Expect blood sugar, hormone health, and mental health management to receive more attention in 2025 — Mintel

• Fundamentally nutritious: the emergence of weight-loss medications like Ozempic will redefine consumer perceptions of ‘food as medicine’ from being an added functional ingredient, to necessary to meeting daily essential nutrient needs. Mintel suggests brands streamline their health claims to the critical nutrients they contain to appeal to people who are using weight-loss drugs, as well as the majority of consumers who define their diets based on their individual needs and how food makes them feel. “Increased adoption of personal data collection will happen at the same time as consumers paying more attention to two metrics that are key to how GLP-1 weight-loss drugs work in the body: blood sugar and hormone health. Rising interest in blood sugar could increase the demand for low-glycemic formulas, as well as blood sugar monitoring beyond just diabetics. For hormone health, brands can support men and women as they navigate hormonal changes brought on by ageing.”

• Rule rebellion: embrace consumers as ‘perfectly imperfect’ beings who are hungry for brands that help them ‘break the rules’ in food and drink. Brands can lean into how consumers want to, or actually, consume food and drink rather than how they feel they ‘should’. By supporting these rebellious tendencies, brands can help consumers feel more represented by the outside-the-norm food and drink choices available to them. Mintel sees potential for ‘rule-breaking’ innovation from food and drink brands that are feeling the pressure to be sustainable, despite knowing that consumers won’t necessarily pay more for eco-credentials. “Innovative brands can create new norms by developing products with unfamiliar sustainable ingredients that can be marketed on their unique taste,” Mintel concludes.

• Chain reaction: as disruptions to the food supply become more frequent, the industry will need to encourage consumers to welcome and trust the new origins, ingredients and flavours that will emerge locally and globally. In an increasingly volatile world, food and drink brands will have to clearly communicate how adjustments from local to global sourcing were made to benefit consumers. “Looking ahead, more ingredients will be sourced from alternative and potentially more reliable growing regions, such as olive oil from Algeria or Peru. Brands can highlight the benefits of diversified sourcing, such as nuanced flavour variations. Many consumers’ local-centric identities will be transformed by social media, immigration and travel,” Mintel wrote.

• Hybrid harvests: food and drink companies will need to illustrate how technology and agriculture work together to benefit consumers, farmers and the environment. Brands can tap into consumers being open to technological advances that, for example, enhance convenience. “Over the next few years, food and drink brands must prioritise how these technological advancements benefit the consumer first through better taste, greater nutrition or consistent supply — and the environment second. It will be imperative that new technology is humanised, particularly AI. For example, German juice brand Eckes-Granini’s marketing video announcing its partnership with Microsoft draws attention to how this technology makes a positive difference in their producers’ lives, not just making production more efficient.”

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