The 2025 Trends that Will Shape the CPG Industry

With 2024 in the rearview mirror, we’re looking down the road ahead. 2025 promises to be a year of big changes, but we couldn’t help but wonder: What are the trends that will fuel those changes?

We’ve done the research, consulting Highlight's own internal experts and every source from Food Dive to industry thought leaders like Nate Rosen to reveal what’s coming. Here’s what the pros are predicting:

The changing face of “better for you”

Protein-forward products

If you somehow missed the deluge of high-protein content products that came out this year, take these few examples as evidence:

• Kellogg’s new “Fully Loaded” Eggo waffles with 10 grams of protein per serving
• Chobani’s new line of high-protein Greek yogurts
• Podium’s protein-forward stroopwafel

As TikTok creators convinced shoppers everywhere they needed to up their protein intake, CPG innovators stepped in to meet growing demand.

Lower sugar content

For years the accepted nutritional advice promoted low-fat products. But as any student of macros can tell you, if you reduce or remove one macronutrient, you have to increase another. In many cases, that meant non-fat products with very high carbohydrate content.

As consumers come to understand the role of “good fats,” the importance of protein, and the dangers of high sugar diets, they’ve demanded alternatives. We’ve seen the CPG industry cycle through trends like keto, and introduce products with natural sweeteners like monkfruit and stevia, but the victor of 2024 was more simple than all that–consumers just want less sugar in their food.

Why? Taste is still king, and there’s no replacing the flavor that sugar lends a product. 

Products for GLP-1 patients (and those who are just curious)

In 2024, GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy went mainstream as more and more patients gained access to the treatment–and found their appetites completely transformed. Once again, CPG companies were ready to innovate to meet new consumer needs. 

Nestlé, for example, launched their Vital Pursuit brand to give GLP-1 patients the dietary support they need with smaller portions, lots of protein, and high fiber content, and continued their rollout of GLP-1 supportive products most recently with a new pre-meal hunger support shot under their brand Boost.

Emerging brands like Supergut also exploded in growth in 2024 with high fiber, high protein, low sugar products designed to “keep you full for hours,” whether you’re taking a GLP-1 medication or just looking to promote your body’s naturally occurring GLP-1.

While skepticism around GLP-1 drugs remains–in a poll from summer 2024, 35% of respondents said they would not be willing to try a GLP-1 drug–their popularity far outweighs consumer hesitation. 65% said they already had or would be willing to try a GLP-1 drug, and 63% said they’d be interested in trying products designed for GLP-1 users.

Learn more about the better-for-you trends that shaped 2024

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Plenty of products to keep you hydrated

If Liquid IV was the brand that launched a thousand other hydration products, 2024 was the year that saw them all come to market. 

• In 2024, legacy brand Mio debuted a rebrand designed to capture the hearts of health-conscious Gen Z consumers
• Everlane founder Michael Preysman founded Magna, a magnesium-based beverage brand
• Even Call Her Daddy podcast host Alex Cooper got in on the hydration game, launching Unwell Hydration
  
  
  

Drinking for your health

Hydration brands only comprise one corner of the better-for-you beverage space. In 2024, the beverage category in particular saw a surge in innovation, and that promises to continue full-force into 2025. 

• Functional ingredients like adaptogens elevated the profile of now-nationwide products like Recess, but ingredients like adaptogens are poised to go more mainstream as consumers search for health-supportive products. (And yes, even ingredients like hemp, CBD, and THC are poised to take the ready-to-drink world by storm!)   

“I think consumers are seeking products that promote mental well-being, so we’ll see more CPG brands continue to infuse foods with calming ingredients.” - Rachel Callino, Business Development Lead at Highlight

• The non-alcoholic beverage space continues to grow, not only with newcomers in the alcohol-free beer space like Tom Holland-founded Bero, but an even greater variety of non-alcoholic beverages like hop water and hop tea (see: Hoplark), sparkling verjus (see: Joni), RTD non-alcoholic cocktails (see: Parch), and botanical “spirits” (see: Optimist). The continued innovation in this space is encouraging the entire NA category to grow.
  
  

Did you know? In a September survey by Highlight, only 11% of respondents said they planned to splurge on alcohol over the holidays, making it the 2nd least popular category for consumer spending.

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• Ready-to-drink alcoholic cocktail brands boomed in 2024, but with a renewed focus on premium, wholesome ingredients. Welch’s debuted a line of canned cocktails “made with real fruit juice,” while tons of emerging brands came to market with innovative new flavor profiles like Jumo’s Yuja Citrus & Mint soju cocktail or Social Hour’s Strawberry Rhubarb spritz.
  
  

What does it all mean for the future of “better for you”?

There’s no doubt that protein-packed products had their moment in 2024, or that hydration products flooded shelves across the nation. But taken as a whole, what do these trends indicate for the way shoppers want to manage their health?

As consumer consciousness of nutrition and the demand to boost our health through our food purchases grows, it isn’t just brands that have taken note–the FDA has also responded in kind with updated guidelines. 

