THE return of fatty foods, a comeback for the garish Del Boy cocktails of the 80s, the rise of robotic chefs and cannabis as the flavouring of choice - these is the fads which experts claim will dominate the future of the food and drink industry.

The Innovation Group - the futurology unit of global marketeers J Walter Thompson Intelligence - say food fads and trends are changing at lightning rate now thanks to digital media and increasingly 'political awareness' about food by consumers.

Here's an exclusive snap shot of what the future holds:

The big fat comeback

After decades of vilification, fat is once again proving popular - with butter even featuring on a recent front cover of Vogue as the new superfood to watch out for.

While health experts continue to recommend limiting intakes of saturated fat, many consumers are now spurning so-called diet foods in favour of full fat oils, milk and butter.

Lucie Greene, director of the Innovation Group, claims the notion of healthy food is "in transition", adding: "It's not so much about calories now, it's about people moving away from processed foods to whole foods."

The big trend here is the switch from margarine back to butter, which Greene claims is set to become 'the new cheese', with regional and artisan varieties being offered up to consumers.

People are also moving away from lower fat milks to whole milk, helped by a growing number of micro-dairies in the UK, while coconut oil is also proving popular.

The rise of the Flexitarian

Forget vegetarians and carnivores - the future is Flexitarian, it seems.

With ethical meat producers targeting former vegetarians, while plant-based products become indistinguishable from meat, the report predicts the lines between the two categories will continue to blur and become less relevant.

Greene claims high-end meat producers are taking more care over the treatment and slaughter of their animals, while other producers are creating vegetarian foods which appeal to the mass market.

One US company has even created a plant-based burger that promises to be "beef that’s better than any beef you’ve ever tasted", with consumers in a blind taste test agreeing after they were unable to tell it was not meat.

Food porn is the new norm

With social media awash with images of breakfasts, lunches and dinners, consumers are increasingly looking for food that looks as good - if not better - than it tastes.

A total of 196 million photos on Instagram are tagged as #food and almost 64 million as #foodporn.

This has brought a backlash against simple looking plates of food, with people now looking for more striking, high end visual dishes. Though it can go to far and end up with the hipster-style 'chips served in a minature wheelbarrow' or 'wine in a jam jar'.

LinYee Yuan, co-editor of Mold, a food design website, claims even casual restaurants are being forced to take more consideration on how their dishes look.

He said: "For young restaurateurs and chefs, it’s not negotiable any more. Anyone watching Food Network is going to have high expectations for how dishes are presented."

Culinary cocktails

Fancy some chilli, cheese or even fat in your cocktail? According to the food trend report, nothing is off-limits for bartenders nowadays.

The line between bar and kitchen appears to be blurring, with one London bar offering up a smoked cheese liquor and champagne cocktail, while others offer "fat-washed "drinks.

Greene claims this is to do with a more general move towards mixing savoury and sweet flavours in the food industry.

She said: "Bartenders are using new techniques and flavourings, there's a lot of experimentation going on. For example introducing a bacon flavour into vodka to be used in a Bloody Mary."

The report shows that the cocktails of the 1970s and 80s, such as the Grasshopper, Sex on the Beach and Tequila Sunrise, are also making a comeback but are being reinvented for modern palates, stripping away some of the "suffocating seriousness" surrounding today's cocktails.

Taste technology

The report claims technology is about to redefine our relationship with cooking, with companies introducing gadgets such as an interactive cooker which allows users to check emails and choose music while they cook. Tables in restaurants with built in screens to display recipes and instructions are also on their way.

British company Moley Robotics has created a "robotic chef" which can reproduce the movements of a chef and create a meal from scratch.

Greene claims that cooking apps are also revolutionising food, from programmes that can create a recipe based on what you have in the kitchen to others that can tell how many calories are in meals based on a photograph.

She added: "Technology like this is going to become more and more common, it's really only a matter of time before it helps us to eat better."

Cannabis Connoisseurs

In the US, changing legislation has led to a rise in drinks infused with cannabis.

Recreational marijuana use is legal in four US states and decriminalised in numerous others, freeing up businesses to experiment with cannabis infusions, with or without the psychoactive effects.

The market is growing fast, with reports suggesting the legal cannabis business in the US grew 74% from 2013 to 2014.

Greene believes that while cannabis remains illegal in the UK, it is likely that products flavoured with it - but without the psychoactive effects - will soon come on to the marketplace here.

She said: "You tend to find that the flavours and creations of the US soon flood over to the UK."