As we head into 2025, you’ll see a lot of trend lists filled with very particular foods, flavors, ingredients, cuisines, etc. While you should keep those options in your toolbox, it’s worth taking a step backing to understand the true consumer needs that you are aiming to address with a new product.
Looking to the year ahead, the overarching consumer need is that they want something new. They want fresh ideas, unique options that break through the noise, and innovations that are engaging and exciting – something that’s enough to wake them up from their “bed rotting” and “doom scrolling.”
Here are five ways to give them the novel food experiences they demand:
2025 Consumer Need 1: “Give me new sensory experiences.”
When we asked consumers which senses they prioritize when making a food purchase, 69% put “taste” at or near the top, unsurprisingly. But “aroma” wasn’t far behind at 61%, yet it’s a sense we still don’t focus on enough as we develop new products.
Consumers want options that excite all five senses—indeed a shocking 30% of consumers say they would even give up their sense of taste in order to heighten the other senses while eating. In this age of ASMR videos and fidget spinners, consumers are looking to get hands-on with their food and experience the sounds of a crunch or squish.
2025 Consumer Need 2: “Give me new ways and options to value.”
2024 was the year of prices and combo meals. But focusing on ever-lower prices often devalues a brand in the consumer’s mind—and makes it harder to raise prices when it’s necessary in the future. In 2025, earn the price. Very few consumer food decisions are based on price alone. When we asked consumers which attributes increase the value of a food or beverage item, while price came out on top with 57% of consumers selecting it, quality wasn’t far behind at 55% (and this is when price is supposed to be overwhelmingly top-of-mind for so many consumers right now). Health, convenience, and uniqueness rounded out the top five considerations.
In 2025, focus on the entire value proposition, including attributes like quality, whether it’s better for the consumer, and how it fits into their life.
2025 Consumer Need 3: “Give me bold new experiences.”
Consumers have been in a funk for the past few years. They’ve been anxious, tired, and overwhelmed. They’ve been inundated with comfort foods, safe options, and the same trends over and over again (“Why does everything have to have hot honey on it?” commented one TikTok user on a pizza shop’s video).
It’s time to start innovating again, introducing consumers to bold, unique new foods and flavors that can break through and get them excited again. That can mean can be bold, even weird branding (think of Nutter Butters’ new social media campaign); bold flavor profiles (is there any limit to how much spice and heat consumers will want?); or bold ideas (can you rethink an entire daypart or category?).
2025 Consumer Need 4: “Give me new ways to escape.”
2024 was a record year for travel as consumers jetted off to hot destinations like Portugal, Italy, the UK, Japan, Greece, Mexico City, and Croatia. Now those consumers are looking for the foods, flavors, and beverages that they discovered in those countries—37% of consumers say they always or regularly look for the foods, ingredients, and flavors from countries they’ve visited. At the same time, budgets are being squeezed after all that travel, which means many consumers may not have the means for extravagant vacations in 2025.
Brands can give them other ways to escape through food experiences, focusing on next-level global foods (think Japanese tanghulu or Mexican salsa negra), marketing campaigns (“travel to Japan with our new cherry blossom flavor”), or other ways that consumers can escape the everyday (like a “Summerween” offering that adds the excitement of a holiday to the summer).
2025 Consumer Need 5: “Give me the human touch.”
AI is everywhere, algorithms are making decisions for us, and now even our food experiences are often mediated through screens. Yet, or possibly because of those factors, consumers still want that human touch. While 59% of consumers say that AI can come up with a recipe that’s just as delicious as what a chef would come up with, 66% would still rather have a dish made by a human. The human touch stands out more than ever to consumers. In 2025, find ways to infuse human connection, tactile interaction, and true hospitality into every food experience.
Menu Matters
Menu Matters is a food industry consulting firm that partners with both foodservice and retail manufacturing clients who are overwhelmed by the relentless flow of data, trends, and information. Maeve Webster and Mike Kostyo leverage their expertise in food industry research -- as well as their culinary training -- to distill big picture thinking into relevant, ownable solutions with tangible goals and results. Research, reports, trend immersions, content development, presentations, events -- whatever the need, Menu Matters is where the food industry brings their questions and problems and finds a partner that uncovers the clear path forward.
