Food Trends Report 2024

Next year’s forecast reveals a reframing of familiar trends and renewed focus on relevance, with sustainability, health and world flavours all set to drive developments.

Plant-based overhaul


Despite waning interest and investment over the last 12 months, the plant-based sector remains a strong focus for consumers, manufactures and developers. Growing awareness of its sustainability credentials is helping to drive continued demand, particularly in the context of reducing our impact on the planet. 


What has changed, however, is that consumers are feeling the cost-of-living squeeze and are therefore sometimes prioritising value and dropping anything considered a luxury from their weekly shop. Given the premium price point of many meat and dairy alternatives, it’s not surprising we’ve already seen several companies decide to streamline product ranges rather than flood the market with new plant-based concepts.

In the short term, we expect to see more brands leaning into environmental platforms and building on the success of established categories, such as oat milk. Whatever route is taken, the sector will have to adapt and pivot to give consumers what they want.


What’s next? New technologies such as cultured meat are paving the way for plant-based innovation, but it may be a little longer for this to trickle down to the everyday consumer. Expect brands to focus their attention in the short-term on products that are performing well rather than expand ranges.   

Mood boosting beverages


 In the established functional beverage space, we’re starting to see an interesting dynamic between two contrasting trends – energy and calm.


The ever-popular energy drinks sector continues to benefit from the gaming community’s quest for improved mental focus during intensive sessions. Meanwhile, the launch of highly caffeinated, viral sensation Prime Energy sparked a social media craze and a global industry debate. Following initial success, Prime has launched non-caffeinated variants rich in natural ingredients.   


At the other end of the mood spectrum, there’s growing interest in drinks that help to improve sleep quality. Dubbed the ‘anti-energy’ trend, this is all about countering the stresses of everyday life with natural remedies formulated to promote rest and relaxation. But exactly how and to what extent this trend evolves remains to be seen. TikTok’s ‘sleepy girl mocktail’ – a blend of tart cherry juice and magnesium – generated a huge number of views, yet PepsiCo’s first move into this space resulted in its wind down water Driftwell being pulled after only 18 months.