Consumers clamoring for more whole foods products will be happy to hear that the FDA’s update to the “healthy” nutrient claim states that foods must now meet specific thresholds for food group equivalents versus individual nutrients. (In other words, vegetables, fruits, grains, dairy, proteins, and oils.)

“The FDA’s updated ‘healthy’ definition represents a major shift in how foods are evaluated and marketed,” said CPG industry thought leader Nate Rosen on his blog, Express Checkout. “For CPG founders, this is an opportunity to innovate, reformulate, and lead in the better-for-you product space.” 

Highlight Strategic Account Director and CPG industry veteran Dilara Sharifi agrees that the FDA’s first update in decades is just one more (big) clue to the way the wind is blowing: “Ingredient, label, and sourcing transparency will be something we see more of in 2025,” said Dilara. “For food & beverage, consumers are becoming more aware of the importance of understanding ingredients thanks to social media, new FDA label requirements, increased food allergies, and dietary restrictions. I also think (and hope) there is more awareness of ingredients in health and beauty items like dental floss, skincare, etc.”

Highlight Senior Customer Enablement Manager and retail industry veteran Jessie Melincoff agrees the FDA “healthy” claim update is indicative of larger changes across CPG and retail categories. “Products are going to be all about gut health, clean ingredients, and 'better for your health' (organic, non toxic, chemical free, no sugar, natural ingredients) across food & beverage, beauty, supplements, and even home products,” explained Jessie. “None of this is new, but it’s becoming mainstream.”

Sustainability = sustainable packaging

In April of 2024, a Highlight research report on sustainable purchase habits asked respondents an open-ended question: “Is there a specific product/category where sustainability matters more?” In their answers, 80% of respondents mentioned either “packaging,” “plastic,” or both terms. 

In an upcoming report of 150 consumers and influencers nationwide by Highlight and The Goods Mart, 94% of respondents said they actively look for recyclable packaging.

We already discussed this trend in 2024, when legislation swept a dozen states mandating more sustainable packaging, and brands had already begun to innovate to meet new legal requirements and consumer demands. But this movement is only gaining momentum. Expect plastic-free packaging to become table stakes in 2025!

See how Vital Proteins, Dole, Pepsico and more are moving from plastic to paper

Michelin brands moving into grocery aisles

When Momofuku moved from Michelin-starred New York restaurants to grocery aisles, they were among the first to blaze this trail. 2024 saw more join the fray, with London’s Michelin-starred Gymkhana debuting cooking sauces, chutneys, and marinades. 

In New York, Carbone and Rao’s have also recently entered the market with their signature tomato sauces. What other famous restaurant brands can we expect to see on grocery shelves in 2025?

Quirky brand collabs and merch

Nothing captures consumer imagination quite like a whimsical brand collab, and 2024 saw those kind of CPG brand collaborations aplenty.

This most recent season of brand collabs indicates this trend’s here to stay, with a fun new twist: entire lines of brand merch for the superfans in your life that go far beyond your typical apparel options.

Miller High Life led the way this past holiday season with a series of perfectly unique gifts for the “Champagne of Beers” lovers in your life:

• A “Dive Bar”-scented fragrance
• A battery-powered leg lamp that doubles as a beer tower inspired by High Life’s Girl in the Moon
• A 2.5 foot glowing neon tree

The product innovation minds at Miller took advantage of the holiday season to inject the kind of creativity that set them apart from the competition and delivered on consumer wants. We can’t wait to see what kind of whimsy CPG product innovators will bring to consumers throughout every season of 2025.

Manufacturing investments

Many savvy CPG brands–especially those that saw explosive growth in 2024–made manufacturing investments to support expanded capacity.

• Energy drink Celsius, one of 2024’s fastest growing CPG brands, spent $75M to acquire Big Beverages Contract Manufacturing
• Athletic Brewing, one of the fastest growing brands in the nonalcoholic beverage category, closed a $50 million equity financing round led by General Atlantic in July following a June purchase of a 107,000-square-foot facility in San Diego across the street from its existing brewery
• Anheuser-Busch continues to add to its roughly $2 billion in facility upgrades in recent years with a $10 million investment in its Jacksonville, Florida brewery

These manufacturing investments aren’t just about expanding capacity or improving efficiency. Innovation cycles in CPG and specifically within the beverage category are shorter than ever before, and consolidating more control over your supply chain allows brands to achieve previously unmet speeds for innovation cycles.

As Celsius CEO John Fieldly stated: “We believe that this acquisition gives Celsius fantastic leverage to accelerate our product innovation and production capabilities so we can continue growing the energy drink category with our great tasting, functional and better-for-you performance energy drinks.”

Whatever trends continue to build momentum in 2025, there’s no doubt speed of innovation will be a differentiating factor for the brands that win on shelf. As Highlight’s Chief Revenue Officer, Calista Corley explained, “In 2025 we will see unprecedented change, specifically for food and beauty products–from packaging to ingredients, to vendor and supplier choices. The heightened pressure to move fast can feel overwhelming, so CPG brands will need support to change decisions quickly and with high confidence.”

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