African cuisine in social discussions is holding steady rather than accelerating. Tastewise data shows 0.4% social share and -7.2% YoY growth across the last 24 months. That doesn’t mean demand is disappearing. It means the African cuisine trend is moving through a more stable phase, where growth comes from specific dishes, formats, and spice cues instead of broad “African food” interest.
This is also a trend with strong scale potential. The dataset includes 167,526 people, 350,953 posts, 16,501 recipes, 45,986 dishes, and 12,068 restaurants, giving a wide read on what’s sticking across home cooking and foodservice.
African food trends overview
- Social conversations about African Food have decreased by -7.2% year-over-year
- 12,068 restaurants in the dataset feature African Food on their menus
- The top consumer need driving African Food consumption today is North African (31%)
North African (31%), West African (20%), and East African (20%) are the most dominant consumer need themes shaping African Food demand
African cuisine market performance across social, recipes, and restaurants
The African cuisine trend is not riding a viral wave right now. It’s operating like a consistent baseline trend.
Tastewise shows 0.4% social share, -7.2% YoY growt, and “relatively flat over 24 months” in social discussions. That combination usually points to a shift in how the trend grows. Instead of volume growth, the opportunity is in:
- menu-ready formats
- high-performing flavor systems
- regional specificity that helps brands avoid generic positioning
For foodservice, that matters because stable trends are easier to commercialize. They support repeatable menu builds, LTO rotations, and scalable flavor add-ons.
Consumer needs shaping African cuisine demand
The biggest driver behind the African cuisine trend is that consumers are thinking in regions, not in one unified cuisine label.
Tastewise consumer needs show the strongest discussion themes are:
- North African (31%)
- West African (20%)
- East African (20%)
- Attractive (17%)
- Moroccan (16%)
Which African regions are driving the most interest
North African leads at 31%, and that’s a major cue for both CPG and foodservice teams. North African flavour systems are often easier to translate into mainstream menus because they map cleanly to:
- spice-forward sauces (like harissa-style builds)
- grilled proteins
- bowls, wraps, and shareable plates
West and East African needs are tied at 20% each, which suggests a broad base of interest, but with different execution paths. West African demand tends to connect strongly to stews, rice dishes, and deep savoury spice systems. East African demand is often anchored by signature spices and iconic dish pairings.
How need clusters shape what consumers choose
This trend isn’t being driven by “healthy,” “low-cal,” or “functional” positioning in the needs list. The strongest cues are regional identity plus taste appeal.
That creates a clear strategy for product and menu teams:
- Lead with origin-based cues (North African, West African, Moroccan)
- Back it up with recognisable formats (rice bowls, grilled chicken, mezze-style spreads)
- Use spice blends to lock in authenticity and differentiation
Top African cuisine dishes and what’s growing fastest
The African cuisine trend is showing two things at once:
- Consumers talk about it through everyday staples
- Growth comes from specific, high-impact dishes
Most popular dishes connected to African cuisine conversations
Tastewise shows the most popular dishes tied to this trend are:
- Coffee (8.9% social share)
- Rice (7.5%)
- Tea (5.7%)
- Soup (4.8%)
- Jollof rice (3.4%)
- Pasta (3.2%)
- Salad (2.9%)
This is a practical signal. It means the African cuisine trend is being pulled into routines that already exist:
- coffee and tea moments
- rice-based meals
- soup and comfort formats
For innovation teams, this makes the trend easier to scale because you don’t need to introduce an unfamiliar eating occasion. You plug African flavour cues into formats people already buy weekly.
Up-and-coming dishes with the highest YoY growth
The fastest-growing dishes are where the commercial upside is most obvious:
- Peri peri chicken (+220% YoY)
- Biltong (+132%)
- Rice bowl (+98%)
- Pudding (+97%)
- Shawarma (+94%)
- Jerky (+83%)
- Mezze (+77%)
There’s a clear pattern here: protein-led, portable, and menu-friendly.
- Peri peri chicken is a direct win for QSR, fast casual, and ready-to-eat retail. It’s bold, spicy, and easy to menu as a flavour upgrade.
- Biltong and jerky show that African cues are translating into snacking and protein formats, not just plated meals.
- Rice bowls are a scalable format across foodservice and retail meal solutions.
- Mezze supports shareable and build-your-own behaviour, which works well in modern fast casual.
This is where the African cuisine trend becomes execution-ready: it’s not just “try African food,” it’s “buy peri peri chicken” or “pick up biltong.”
Dishes most strongly associated with African cuisine
If you want the strongest “signature” dish signals, Tastewise correlation shows:
- Injera (207X)
- Egusi soup (172X)
- Pounded yam (167X)
- Tibs (153X)
- Chicken tajine (141X)
- Efo riro (140X)
- Jollof rice (133X)
These dishes are not always the biggest by volume, but they are the strongest identity markers. That makes them valuable for:
- chef-driven menu storytelling
- premiumisation
- limited-time innovation that needs authenticity cues
For brands, these are also useful as inspiration for flavour direction without requiring full dish replication.
Ingredient performance and flavor cues defining African cuisine
Ingredients reveal how the African cuisine trend is being built. The most useful split is between:
- high-volume staples that keep the trend accessible
- high-correlation spices that make it feel “real”
Trending vs emerging ingredients in African cuisine
Tastewise shows these ingredients trending by social share:
- Fish (8.5%)
- Rice (7.5%)
- Date (7.5%)
- Chicken (6.2%)
- Frosting (4.1%)
- Edible flower (3.3%)
- Pasta (3.2%)
The presence of fish, chicken, and rice reinforces that this trend scales through familiar proteins and bases. That’s good news for menu adoption.
