2025 trends to watch: Functionality, sustainability, comfort flavors continue growth

“We are expecting functional, flavorful options to be really high on shopping lists. Foods that signal better for you or healthy, along with superfoods — berries and mushrooms — will all hit in this category. Superfoods have been steadily growing share over the last several years, and we are continuing to see that trend upwards,” said Jessica Janson, category management and shopper insights at brokerage firm C.A. Fortune.

Functionality, fusion flavor trends persist into 2025

Protein remains crucial to consumers, and the velocity of grocery products with 25-30 grams of proteins is 60% higher than those with no protein, according to SPINS MULO data for the year ending Oct. 6.

“A key trend that we have been seeing for the past decade, and we will continue to see is high protein within product offerings. So, these products were initially created in response to consumer demand for higher protein products, due largely in part to health and wellness concerns. The development of these offerings began with products that already contain protein, namely milk,” Janson said.

She added, “Since then, we have seen this type of innovation expand into more traditional grocery categories such as breakfast and snacks, along with that product packaging has been redesigned to call consumer attention more specifically to the protein content of the product.”

Elsewhere, shoppers are turning to berries as a superfood and functional mushrooms for “benefits related to mood and stress, brain health and cognition and immunity,” with “mushrooms alone accounting for $1.6 billion in sales and seeing double-digit growth versus a year ago,” Janson said.

Additionally, consumers demand flavor with functionality through global fusions and authentic flavors, while also finding moments to indulge and eat comfort foods like mac and cheese and the salty-sweet combo of ice cream and French fries, Janson noted.

“Shoppers are also looking for spicy and bold flavors. Global fusion flavor combinations that they were finding in restaurants are now making their way into the house on the dinner table, such as Korean Mexican and Asian Italian combinations. Shoppers are looking for authentic flavors. They [do not want] those watered-down versions,” she elaborated.

Consumers seek granular details on ingredient sourcing

In 2025, consumers will do more “research on which companies truly are the friends of the planet,” driving demand for a range of sustainability-focused products, explained Sara Laughlin, director of national insights at C.A. Fortune.

“Consumers are going to be seeking that detailed sourcing information about the origins of their food. So, this increased demand reflects the broader trend that we have seen towards transparency and accountability in our overall industry, and now we are really getting to it with the shoppers themselves. So, both retailers and manufacturers must prioritize openness regarding their supply chains, including insights into their sourcing and production practices,” she elaborated.

In September, Mintel released​ a global report on the sustainability trends that showed consumers resorting to “self-preservation” and searching more frequently for products with water conservation and air quality, Richard Cope, senior trends consultant at Mintel previously shared.  

Roughly a third (34%) of global consumers cite concerns about air quality, while "30% of US consumers say plastic pollution is one of their top three environmental concerns,” Cope said. Additionally, 30% of global consumers said that a Nutri-score-style system for sustainability will help them make purchases, the report found.

However, 35% of global shoppers said that they do not trust companies to be honest about their environmental impact, and 43% of US consumers and 37% of UK shoppers turned to activists to raise their awareness on sustainability issues.