Human food trends for 2025 will influence pet food, as always. Here are five from Innova Market Insights and Euromonitor to watch:
1. Ingredients and beyond: Focus on quality
Like others, this trend is a continuation but has evolved. Lu Ann Williams, Innova’s global insights director, said in 2024, consumers wanted to find the “star” ingredient; for 2025, they want to home in on ingredient quality.
Innova asked consumers in 11 countries (Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Spain, U.K., U.S.) what “quality” means to them. Responses included price, freshness, health benefits, nutritional content, shelf life, safety, naturalness and brands — and a balance of all these.
2. Precision wellness affected by information culture
Building on ongoing personalized nutrition trends, “precision wellness” looks different in our “current information culture,” as Williams put it. That culture challenges food companies to meet targeted nutritional needs, including balanced, age-specific, gender-specific, lifestyle-based, condition-specific or performance nutrition. Many of these also apply to pet food.
3. Gut health: Flourish from within
Gut and digestive health is the top driver of functional human food purchases; Innova registered an 8% increase in claims globally. Snacks with probiotics have seen 24% growth.
For pet owners, digestive health is the second biggest pet concern, with 34% selecting it in a survey by Kerry, an ingredients supplier. During a webinar, Kerry cited Innova data showing a 22% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) from 2019 to 2023 in pet food launches with prebiotics or probiotics.
4. Rethinking plant-based foods
Plant-based foods have been on the market — and on trend — for a while, yet many people are still figuring them out. Almost 25% of consumers globally hesitate to buy overly processed plant-based products; Innova’s latest survey showed that as the third most cited barrier for such products. Still, vegan/plant-based foods with a natural claim increased 23% annually from 2020 to 2024. NielsenIQ has tracked 7.8% CAGR over the past four years in pet foods with plant-based proteins, which now appear in 52% of products.
5. Sustainability: Climate adaptation
Innova data showed 48% of global consumers are very or extremely aware of the impact of climate change, and understand it can drive price sensitivity in foods.
Like Innova, Euromonitor noted an inflationary angle in its “eco logical” trend; 40% of global consumers surveyed said price was a top barrier to purchasing more sustainable products, and “green” attributes are just complementary benefits. Yet, online SKUS with sustainability claims across 11 categories and 25 countries rose to 5 million in 2024, and sales increased in all categories from 2020 to 2023, including in pet care, reaching about US$40 million.