The more unexpected signal is date (7.5%), which supports growth in:
- sweet-savoury pairings
- North African-inspired dessert profiles
- modern beverage and café applications
Tastewise also shows up-and-coming ingredients by YoY growth:
- Caviar (+106%)
- Peri peri pepper (+103%)
- Grits (+85%)
- Guava (+78%)
- Lychee (+74%)
- Sardine (+66%)
- Labneh (+62%)
Two of these stand out for practical execution:
- Peri peri pepper (+103%) directly supports the peri peri chicken growth story.
- Labneh (+62%) supports creamy, tangy spreads and sauces that work in bowls, wraps, and mezze-style builds.
Ingredients with the strongest correlation to African cuisine
Correlation is where the most “ownable” flavour cues show up:
- Berbere (108X)
- Suya spice (105X)
- Shito (96X)
- Fonio (82X)
- Ras el hanout (66X)
- Teff (64X)
- Chermoula (55X)
This is the core of what makes the African cuisine trend distinct in product development.
If a brand wants to build credibility fast, the shortcut is clear:
- use a signature spice system (berbere, suya, ras el hanout)
- apply it to a familiar base (chicken, rice, sauces)
- keep the format scalable (bowls, skewers, marinades, dips)
Formats and occasions driving adoption in foodservice and retail
The biggest formats in this trend are not complicated. They are the formats that already win in foodservice.
Portable meals, bowls, and protein-led formats
The fastest growth within the African cuisine food trend is coming through formats that are already proven in modern foodservice: peri peri chicken (+220% YoY), rice bowls (+98%), biltong (+132%), jerky (+83%), and mezze (+77%).
They’re high-velocity formats that scale because they deliver the three things consumers consistently respond to: bold heat, protein satisfaction, and grab-and-go convenience. For sales teams, this makes African cuisine an easy fit inside existing menu architecture, protein + base + sauce, snackable protein packs, and shareable small plates, without needing operators to overhaul back-of-house execution.
Beverage and café adjacency (coffee and tea crossover)
Coffee and tea are also acting as major entry points into the trend. Tastewise data shows coffee leads dish popularity at 8.9% social share, followed by tea at 5.7%, which positions African flavour cues as relevant beyond lunch and dinner occasions.
That opens up innovation space for spiced coffee builds, tea blends with African flavour profiles, and café-led items that borrow from Moroccan-inspired flavour cues. It’s also a clean retail opportunity, since beverage-linked products can carry African cues without requiring a full meal solution or unfamiliar cooking format.
What African cuisine looks like on menus right now
Menu signals show that African cuisine is appearing in both:
- flavour add-ons
- full dishes with premium positioning
Tastewise menu examples include:
- Harissa (CAVA) described as a “North African spicy chili pepper paste” with a listed price of $4.12
- Asaro yam porridge box priced at $5
- Goat stew priced at $69.99 (premium menu positioning)
- Ethiopian sizzling beef and collard greens priced at $24
- African red stew beef priced at $15.6
Menu pricing signals from African cuisine dishes
There’s a clear split in pricing:
- low-entry dishes around $5 support everyday trial
- premium stews and specialty proteins climb to $24+
- high-ticket goat stew pricing suggests certain operators are positioning African dishes as premium, event-style, or shareable centrepieces
For brands supporting foodservice, this creates two routes:
- value-forward builds: rice bowls, chicken, sauces
- premium builds: stews, goat, signature spice systems
Scalable menu builds (stews, sauces, spice-forward add-ons)
The easiest scaling move is the sauce layer.
Harissa-style sauces, peri peri builds, and spice blends like suya or berbere allow operators to:
- rotate proteins without changing the core flavour identity
- build LTOs quickly
- keep ingredient complexity manageable
That’s why the African cuisine trend is commercially useful even when social growth is flat. It delivers high-impact flavor differentiation with formats that already sell.
FAQs about African cuisine trend
The African cuisine food trend reflects growing and sustained interest in African regional flavours and dishes across social, recipes, and foodservice. Tastewise shows 0.4% social share and stable conversation levels over 24 months, with growth concentrated in specific dishes like peri peri chicken (+220% YoY) and ingredients like peri peri pepper (+103% YoY).
Based on Tastewise dish popularity tied to African cuisine discussions, the top dishes include coffee (8.9%), rice (7.5%), tea (5.7%), soup (4.8%), and jollof rice (3.4%).
Tastewise correlation data shows the strongest spice and flavour cues linked to African cuisine are berbere (108X), suya spice (105X), shito (96X), and ras el hanout (66X). These ingredients act as high-identity markers for authentic flavour direction.
Yes. Tastewise shows peri peri chicken is up +220% YoY, making it the strongest up-and-coming dish tied to African cuisine conversations in this dataset.
Tastewise consumer needs show North African is the leading need theme (31%), followed by West African (20%) and East African (20%). That indicates consumer interest is being shaped by regional identity and specific cuisine cues rather than a single generic “African food” label.
Tastewise growth signals point to formats that are already scalable in modern foodservice: rice bowls (+98% YoY), mezze (+77% YoY), and protein-led builds like peri peri chicken (+220% YoY). These formats support quick menu adoption and repeatable execution.
Read more from Kelia Losa Reinoso
Foodservice Report – Trends Towards 2024
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