Tomorrow's supermarket shoppers will be looking for foods that are "sweet and salty", "healthful" or that mix "humble" with "exotic" ingredients, a group of leading chefs has predicted.

At the Givaudan Chefs' Council annual meeting this month, Michelin-starred chefs from around the world forecast the emergence of new Far Eastern influences, earthy Peruvian food and wholesome Brazilian comfort food in the UK grocery offer over the next few years.

Many of the new trends would cross over from restaurant food, said Buzz Baughard, vice president of the foodservice division of flavour development business Givaudan, which works with manufacturers across the world.

"An example of the evolution from specialist to mass market is Thai cuisine, which in the past few years has found its way into supermarkets."

Tastes were expected to move beyond the likes of sweet and sour to sweet and salty or acidic and astringent. One example given of a recipe with sharply contrasting ingredients was vanilla sorbet with celery.

"Healthful" sauces were also highlighted as a major potential growth area.

High-fat cream-based sauces would be replaced by healthy, flavoursome options such as a savoury-sweet green sauce made with pistachio nuts, basil nuts, eucalyptus and apple, predicted the chefs. "Some of the new recipes we tasted at Chefs' Council were a revelation and surprised us beyond expectation," said Baughard.

New flavours and combinations tended to take three to five years to make the transition from the restaurant to the supermarket, he said. "We are trying to shorten the timespan between food made for fine dining and ingredients found in consumer packaged goods," he added.