Contrary, messy and nutritious: 2025 food & drink trends

In a food universe where AI and weight loss drugs are attracting attention for their systematised, technical efficiency, it’s a good time to re-evaluate humans’ messily inconsistent relationship with food.

Mintel’s new 2025 food and drink trends explore the paradoxes that influence people’s behaviours toward food.

First is the ‘fundamentally nutritious’ trend. It recognises how consumers have become more knowledgeable about diet and attach value to nutrition claims.

In reaction, we see more on-pack nutritional claims and advice about healthy eating and ultra-processed food from businesses and influencers. However, 49% of UK consumers now complain that conflicting health information makes it difficult to understand how to be healthy.

Coinciding with this is an increased awareness of weight loss drugs. Europe is currently behind the US in terms of uptake, but the potential is clear: 46% of UK under-35s say they’d be interested in using them.

Yet consumers are contrary. Mintel’s ‘rule rebellion’ trend explores how rule-breaking brands and recipes are resonating with consumers. Their increasingly adventurous palates suit fusion foods and mash-ups.

As 52% of Brits claim being able to express their individuality is a top priority for them, their choice of food and drink can be part of that expression. When consumers want to convey individuality, unconventional brands appeal.

The consumer impact of future supply chain disruptions is explored in our ‘chain reaction’ trend. Often far-off global events, caused by climate change or geopolitics, will hit consumers personally via reformulations and shelf shortages; the impact is inevitably magnified by media attention.

This will warrant more transparency from the industry, considering consumer trust in pricing is already damaged – including perceptions of ‘skimpflation’.

Warmer climates will usher in new and alternative growing regions for prized commodities like cocoa, and producers must anticipate the quality to be scrutinised by value-conscious consumers. Furthermore, the influences of tech, travel and immigration on consumers’ global mindsets will reappraise attitudes towards their national food identities, sparking innovation around local and global flavours.

Our ‘hybrid harvests’ trend explores how food and drink brands will need to explain to consumers how nature and technology can complement – or better yet, enhance – each other. Given the rapid pace at which technology is advancing, it’s little wonder some consumers are feeling overwhelmed.

Communication on these technological integrations will have to prioritise how these advancements benefit the consumer first through better taste, greater nutrition or consistent supply, and the environment second. Brands can position themselves as intermediaries who can educate consumers on such benefits, such as humanising the advantages for farmers presented by new agri-tech tools.

It’s vital that food and drink market research looks beyond the machine-learned data and embraces humans’ complicated and grease-stained relationship with food, in all of its frustrating glory. Think messy, think authentic.