So what exotic dishes and exciting flavours will the food and drink trends of 2025 bring us when we ring the bells and welcome in the New Year? The big reveal of our food and drink trends are a hotly anticipated annual event here at Bidfood.
For those of us most closely involved, it’s like a calendar event in its own right, although in reality the drivers and nuances that shape consumer menu choices evolve constantly through the year, fuelled by the economic landscape, financial climate, social trends and even our hopes, dreams and fears.

So, what’s important to consumers right now?

When we choose where, when and what to eat, it’s a mixture of practical, social and emotional considerations that influence us. We know from this year’s research* that value is still the most important decision-driver, closely followed by our desires for quality and experience and our health and sustainability concerns.
However, we’re also tuned into less tangible factors like our need for comfort, our respect of tradition, our craving for reward and shared connections with friends and family.
When I look at the cuisines, dishes and trends that have surfaced from this year’s survey and our extensive desk research, they have some themes in common: comfort foods, traditional recipes, cuisines that remind us of our favourite holiday destinations, and fresh, high quality ingredients, as well as premium, next level dishes, sharing plates and delicious treats to lift our mood.

So what are the new food and trends for 2025?

We’ve identified 6 key food and drink trends and 6 cuisines for 2025 that will be important for the UK Out of Home sector:

Buns and Bowls:
On the go food trends 2025 is about the next level, premium on-the-go dishes that consumers are seeking out and about, especially when it comes to day time occasions and breakfast and lunch dayparts.
Think spectacular, stacked sandwiches, smoothie or acai bowls, and Buddha bowls, poke or energy salad bowls.
Why not try our recipe for Mac cheese nduja garlic butter salami toastie…

Flavours less travelled:
World food trends 2025 are the global cuisines and dishes that consumers are attracted to and keen to discover more about when they eat out. This year the six with highest levels of interest in our consumer survey were:

• Southern States: humble, comfort food from the Deep South including Cajun, Creole and Soul Food, we found some of the most appealing dishes to consumers to be chicken and biscuits (scone bread), jambalaya, gumbo and sea food boils, as well as po’boy sandwiches.

• Turkish: combining Mediterranean and Middle Eastern influences with warming spices and hearty mains. This cuisine lends itself to all day parts with dishes like shakshuka, kebabs, pide (Turkish pizza) and meze.

• Greek: fresh, zesty and vibrant dishes and street food classics are at the heart of this cuisine, including souvlaki, horiatiki salad, courgette balls, gyros and delicious sweet and savoury pastries such as spanakopita.

• Portuguese: this cuisine offers sunshine flavours, and comforting rice dishes, soups and seafood stews, piri-piri-spiced grilled meats and poultry, along with tempting pastries and desserts.

• Argentinian: renowned for its beef and wines, but this cuisine has a lot more to offer! It’s one of the original fusion cuisines, drawing its hearty flavours from both its heritage of Spanish and Italian influences combined with locally grown indigenous produce. Think asado open-air flame grills, zesty chimichurri salsa, empanadas, as well as a heritage of sweet treats often featuring dulche de leche.

• And Swiss: fondue is the best known Swiss classic sharer, but the central ingredients of this cuisine, cheese, potatoes, eggs, lardons, onions, macaroni and polenta make it the perfect comfort food with dishes like rosti, bircher museli, raclette and tartiflette give it relevance across a range of dayparts.

Closer to home:
Food trends UK 2025 are Scottish, Welsh and Scottish cuisines which have emerged this year, not just because they offer the comfort dishes, tradition and provenance that consumers find appealing this year, but also, we believe, because they feature lots of hearty dishes we might not have tried before that offer something a little different to the British classics we’re all with so familiar with.
Try some of our Closer to Home recipes here…

Friendly Fibre:
Health-related food trends 2025 show the importance of health in our choices when eating out has grown year on year. And, the benefits of ingredients and dishes that offer fibre in our diet, yet which are full of flavour, are certainly appealing for consumers who are looking more closely at their gut health.

Proactive Practices:
Sustainable food trends 2025 are the result of the majority of consumers telling us that they are trying to lead an environmentally friendly lifestyle and are attracted to venues that are taking positive steps and offering dishes that have sustainable benefits when eating out.
We found that dishes that are made from would-be-wasted ingredients, low carbon dishes, seasonal produce, regenerative farming practices, certifications and sustainable seafood choices are all appealing options on menus.

Chocolicious:
Drink trends 2025 are all about innovation. Consumers have not missed the explosion of exciting innovation in premium hot drinks including flavoured hot chocolate, frozen hot chocolate and unique mochas.
The appeal of premium chocolate drinks with exciting toppings like marshmallows, whipped cream and/or sprinkles is riding high as many seek out chocolately treats that lift their mood.

How do I switch up my menus to reflect the trends?

Not every trend works on every menu, you have to pick the trends that will work for you with care. So, I do have a few tips to suggest when it comes to the practicalities of leveraging trends on your menus successfully:

• Know your consumer and what will appeal to them
• Pick trends that make sense for your offer
• Keep in mind the dayparts you’re focusing on – there’s lots of inspiration from this year’s trends for example, for breakfast, and snacks, as well as or lunch and dinner
• Feel free to mix and match trends to get dishes that have even broader appeal
• Don’t assume trends might be too niche to try, many trending cuisines feature familiar dishes that have broad appeal like shakshuka, jambalaya, empanadas, gyros, rarebit, colcannon, bircher muesli, or fondue
• Or you can switch familiar dishes up with a twist inspired by a sauce, or ingredient like chimichurri, piri-piri, Cajun spice, or dulche de leche.
• Do keep your menu fresh and relevant, but don’t forget to nurture your key best sellers.

Our 2025 Food & Drink trends Guide covers all the recipes, advice and inspiration you’ll need. You can find it on the trends section of our website here: Food and drink trends 2025.

* CGA by NielsenIQ and Bidfood 2025 Food and Drink Trends consumer survey, sample size 2,000 (UK
adults); data collected May 2024
** Gov.UK