The poultry industry would appear to be well placed to take advantage of the leading trends in the food and beverage industry, aligning well with what consumers are expected to be looking for over the year ahead.
Market research concern Innova Market Insights has released its Top 10 Food and Beverage Trends 2025. It notes that, for example, consumers continue to be interested in health – an immediate win for poultry – sustainability – ditto – and inventive flavors – say no more!
While we should never crow at the misfortune of others, Innova notes that consumers are less than satisfied with plant-based foods, saying that the sector is looking at moving towards products that do not imitate meat. Yet another win for poultry!
Innova’s trends for 2025 are as follows:
Quality ingredients
Coming in at No. 1 in the Top 10 Food and Beverage Trends 2025 is what Innova calls Ingredients and Beyond – Elevating Standards.
Innova believes that product differentiation through ingredient quality is expected to have a significant impact on food and beverage products. Consumers want ingredients with elevated features, such as health benefits, nutrition, freshness and shelf life, and naturalness.
Precision wellness
The second trend to be identified by Innova is precision wellness. Most consumers are proactive about their health, Innova says, and this includes using nutrition to help manage health issues. The precision wellness trend combines personalization with balanced nutrition and convenience in functional food and beverage products.
Personalization can include products that are tailored to life stages, lifestyle, physical and mental health needs, and/or gender. Women’s health, weight management, mood support, and performance are among the key growth areas in precision wellness.
Wildly inventive flavors
The third trend for 2025 is wildly inventive flavors. Consumers are seeking fun and excitement from food and beverage products. They enjoy unexpected flavors, fusion cuisines, cobranded products, unusual formats, and limited editions.
Health
Health comes in as the fourth trend. Consumer focus is now back on gut health, which is again the top driver for functional food and beverage products.
Rethinking plant-based
Trend five is plant-based foods, and their manufacturers are having to rethink them. Consumers are not 100% satisfied with plant-based offerings, Innova says. They want products that are less processed, more natural, have better taste and texture, offer health benefits and support the environment.
Concerns about the health risks from eating ultra-processed foods are forcing companies to re-imagine their plant-based products. They are going back to the drawing board to develop products that do not mimic meat.
Sustainability
Sustainability, the sixth trend, identifies the connection between consumer awareness of climate change and manufacturers’’ sustainability efforts. Consumers are extremely aware of climate change and look for climate-related actions, such as sustainable farming practices.
Beauty
Trend seven is beauty foods. Surveys show that consumers are highly aware of face and body skin health, healthy hair, and other features associated with physical appearance. Anti-aging no longer limited to older consumers – younger consumers are now the most interested in anti-aging products.
Culture
Trend eight has been termed Food Culture. This trend is about reinventing tradition in food culture, including honoring authenticity and heritage. It includes innovating new products from traditional foundations.
Mood food
Trend nine is mood food. This trend reveals how consumer concerns about mental health have impacted product innovation trends over the past several years. Despite strong and growing consumer interest in mental health solutions, innovation in products for mood, focus, sleep, and other benefits remains underdeveloped.
Artificial intelligence
Trend ten – artificial intelligence (AI). Brands are beginning to unlock AI’s full power. AI is in growing use for speeding up product innovation, identifying ingredients, developing product formulations, creating flavors, automating production, protecting food safety, and supporting sustainability, Expect to see AI disruption in the coming years, as well as brand communications and claims about the benefits of AI for products.
