Mintel has released its 2025 Global Food and Drink Trends report.

Trends:

Fundamentally Nutritious - the rise of weight-loss drugs like Ozempic will shift the focus of 'food as medicine' from added functional ingredients to meeting daily essential nutrient needs.

What’s Happening Now (next 12 months):

• The focus will shift to foods and drinks that help weight-loss drug users, with simple claims about protein, fibre, and vitamins.
• From 2025, brands should simplify health claims, highlighting key nutrients like protein, fibre, vitamins, and minerals to appeal to a broad audience.
• Emphasising essential nutrients will help products stand out in a time of information overload and misinformation.

What’s Happening Next (18 months-3 years):

• More nutrient-dense products will emerge for those using diets to boost their short- and long-term health.
• Brands will have opportunities to highlight fibre, protein, and reframe fats and carbs as key macronutrients.
• Simple nutritional info will attract consumers refining their personalised health approaches.
• As personal data collection grows, consumers will focus more on blood sugar and hormone health, key to GLP-1 drug effects.
• For hormone health, brands can support men and women as they navigate hormonal changes brought on by ageing.

Rule Rebellion - embrace consumers as 'perfectly imperfect' individuals eager for brands that encourage them to 'break the rules' in food and drink.

What’s Happening Now (next 12 months):

• Consumers are embracing their imperfections, celebrating being "perfectly imperfect."
• Brands can target these consumers with innovations that challenge traditional food and drink norms.
• Brands can focus on how consumers truly want to enjoy food and drink, rather than how they feel they should.

What’s Happening Next (18 months-3 years):

• Brands will collaborate across industries to bring more novelty through taste, texture, and aroma.
• They will aim to challenge social stigmas around less-discussed health issues.
• Innovative brands can set new trends by using sustainable ingredients and promoting their unique flavours.

Chain Reaction - as food supply disruptions become more frequent, the industry must encourage consumers to accept and trust new local and global origins, ingredients, and flavours.

What’s Happening Now (next 12 months):

• Climate challenges and geopolitical events are driving up food costs and raising awareness of global impacts on meals.
• Consumers seek knowledge, so brands should expect scrutiny of their operations.
• Brands must clearly explain how local and global sourcing changes benefit consumers.

What’s Happening Next (18 months-3 years):

• The global food supply chain will face ongoing disruptions from climate change, geopolitics, and tech challenges, requiring complex cross-industry collaboration.
• Shortages of key commodities like cocoa and grain will push brands to be transparent about reformulations, driven by media attention.
• More ingredients will come from alternative, reliable regions, such as olive oil from Algeria or Peru.

Hybrid Harvests - food and drink companies must show how technology and agriculture collaborate to benefit consumers, farmers, and the environment.

What’s Happening Now (next 12 months):

• Technology will need to complement traditional agriculture, with brands showing how it enhances natural methods.
• Consumers are showing a preference for more traditional ways of growing and eating food.
• However, brands can leverage consumer openness to tech innovations, especially when they offer convenience.

What’s Happening Next (18 months-3 years):

• Brands should focus on how advancements improve taste, nutrition, or supply for consumers, with environmental benefits as a secondary focus.
• Humanising new technology, especially AI, will be crucial.

For the full report, visit mintel.com.