Cheddar cheese sauce until the whole thing mingles and melds. Trust us, this is not just food for kids!

Self-serve supermarkets: The need for speed is everywhere, especially in the supermarket and most especially at the checkout. That may explain why some customers would rather scan products themselves, and why supermarkets are increasingly willing to oblige them.

"Self-scanning has grown in various pockets around the country," says Michael Sansolo, senior vice president of Food Manufacturers Institute, a trade group for the supermarket industry. "For a quick trip, its much simpler for shoppers."

Customers who use self-checkout are usually in a hurry and dont mind technology, he says. Self-scanning wont replace clerks, but usually occupies one or two aisles in stores that offer it. Expect to see it grow.

Artisan attention: The trend toward handmade, small-batch foods will continue as consumers seek higher quality. Artisan cheeses from small farms, rustic breads from high-quality bakeries, chocolates made by hand, even olive oil from

"estates" in Italy and California - all will find their way to our cupboards in 2002.

According to Howard Solganick, a supermarket industry consultant, "I dont know how else to put it, but once you taste really good bread, its hard to go back to Wonder."

Organic goes mainstream: Americans will increasingly "go organic"

but not where youd expect. Organic products totaled $7.8 billion in sales in 2000, according to a report by the Food Marketing Institute, which found that 69 percent of shoppers surveyed said they bought their organic products at their primary supermarket. This was borne out by the Organic Trade Association, which reports that mass-market supermarkets accounted for 45 percent of organic sales.

Expanding cookbooks: Publishers are learning that cookbook buyers want a lot more information when they wade into recipes. Check out the growing inclusion of background information, extensive glossaries, kitchen tips, supplier lists, menu ideas, wine suggestions, measurement conversion charts and other hand-holding hints. These soon-to-be-standard extras appeal not only to eager cooks, but to the totally clueless. Two upcoming examples: "Lorenzas Italian Season" from Lorenza de Medici (Trafalgar Square), with holiday menus and preservation tips; and an American regional barbecue book from Dallas writer Dottie Griffith (Simon & Schuster), packed with history, cooking tips, Web sites and a bibliography.

Chill-free foods: Shelf-stable foods (which do not require refrigeration)

will mushroom in the supermarket aisles, predicts Art Siemering, editor of the Food Channel Trendwire newsletter. Its another of our convenience-oriented cooking habits.

"Well see continued growth among shelf-stable entrees and canned items in general," Sie- mering said. "The bowl format still has lots of unexplored possibilities, including the conversion of many existing canned items. Why not shelf-stable vegetables that can come directly to the table?"

Super-ply panache: Its the age of "super-ply" in home cookware.

The trend for pots and pans will be anything "clad," according to the Cookware Manufacturers Association. Even the humble saucepan may be made with up to nine separate pieces of metal. In these new pans, a stainless-steel bottom

(and sometimes a stainless interior) wraps around layers of aluminum or copper.

The multiple metals improve heat conductivity that stainless alone cant give.

Traditional copper pans are superb heat conductors, but also are expensive and time-consuming to maintain. The new pans combine the best of both worlds.

Vitamins with your water: Neither man nor woman can live by wine alone, but the new-product gnomes are making strides toward a pure water diet. Energy Brands, a New York State company, has introduced Glaceau Vitaminwater, "the must-have accessory of the modern consumers on-the-go lifestyle." It is a line of 11 low-calorie, vitamin- and electrolyte-enhanced flavors of water, each

In a distinctive color. "Endurance peach," for example, contains vitamin E and ginseng. "Focus kiwi-strawberry" offers vitamin A, ginkgo biloba and gotu kola.

More dessert, please: Restaurant customer numbers and per-customer spending have sagged since the Sept. 11 tragedies, but dessert sales have gone up in most restaurants. And the kinds of desserts were buying are becoming more exotic: chocolate hazelnut ganache tarts, chocolate malted gelato and deep-fried chocolate truffles.

Food security: "Making food safe" used to be all about bacterial contamination of raw foods and the cleanliness of kitchens, at home and in restaurants. But the boom in the security business since Septembers terrorist attacks has extended to "food security" as well.

The National Center for Food Safety teaches smaller processors the basics: prevention of tampering, screening employees, securing the physical plant and procedures to safeguard raw and finished products.

Phytochemicals: Anti-oxidants will continue to generate heat in nutrition circles as researchers in 2002 discover even more about the health benefits of these phytochemicals found in fruits and vegetables. Many of these natural anti-oxidants have been shown to help guard against cancer, heart disease and other illnesses by neutralizing "free radicals," which can destroy healthy cells.

Nutritionist Phyllis Bowen says specific anti-oxidant vitamins such as C and E will be studied, as will the phytochemical anthocyanin (found in blueberries, raspberries and cranberries), which is thought to improve mental acuity.

Cow safety: The USDAs Food Safety and Inspection Service released a risk analysis Nov. 30 about the prospects for mad cow disease in the United States, which up till now has avoided Britains fate. The "executive summary"

of the analysis, produced by scenario modeling at Harvard Universitys school of public health, predicts little threat to American cattle, and even less to burger lovers.

"The course of the disease has been arrested and it is destined for eradication by the measures currently in place," the authors conclude.

Doubters, such as the Center for Science in the Public Interest and Public Citizen, object to how much money Harvards Center for Risk Analysis gets from the very industries whose issues it studies.

Los vinos dEspana: As in any country that throws off the cloak of tradition, modern Spain embraces the new. Wine is no exception.

From the staid
bodegas of Rioja to the shiny stainless-steel tanks of Galicia, bold experiments are resulting in a new species of wines, brighter and more vibrant than those of the past. They are attractively priced. Look for reds from Navarra, Ribera del Duero and Rioja; and whites from Galicia.

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