Innova 2025 trends include healthy ingredients, unique flavors

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Innova 2025 trends include healthy ingredients, unique flavors

2 Jan 2025

Lily Cota

Lily Cota is a writer, editor and photographer from Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated from Missouri State University with a Bachelor of Science in English and a minor in Photography. When she’s not writing, you can find her reading fantasy novels, thrifting, trying out local coffee shops and spending time with her nieces.

ARNHEM, NL — Innova, a global market insights provider, released its top trends for 2025, which include launch categories, product attributes, ingredient choices and on-package claims.

Through extensive research, Innova identified the following 10 trends of the upcoming year:

Trend #1 – Ingredients and Beyond

Consumers are prioritizing high-quality ingredients with health benefits, higher nutrition, freshness, shelf life and naturalness. Protein exemplifies this trend, with consumers shifting their lens from protein content to protein quality, with elevated standards that incorporate additional benefits.

Trend #2 – Precision Wellness

As health and wellness remains top of mind for consumers, there is a growing demand for personalization and tailored nutrition plans. Brands are being challenged to meet targeted needs at all life stages, combining personalization with balanced nutrition and convenience in functional food. A few key areas of precision wellness include women’s health, age-specific solutions and lifestyle-based nutrition.

Trend #3 – Flavors: Wildly Inventive

Innova’s trend research revealed 43% of global consumers seek unique creations that deliver indulgence. Bold flavors and mashups have seen a significant surge due in part to social media generating consumer curiosity. Over the past five years, seasonal products and those with limited-edition claims have garnered 16% annual growth on average.

Trend #4 – Gut Health: Flourish from Within

Growing consumer awareness of microbiomes and a refocus on gut health, particularly in older generations, is driving food and beverage purchases. Product launches boasting digestive health claims have increased by 8% in the past year. The gut-healthy ingredients consumers are looking for include fiber, vitamin D and probiotics.

Trend #5 – Plant-Based: Rethinking Plants

Continuing to trend upward, plant-based products and natural ingredients are increasingly important to consumers, who are not completely satisfied with today’s plant-based offerings. Consumers are searching for more natural, less processed options with improved taste, texture, health benefits and environmental impact.

Trend #6 – Sustainability: Climate Adaption

The industry has seen a clear rise in brands opting for more sustainable packaging, ingredients and farming practices due to rising concern for the planet and growing consumer desire for everyday sustainability. The impact of climate change on crops such as cocoa, coffee and olive oil is driving brands to innovate with alternatives and new formulations.

Trend #7 – Taste the Glow

This trend reflects consumer interest in beauty-enhancing food and beverages. Over the past five years, product launches with skin health claims experienced a 15% growth, driven primarily by younger generations. Vitamins, a key ingredient driving this growth, present opportunities for brands to create products that target skin and hair health.

Trend #8 – Food Culture: Tradition Reinvented

Consumer desire to reconnect with culinary heritage and embrace authenticity and tradition has led brands to reintroduce old recipes and infuse global flavors. Bringing one culture’s traditional flavors to another can satisfy consumer demand for authentic global cuisine. Local ingredients, familiar flavor profiles and traditional cooking techniques mark the top three most important aspects of traditional food and beverages for consumers globally.

Trend #9 – Mood Food: Mindful Choices

Mental health is a top priority for consumers, with 36% globally identifying emotional wellbeing as their primary health goal. This has led to a growing demand for products featuring vitamins such as B6, B9, B12, C, D and magnesium. Botanical ingredients are also emerging as effective stress-relief solutions.

Trend #10 – AI: Bytes to Bites

Brands are starting to utilize AI to elevate consumer experience, leading to exponential growth. The technology is being used to accelerate product innovation, identify ingredients, develop formulation, create flavors, automate production, ensure food safety and promote sustainability.

As the industry enters 2025, brands should keep an eye out for these trends and implement them into their products to appeal to consumers and drive growth.

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