IFT’s Science and Policy Initiatives Team Unveils Predictions for 2025
As we’ve written a few times recently, 2025 could see more change coming at the food & beverage industry than it’s seen in a long time, maybe ever. IFT’s Science and Policy Initiatives (SPI) team today unveiled its predictions for the trends that will shape food science and technology conversations in 2025.
First, it’s worth noting what has already occurred in the waning days of 2024. Last month, the FDA updated its definition of what foods qualify as “healthy,” modifying a set of criteria that hadn’t been revised in three decades. The new definition is consistent with the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which are set to be updated for 2025-2030 by the end of this year. And with a new administration taking over Washington…
Here are SPI’s top 10 food and beverage trends for the coming year:
1. The rise in GLP-1 medications will accelerate product innovation. 2024 kicked off with more questions than answers surrounding the impact of GLP-1 weight loss medications on the food industry. But 2025 will bring clarity: GLP-1 is not going away. The global GLP-1 market is forecast to grow at a 29.6%annually through 2030. While increased usage of GLP-1 medications will mean decreased overall food consumption, it also opens up opportunities for premiumization, driving food companies to adapt existing products and create new ones that focus on the protein, gut health and nutrient needs of the GLP-1 user.
2. Salt and sugar reduction activities will dominate food headlines. Formulating reduced-sugar and reduced-salt products has been ongoing for quite some time, but updated policies, from front-of-pack labeling to voluntary government-industry commitments, coupled with a consumer focus on health policy, will accelerate the development or alteration of food products with less salt and sugar. A new rule from USDA, announced last April, will limit added sugars to 10% of the calories in school meals by 2027. The 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans are expected to provide new recommendations around salt and sugar reduction.
3. “Food is Medicine” receives a stronger push and greater integration from wide-ranging demographics. With Food is Medicine continuing to make headway in policy, research and institutions, more people are embracing it across varying demographics. Holistic approaches to health will continue in 2025 and beyond as consumers seek to improve health conditions and prevent health-related issues through food. Like consumers, government is embracing this movement. The Dept. of Health and Human Services developed a Food is Medicine initiative in 2023 to reduce nutrition-related chronic diseases and has hosted events on the subject.
4. Clean label is not going away. Consumers are increasingly prioritizing the ingredients in their food and are purchasing products with ingredients that are easy to understand. The perception of food being healthier if prepared in a consumer’s home kitchen will persist as the focus on ultraprocessed foods intensifies.
5. Chemical additive approvals and post-market reviews will intensify. Food additive approvals and GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) processes will be under the microscope in 2025. The future of certain additives will be closely scrutinized and ultimately lead to a shift in reformulation that could have wide-reaching implications. The 2023 passage of the California Food Safety Act that banned four food additives inspired nearly a dozen states to attempt to pass similar legislation the following year. Although no other state has been successful to date, consumer and state legislator concerns and perceptions continue to push for removal of certain ingredients. There will also be increased focus on the FDA post-market review assessment of chemicals in food.
6. High-profile recalls will drive greater investment in food safety. The ability to quickly trace food from source to plate has become a more dire need in the wake of many recent high-profile food recalls (i.e., McDonald’s and Boar’s Head), making tech-enabled traceability a priority for food companies around the world. In the U.S., food companies also face the quickly approaching compliance deadline for the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act, Rule 204 (the Food Traceability Rule) in January 2026.
7. Naturally occurring and adulterant chemical contaminants will continue to be a focus, with all eyes on the FDA’s Closer to Zero program. The FDA’s Closer to Zero initiative—meant to reduce dietary exposure to contaminants while maintaining access to nutritious food—is, at its core, designed to protect vulnerable populations such as children and pregnant women. Specifically, the focus has been on arsenic, lead, cadmium and mercury in some foods.
8. Artificial intelligence will continue its takeover of the food lab… AI use cases will expand exponentially in 2025. AI’s impact will be felt everywhere from lab counters to kitchen counters as organizations develop tools to leverage it to accelerate development and capture consumer insight to build efficiency and drive innovation.
9. …and its presence will also be felt in the kitchen. Consumers and chefs will increasingly lean into AI for recipes and healthy decision-making, especially in ingredient substitutions. AI will also become more commonplace in quality control, especially in restaurants, to ensure all meals meet the same high standard.
10. Investment in agri/food tech will restart after a lengthy pause. More support around food innovation will reignite private and venture capital investment in agri/food tech, which had been stagnant over the past couple of years. PitchBook noted in its Q1 2024 Agtech Report that global venture capital investments in the agtech industry dropped to a six-year low in Q1 of 2024, but there have been positive signs heading into 2025 that the investment market is set to rebound with multi-billion-dollar investments in agri-food transformation.