With over 1,500 suppliers spread across more than four halls, the Food & Drink Expo 2025 was a veritable goldmine of trends and inspiration, revealing what’s driving the FMCG space. Standout themes included TikTok-driven microtrends now available as ready-to-buy convenience options, wellness trickling down from healthcare to offer snacks and drinks promising instant support, lipsmacking treats, and a strong commitment to sustainability across the board. Here, we spotlight some of the most exciting trends dominating the conversation right now.

The future of the humble cardboard carton is looking bright. During conversations with leading packaging experts at the show, it became clear that this space holds exciting potential. In 2027, the UK Deposit Return Scheme is set to launch, requiring customers to pay a refundable deposit on single-use drinks containers made of plastic, steel, and aluminium.

As a result, it’s anticipated that innovation in the carton space will surge, as drinks manufacturers seek sustainable alternatives to reduce this extra cost for consumers. Sustainable cartons, being both lightweight and recyclable, offer an eco-friendly packaging solution that appeals to environmentally-conscious consumers. Brands like Nobl Water, seen at the show, are just the beginning, with many others set to follow suit in 2025 and beyond.

As regulations push for more sustainable systems, the Eco Guardian sees innovation in cartons as a critical step toward reducing waste and reshaping industry norms – all while keeping conscious consumption accessible.

With growing awareness of the risks UPFs pose to our bodies, alongside a desire for not only more natural ingredients but also active ingredients that can positively impact our health—improving everything from digestive function to mental cognition—it’s no surprise that wellness was a consistent theme throughout the show.

From fermented ingredients like the democratisation of kombucha to soft drinks offering added fibre, the opportunity to enhance daily wellbeing was evident. As one expert highlighted during the event, unlike the pharmaceutical space, where proactive care is taking the lead, FMCG tends to respond reactively to perceived threats to our wellbeing, expecting immediate improvement or benefits.

For the Wellness Trailblazer, the next frontier of wellbeing lies in everyday choices – where fibre-enhanced drinks and fermented ingredients aren’t trends, but tools in a daily pursuit of optimal health. As the world wakes up to the shortcomings of reactive health solutions, the Wellness Trailblazer continues to lead the way – embracing functional ingredients and next-gen nutrition that fuel body, mind, and longevity.

Another consistent theme in the wellness space was the strong presence of bone broth, which is clearly gaining momentum and shelf space for 2025, and beyond. As a valuable addition in the fight against ultra-processed foods and with strong perceived sustainability benefits—due to its use of animal parts that might otherwise be discarded—bone broth is a fantastic natural source of several vitamins, minerals, and proteins.

It appeals to a broad (and growing) audience, from parents looking to strengthen the health of family mealtimes, to those seeking to increase their protein intake as part of a fitness and wellness regime, to individuals aiming to enhance their lifespan. We expect to see this trend continue with increasingly innovative packaging options, as well as more science-driven advancements in plant-based alternatives.

For the Routine Ritualist, bone broth is more than a trend – it’s a grounding daily practice that supports strength, stability, and long-term wellbeing, one nourishing sip at a time. It’s rise reflects what the Routine Ritualist knows best: that wellness isn’t about extremes, but about consistent, nourishing rituals that deliver lasting benefits.

Freeze-dried confectionery is a major player in the dominant ‘newstalgia’ movement, effortlessly straddling multiple trends while offering retailers a huge opportunity to bring exciting new products to market that tap into the TikTok-fuelled craze of recent years. Thanks to innovation in both manufacturing and packaging, this trend has firmly made its way to the mass-manufacturing stage.

For the candy brands we loved as kids, it’s a fresh chance to bring those classic sweets back in a whole new form. Bright, bold colours, garish illustrations, and funky typography are clearly aimed at younger audiences. On the flip side, gourmet options cater to more mature sweet tooths, offering healthier versions in chic packaging.

For the Track & Trend consumer, freeze-dried candy is a bold remix of the familiar – a shareable, snackable moment that turns nostalgia into next-gen cool. With eye-popping packaging and TikTok cred, it’s more than a sweet treat – it’s a social flex.

As freeze-dried candy makes its way from TikTok’s FYPs to supermarket shelves, we’re also seeing beloved snacks, treats, and foodie trends go global and hit the retail scene, with a strong presence at this year’s show – and there’s no sign of slowing down.

One key point to note about some of these trends, from matcha and bubble tea to the Dubai chocolate phenomenon, is that they’re rooted in local traditions or were previously only available in specialised cafes. The process of bringing these items to the mainstream is still evolving, with a focus on staying true to the authenticity and heritage they come from.

And of course, there seems to be no limit to what hot honey can be paired with.

For the Savvy Saver, trend doesn’t have to mean premium. From matcha to hot honey, today’s global flavours are more than hype – they’re smart, flavourful ways to indulge in cultural discovery without the café markup.

The canned cocktail space is yet another example of a FYP brought to life. The convenience of this market shows no signs of slowing down, and the winners will be premium and high-quality, and increasingly convenient for customers to grab on the go.

Highly Instagrammable options are moving beyond the oversaturated gin space – it’s officially the time of the ‘tini. And with summer upon us, the beloved negroni – often tricky to perfect at the bar – is a prime candidate for growth in a ready-to-go format.

The shift away from sweet and botanical gin options is also welcoming a more adventurous range of flavours, mixing sweet and savoury, sweet and spicy, and even fermented ingredients for that wellness boost.

For the Beauty Harmonist, a canned cocktail is more than convenient – it’s a curated moment of aesthetic pleasure, where premium flavour, refined design, and wellness-infused indulgence come together to elevate both mood and setting.

Beautifully-bottled and beautifully-illustrated packaging was abound at the expo, with packaging anyone would be proud to display on their tables or kitchen shelves. This not only spoke to the quality of the brand and therefore the product, it supported the sustainable ideal of a product which might be refilled, reused, reloved.

Illustrations were often used to speak to the local origins of the brand, providing a generous dose of authenticity, and showcasing the quality of homegrown ingredients housed within.

The use of aluminium was also a common theme, from syrups to spirits, playing with the delivery format of these cupboard favourites.

For the Beauty Harmonist, beautiful packaging is never just decoration – it’s a marker of quality, intention, and emotional resonance. From artful illustrations to refillable formats, these elevated everyday essentials turn function into a form of quiet luxury.

Moving from the ‘Farm & Deli Show’ floor to the ‘Convenience Store’ floor of the expo was to step from one battleground to the next in the fight for energy drink dominance. The impact the likes of Monster have had on the energy drinks market is significant – every direction you took presented you with another glaring, over-powering, often aggressive branding for another energy option – some (as pictured above) leaning into the AI-washing we witnessed at the beauty industry’s Cosmoprof event in March.

Meanwhile the thread of wellness we saw at this year’s expo was particularly evident in the antithesis to this overwhelming packaging design; significantly more guilt-free options promised gentle, clean energy boosts with less sugar and the added benefit of improved cognitive health. Here’s hoping the latter wins the war.

For the Tech Voyager, the future of energy is clean, functional, and performance-driven – a smarter alternative to overstimulated branding and hollow claims, designed to deliver real cognitive benefits with a future-focused edge.