2025 IN SIGHT: KEY FIGURES AND TRENDS SHAPING THE FUTURE OF FOOD

The numbers alone tell a story of scale in transition. The global food and beverages market is estimated at around USD 8.71 trillion in 2025, with forecasts pointing toward almost USD 14.72 trillion by 2034, driven by wellness, convenience and new formats of consumption. At the same time, the FAO Food Price Index, which measures the monthly change in international prices of a basket of food commodities, has retreated to about 21.9% below its March 2022 peak, signalling that the worst of the price shock is over, even if volatility has become part of the landscape.

Beyond the headline figures, the biggest story of 2025 is how differently people now buy, cook and snack, and how producers are racing to keep up.

After the price spike, a new normal at the till

For many households, 2025 did not feel like a boom year, even as indexes softened. FAO data shows the global Food Price Index averaging 125.1 points in November, down 2.1% on the year and far below war-time peaks, but still well above pre-pandemic levels.

This lingering pressure reshaped shopping baskets. In the UK, analysts describe a “meat to beans gap”: between 2020 and 2025, average supermarket meat prices rose to £11.38 (about €13) per kilo, with beef and lamb almost doubling in some categories, while fresh pulses increased by only £0.45 (around €0.51) per kilo. Consumers responded by shifting from beef to pork and chicken, and, in many cases, to legumes and tofu. A separate report showed beef mince sales down 11% while pork and chicken mince surged, as shoppers searched for protein that fit tighter budgets.

The plant-based boom of the late 2010s has also cooled. Market data from the United States indicates that almost all plant-based meat and dairy categories are down in 2025, with sales declines following earlier slowdowns in 2022 and 2023.

Retailers are quietly trimming underperforming lines and focusing on core meat offerings or simpler plant proteins such as beans and lentils. What remains is not a collapse of the protein transition but a more sober, value-conscious version of it.

Meanwhile, global food production is still rising, with forecasts of 2.4% growth in 2025 and even higher in 2026, led by Asia Pacific. In other words, the world is producing more food at slightly lower prices, but consumers are far more deliberate about how every calorie and euro is spent.

From plant-based 1.0 to precision-fermented 2.0

If the first wave of disruption was about pea burgers and oat lattes, 2025’s frontier sits inside stainless-steel tanks. Precision fermentation has moved from slide decks to scaled projects. A major global review this year highlighted how the technology can produce specific proteins, enzymes, fats and flavour molecules for everyday foods.

Fermentation is also being explored as a safety net for crops under climate stress. Analysts in Asia have flagged its potential to produce cocoa and coffee components at scale, just as traditional supply chains struggle with extreme weather and plant disease. With cocoa prices having reached record highs earlier in the year, putting festive chocolate on par with premium cuts of meat in some markets, the idea of “brewable” cocoa ingredients suddenly feels less experimental and more necessary.

These technologies are not replacing farms overnight. They are, however, seeping into everything from bakery improvers to innovative drinks designed for gut health, performance or recovery, where added proteins and functional ingredients can command a premium. As intellectual property around new proteins and processing methods accumulates, this quieter layer of the food processing industry is likely to be one of the most fiercely contested arenas of the coming years.

Wellness, algorithms and the rise of the snackable day

Perhaps the most unexpected disruptor of 2025’s food landscape came not from a farm or factory but from the pharmacy. The rapid adoption of GLP-1 weight-loss medications such as Ozempic, has started to reshape how millions of people eat. Analysts estimate that the GLP-1 food and beverage market has already reached USD 53 billion, with users projected to account for around 35% of global food and beverage sales by 2030.

Retailers are already seeing behaviour change. In the UK, Waitrose reported that 57% of surveyed customers sometimes swap full meals for snack-style foods, a trend partly linked to the appetite-suppressing effects of GLP-1 injections and partly to more flexible lifestyles. Food manufacturers have responded with high-protein yoghurts, portion-controlled ready meals and dessert brands marketed as “GLP-1 friendly”, a sign of how quickly health-tech narratives spill into supermarket aisles.

At the same time, functional beverages have moved from niche to mainstream across Europe, North America and parts of Asia. New drinks emphasise fibre for gut health, adaptogens like ashwagandha and reishi for stress, and nootropics for focus, often in sugar-free or low-alcohol formats. The “afternoon energy drink” or “sleep-supporting nightcap” has become as normal as morning coffee.

Where the future of food meets in person

For all the algorithms and fermentation tanks, the food story of 2025 still needs physical meeting points. Trade shows have taken on a new role as live dashboards of global change, where buyers, producers and innovators can see which ideas have survived the turbulence of the past few years.

Within the SIAL Network, each international food trade show now functions as a kind of real-world laboratory. Across Paris, Shanghai, Montreal, Jakarta and beyond, these events feel less like static fairs and more like a roaming food innovation exhibition, where the shifting balance between indulgence, health, affordability and sustainability is on open display.

In 2025, the biggest change in food and beverage is perhaps this: the sense that the industry is no longer chasing a single megatrend, but learning to navigate a more complex, permanently fluid future. The SIAL Network’s role, in that context, is to keep providing a shared table where every part of the food world can compare notes on what comes next.

Image credits:
Towfiqu Barbuiya - Unsplash
Aleksander Saks - Unsplash
Ivan S - Pexels