How do your category, your strategy and your brand measure up to the biggest consumer trends driving the food industry?
If you are trying to figure out the best strategy for your business - and what direction you should take with new product development - this unique report will help you answer those questions. Written in an accessible style, illustrated with charts and graphics, 10 Key Trends sets out:
- The 10 most important long-term growth trends in nutrition & health.
- The consumer, market and science drivers for each trend.
- The direction of travel for each trend.
- Which strategies you can use for each trend.
- The time-horizon for each trend and strategy to deliver growth.
- Which strategies are established paths and which are emergent opportunities.
- Which strategies are higher-risk and which are lower-risk.
- How each strategy is developing, using real-world examples, consumer research, and examples of brand communications.
- And some examples of failed strategies to help you avoid repeating common mistakes.
This report will help you to interpret:
- What the trends mean for your business
- What you can do now
- What you must be planning for tomorrow
Hundreds of companies use 10 Key Trends to formulate strategy and consider product development and have been doing so for over 25 years. Companies from America to Japan, Australia to France, and Sweden to South Korea rely on this report and return to it again and again for ideas and inspiration. Companies value the fact that 10 Key Trends has opinions that are clearly expressed and backed up with information from sales data to science.
Who will benefit from reading 10 Key Trends?
- Brands, big or small, looking for a strategy direction or wanting to refine their strategy
- Ingredient suppliers trying to understand the opportunities for their products and how to help their customers succeed
- Researchers trying to figure out how to commercialise nutrition science
- Start-ups (or anyone contemplating a start-up)
- Investors looking to place their money wisely
Table of Contents
- The 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health 2025
- Introduction
- Key Trend summaries
- Category Opportunities
- Mega Trend 1: Weight wellness & metabolic health
- Mega Trend 2: Fragmentation of health beliefs
- Mega Trend 3: Naturally functional
- Mega Trend 4: Snackification at the heart of strategy
- Mega Trend 5: Sustainability
- Key Trend 1: Animal protein powers on
- Key Trend 2: Mood & mind
- Key Trend 3: Digestive wellness diversifies
- Key Trend 4: Carbs - better and fewer
- Key Trend 5: Energy 2.0
- Key Trend 6: Rethinking fat
- Key Trend 7: Real food
- Key Trend 8: Emergent blood sugar-friendly
- Key Trend 9: Plant protein
- Key Trend 10: Plants made convenient
List of Charts
Chart 1: Success comes from connecting to multiple trends
Chart 2: For younger consumers, social media is mainstream media
Chart 3: % of consumers reducing meat consumption
Chart 4: % of consumers increasing meat consumption
Chart 5: Today there has emerged an extreme diversity of consumer beliefs & behaviours about meat (US data)
Chart 6: Sustainability trails other purchase drivers
Chart 7: Packaging is the first way consumers see commitment to sustainability
Chart 8: Protein’s journey from sports niche to good for all
Chart 9: Protein continues to top American consumers’ priorities
Chart 10: Modern diets are already plant-based
Chart 11: Meat offers multiple benefits for consumers
Chart 12: Dairy protein’s many advantages
Chart 13: Grass-fed tops US Google searches for sustainability-related terms
Chart 14: Whey protein has a superior amino acid profile to any plant protein
Chart 15: The number of meat eaters is increasing
Chart 16: More people agree that meat belongs in a healthy lifestyle
Chart 17: Meat reducing is an older consumer behaviour
Chart 18: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 1, Animal protein
Chart 19: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 1, Animal protein
Chart 20: Eating for better mood is a behaviour driven by younger consumers
Chart 21: Eating for better mood skews towards female consumers
Chart 22: Top health benefits sought from food
Chart 23: Which of these foods are you eating to boost your mood and mental wellbeing? (average all 5 countries)
Chart 24: Which of these are you consuming to boost your mood and mental wellbeing? (US)
Chart 25: Number of published, peer-reviewed human studies on probiotics and a variety of mental health & mood conditions
Chart 26: % of consumers choosing foods that support hormone health, by age segment (average all 5 countries)
Chart 27: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 2, Mood & Mind
Chart 28: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 2, Mood & Mind
Chart 29: Siete connects with multiple key trends
Chart 30: A wide range of symptoms mean digestive wellness is one of the biggest consumer needs
Chart 31: Consumer interest in various aspects of gut health on social media continues to be dominated by probiotics
Chart 32: Probiotic products launched in Asia, Europe & Nth America
Chart 33: Interest in fibre skews toward older consumers
Chart 34: Evolution of US plant-based milk category, 1999 - 52 weeks to July 14 2024 ($m)
Chart 35: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 3, Digestive wellness
Chart 36: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 3, Digestive wellness
Chart 37: Which of the following foods do you think are bad or good for digestion? (average all 5 countries)
Chart 38: % of consumers trying to eat fewer carbs, by age segment (average all 5 countries)
Chart 39: % of consumers trying to eat fewer carbs, by gender (average all 5 countries)
Chart 40: Are you trying to eat fewer carbs? (average all 5 countries)
Chart 41: Percentage of consumers who say they are reducing their sugar consumption, by age-group
Chart 42: Global food & drink launches with monkfruit, 2014-Oct 2024
Chart 43: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 4, Carbs
Chart 44: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 4, Carbs
Chart 45: Top health benefits sought from food
Chart 46: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 5, Energy 2.0
Chart 47: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 5, Energy 2.0
Chart 48: Do you think the following fats are healthy or unhealthy? (USA)
Chart 49: Do you think the following fats are healthy or unhealthy? (Spain)
Chart 50: Consumers’ perceptions of what is a healthy fat are evolving (average of five countries)
Chart 51: US sales of butter have revived sharply over the last decade
Chart 52: Trend Diamond- Key Trend 6, Rethinking Fat
Chart 53: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 6, Rethinking Fat
Chart 54: Choosing real foods has evolved from early-adopters into the early mass market
Chart 55: % of consumers who say they try to avoid consuming UPFs
Chart 56: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 7, Real Food
Chart 57: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 7, Real Food
Chart 58: Health concerns associated with blood sugar management in published research (excl. diabetes), 2012-2024
Chart 59: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 8, Emergent Blood Sugar-Friendly
Chart 60: Product Life-cycle- Key Trend 8, Emergent Blood Sugar-Friendly
Chart 61: Global retail launches of plant-based protein powders surged between 2019-2020 but growth is slowing
Chart 62: Wide Open Agriculture has never come close to profitability
Chart 63: Consumer interest in almonds dwarfs that of other plant proteins
Chart 64: Consumer interest in nuts is increasing
Chart 65: US sales of plant-based cheese
Chart 66: US sales of plant-based ice cream
Chart 67: % of consumers who are trying to reduce meat consumption (average of all 5 countries)
Chart 68: US sales slide continues
Chart 69: UK sales slide continues
Chart 70: Trend Diamond - Key Trend 9, Plant Protein
Chart 71: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 9, Plant Protein
Chart 72: Trend Diamond- Key Trend 10, Plants Made Convenient
Chart 73: Product Life-cycle - Key Trend 10, Plants Made Convenient
