Editor’s Note: For a comprehensive 2025 look at all the angles associated with regenerative agriculture, Prepared Foods interviewed Tina Owens, founder of Snowehaven Regeneration and a strategist and futurist within the US organic and regenerative agriculture movements.
In 2025, consumers will increasingly view food as part of their overall wellness routine. They expect meals to support not just physical health but also mental well-being and mood enhancement. This shift continues to drive the desire for functional foods—think beverages fortified with adaptogens, snacks rich in prebiotics/probiotics, and nutrient-dense meal replacements.
Fresh Thyme Market and SPINS partner to issue predictions for grocery trends in the year ahead
November 20, 2024
""Our annual trends report helps us not only understand the needs of our shoppers, but ensures we're exciting them by curating our shelves with the most fresh, innovative and local products,” said Fresh Thyme Market president Liz Zolcak. “Our shoppers are savvy, so it's important they know innovation is at our core and we can help them discover new products – often before they're available anywhere else in the Midwest."
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.”
This new report identifies key consumer insights across 134 trends in the alcoholic beverage industry, spanning beer, cider, wine, cocktails, seltzer, and spirits. It highlights "10 Mega Trends to Know," including alcohol-free options, global flavor influences, health-driven "better-for-you" beverages, emerging sensory experiences, and sustainability's growing impact on producers.
The Innova Market Insights Top 10 Trends 2025 presents both new trends and trends that have evolved over several years, for example, plant-based, into a new set of exciting trends that will be highly relevant to CPG manufacturers in the months to come.
Comprising 20 experts from diverse segments of the culinary world, the SFA Trendspotters track emerging specialty food and beverage products in their own work and at the bi-annual SFA Fancy Food Shows, thereby getting an early look at the flavors, formats, and ideas that will hit mainstream retailers and restaurants sooner than later.
There will be an increase in diversified ingredient sourcing, while the humanization of technology will be essential for consumers who are apprehensive about technology being used to create, modify and produce the food they put into their bodies.
The Whole Foods Market Trends Council – a collective of more than 50 Whole Foods Market team members ranging from foragers and buyers to culinary experts – develop these trend predictions each year through a combination of deep industry experience, keen observation of consumer preferences, and collaborative sessions with emerging and established brands.
The trend predictions are developed by Kroger's industry-leading team of food experts including Our Brands' product developers, chefs, buyers, culinary specialists and Kroger's retail data science arm, 84.51º, for a well-rounded projection of what customers will be buzzing about for the upcoming year.