After a very turbulent year the UK hospitality industry is looking forward to 2025 and the exciting trends that consumer behaviour is driving. After scouring reports and insights from several different sources, we’re pleased to share the five key food trends that QSR’s, pubs, restaurants, cafés, coffee shops, and food vendors of any kind can expect in 2025.
More focus on healthy eating options
Consumers are focusing on healthy options and trying to incorporate more protein and fibre into their diets. There are opportunities here for eateries of all kinds to adapt their menus in a few impactful ways, including:
- Changing some bread products to wholewheat options such as wholewheat burger buns or tortilla wraps.
- Adding labels to menus that highlight which food is high in fibre and how much protein is in each dish.
- Including 1-of-your-5-a-day items as part of meal deals.
These changes appeal to consumers who enjoy eating high fat and high sugar foods on occasion but still want to make healthy choices alongside their indulgent ones.
Next level lunchtimes
Looking at a particular mealtime now, lunch in 2025 is going to see an increase in premium options. Alongside the trend of consumers choosing healthier options, typical lunch choices will start to include more premium salads, bao buns, and high-quality meats and sauces.
This is a great opportunity for typical and non-typical lunch spots to diversify thier lunch options and incorporate the latest food trends into exciting offerings that entice consumers away from boring packed lunches.
Spotlight on local ingredients and dishes
The UK and Republic of Ireland has a plethora of delicious regional dishes that aren’t that popular across the different nations and 2025 is the year that will change. Expect more menus to feature Irish, Welsh, and Scottish dishes, with extra care taken to highlight the local areas ingredients have been sourced from.
Although global flavours will stay a huge part of the food scene in 2025, bringing closer-to-home regional dishes into the spotlight reflects the trend that UK consumers appreciate exploring similar flavour profiles whilst still discovering something new. It is more important than ever to UK consumers to know where their food is coming from, which is why drawing attention to the regions that meat and dairy products come from will be emphasised.
Global flavours coming to the UK in 2025
2025 is going to be a fun year for exploring global cuisines we already love in new ways, as lesser-known dishes from Turkey, Greece, and Portugal start to appear on our menus. We’re all familiar with kebabs, but Turkish Pide is becoming popular and Portuguese cuisine offers more than peri-peri chicken. As established favourites in the UK already, new dishes from these countries will be easier to introduce to consumers.
Also growing in popularity and expected to become more mainstream in 2025, is Argentinian cuisine and food from the southern states of America cuisines – Creole, Cajun and Soul. This means we can look forward to more empanadas and chimichurri, as well as boudin, gumbo, jambalaya, and barbecued meats influenced by a blend of West African, Central African, French, Spanish, and Indigenous American flavours and cooking techniques.
Seasonal ingredients and fusions
Continuing the trend from recent years, making good use of seasonal ingredients keeps costs down and creates a limited time for consumers to enjoy, encouraging a sense of urgency and repeat business. Restaurants, café’s, pub’s, QSR’s and food vendors of all types can highlight their use of seasonal ingredients to generate interest from consumers and keep their menus fresh and exciting.
To make even more out of seasonal produce, innovators in the food industry are combining seasonal ingredients with cuisines they aren’t usually associated with – creating new fusions that appeal to consumers.
The food trends hitting the UK in 2025 are ripe with opportunities. Takeaways, coffee shops, pubs, and other eateries can expand their menus, improve communication about what is in their food, and encourage repeat business with exciting and limited offerings.
Whatever trends you focus on, make sure you’re using branded food packaging and greaseproof paper to highlight your brand and encourage consumers to take and share photos of your food.
