Meegan Guarino, produce manager at A Market Natural Foods in Manchester, N.H., stocks a display of locally grown squash. Guarino buys as much locally grown produce as possible for her customers and makes sure they are well-labeled as such. Buying local will become more important in 2008 as customers look for food that was not shipped from far parts of the world.

Stacks of puddings are shown at A Market Natural Foods in Manchester, N.H. Many markets are making it easier to identify which foods are made locally, part of a national trend to participate in what some call the 100

This produce section at the Hannaford supermarket in Concord, N.H., includes wheeled market carts piled high with fruits and vegetables, faux trees and a lot of natural light. Grocers are remodeling to look more like lifestyle tores, with larger departments and attractive displays.

Americans are getting increasingly intimate with their food, and 2008 likely will see the relationship deepen.

That’s because two forces – the proliferation of foodie culture and its obsessive desire for provenance, and growing worries over food safety – have combined to create a whirlwind of information about food and drink.

And all signs indicate the storm is just starting. So here are some trends likely to influence what you eat in ’08.

Local foods

In marketing terms, “organic” has jumped the shark. Savvy food marketers today are latching onto the latest child of the natural foods movement – local – and are trying to take it mainstream.

As eco-sensitivity has grown, consumers have questioned whether eating organic grapes from Chile is a particularly “green” choice. Now people want to know how far their food traveled, and the closer the better.

Hence, the growth in farmers markets, community-supported agriculture, restaurant menus bragging about local sourcing, and the naming of “locavore” as word of the year by The New Oxford American Dictionary.

Even mainstream grocers are jumping on, offering and advertising a growing number of locally produced goods. The question is whether “local” will lose cachet once big box retailers co-opt it as they did organic.

Varietal

Where once it was enough to say where and how a food was produced, consumers now also want to know the specific varieties of ingredients and breeds of animals it was produced with.

As in, whether Macouns or Red Delicious were used to make an applesauce. Or which breed of cow produced the milk used to make a particular cheese, and olive oils pressed from specific varieties of olives.

Food safety

Repeated recalls of meat and produce have drawn attention to the sluggish and outdated American food safety system, and the government has faced mounting calls for an overhaul.

That likely won’t happen quickly. But unlike government, marketers work quickly. For example, some toy catalogs already labeled their products “lead-free” in time for the 2007 holiday season.

Expect food companies to be as nimble, touting new and increased safety measures. The issue (including demands for a streamlined and effective government agency to oversee the issue) also will get more headlines.

Other trends

“Bad” foods fight back

Tired of being the nutritional bad boys, foods of questionable nutritional value are fighting back. The white bread industry recently ran an ad saying eating enriched white bread may help improve your memory.

Fat-laden foods also are joining the fray. Unilever-owned Hellmann’s recently had an ad that admonished, “It’s time to say no to fake food.” New jars of Hellmann’s mayonnaise are labeled “Real.”

The butter industry is taking the same tact, with a holiday ad urging consumers to “Unwrap the natural flavor of real butter for holiday entertaining.”

New “sugars”

Speaking of nutritional culprits, sugar had better watch its back. A growing variety of alternative natural sweeteners, from honey-like agave syrup to ultrasweet stevia, are crowding grocers’ shelves.

Many of these products once were limited to the lower shelves of natural foods stores, but now are showing up in mainstream markets and in a growing variety of products (including soda).

Grocery stores get increasingly sexy

The ’90s were all about grocers becoming either massive superstores – offering onsite banking, dry cleaning and enough varieties of bread, ice cream and frozen dinners to induce culinary stupor – or sparse warehouses.

Today, the trend is toward glamming up the grocery experience. You’ll see lots of attractive displays of prepared foods, as well as a deconstruction of the traditional aisle layout in favor of a more open market feel.

Safeway, for example, says it is overhauling it markets (or opening new ones) as “lifestyle” stores, which sport larger departments, wood-like flooring, specialty food bars and soft lighting.