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Learning which themes are on consumers’ minds, shifting markets, and driving innovation is crucial to brands and manufacturers’ strategies as we move closer to 2025.
At the upcoming Fi Europe trade show in Frankfurt in November, Lu Ann Williams, co-founder and global insights director at Innova Market Insights, will reveal Innova’s top 10 trends in the food and drink industry. Unveiled annually, the trends strive to give brand executives and business leaders a vital steer to guide their research and development (R&D) and marketing efforts.
Ingredients dominate leading trends
This year, Innova’s top trend has been all about ingredients – and that will continue throughout 2025. “This one is here to stay,” says Williams. Describing 1994 as the “before or after in the food industry”, Williams says this is when we saw the emergence of ingredients as a driver of trends. Fibre, prebiotics, probiotics, fat replacers, sugar replacers, texturisers – all these ingredients drive the marketing of health benefits and new ways of highlighting indulgence.
Now, 30 years on, social media is changing how consumers engage with food and drink brands. Today, anyone can spend 30 minutes on any social media platform and see how consumers are inundated with messages about whether ingredients are good/bad, how they are produced in a good/bad way, and how they benefit consumers. “Clean label is here to stay, too,” Williams says.
With these ingredient-led trends at the forefront of consumers, brands and manufacturers’ minds, there are now also two significant overall factors that are influencing consumers and driving purchase decisions.
The first, Williams notes, is the position that consumers see a world in disarray with so many things impacting them that they cannot influence. “The weather, the fragile economy, inflation, wars, human rights issues,” Williams gives as examples.
The second is the belief that people can control what they eat: “I can personalise my choice; I can find an ecosystem, my personal bubble where people share the same ideas and values and get information about what I can purchase that is aligned with my values and reflect this,” Williams adds.
Predictions for top trends in 2025
Innova is working on its 2025 trends and “some very fresh consumer research to support them” as this interview takes place and so it is not ready to share them just yet. But, as Williams says, trends don’t stop on 31 December and start over every year; they continue to evolve and change based on all the factors that impact them. While research continues behind the scenes, some big shifts are underway between now and 2025 to get us there.
1. Political uncertainty and trust in institutions
“The results of the US election will certainly influence the global mood for 2025,” says Williams. Innova’s megatrend research has seen a significant shift in the past few years in some developed Western countries.
Consumers there named political instability as their biggest global concern, overtaking health and the health of the planet. “That’s interesting because, after decades of stability and fantastic wealth generation, there were some big bumps in the road that were different,” she says. These findings sit alongside the fact that it is the first time in history that we have social media and a 24/7 news cycle that keeps these topics at the top of consumers’ minds.
2. GLP-1 drugs
“Another topic that is very interesting is what is happening with GLP-1 drugs,” Williams says. Innova has conducted research in the US, which showed that a quarter of US consumers said they were either using or intending to use a GLP-1 drug. Currently, 56% of current GLP users stated they use these for weight loss purposes and 36% for type 2 diabetes.
The shift to expand to more consumers presents a significant potential opportunity for the food industry, particularly for manufacturers to combine protein and fibre. “Perhaps this is finally a catalyst that can drive real change for healthier eating,” says Williams.
3. Ultra-processed foods (UPFs)
“Ultra-processed foods (UPFs) is another big topic, but our research shows a lot of consumer confusion around this,” says Williams. There is a discussion on social media among Gen Z consumers about whether your house is an “ingredient house” or a “food house”? “It’s a badge of honour if your house cooks mostly from scratch,” Williams shares.
Describing this as another great opportunity, the focus is helping so-called “home kitchen heroes”’ and making cooking from scratch easier. As grocery stores can contain fridges full of chopped and shredded vegetables and fresh herbs, these can be combined with a long aisle of highly flavoured sauces and various noodles. It is then easy to create great-tasting meals very fast, while being more affordable than eating out in cafes and restaurants.
Using UPFs as an example, Williams says, “The food industry isn’t good at setting the agenda”. The food industry has done a great job of creating a very safe food supply and enough calories for the world at good prices. UPFs is the latest huge topic to have confronted the food industry. Previous ones included the pink slime topic, which is very sustainable, Williams continues, and preservatives, which support safe food and help to reduce food waste.
Opportunities in the UPF field revolve around innovation, whereby brands can create new launches that seek to balance taste and affordability with the inclusion of fresh, natural, whole products. Vegetable Kimbaps were one product launched onto the US market in May 2024 that strives to offer these qualities in its latest formulation. Reformulation also presents opportunities for brands in the UPF space, with brands like pizza producers opting to reduce or remove ingredients perceived as artificial.
Communication is also part of the transformation these brands can tap into. Brands like Bobos, released in the US in March 2024, can alleviate consumers’ safety concerns surrounding UPFs by focusing on gaining consumer trust.
So how can we sum up food and drink industry as we head into 2025? “It’s never been a more interesting time to work in the food industry,” Williams enthuses.
