Clarity, quality and visibility lead natural and clean confectionery in 2025
According to Innova Market Insight’s consumer snacking trends, in 2024, a third of consumers around the globe said they’d increased the number of healthy snacks they’d eaten over the past year.
Fundamentally nutritious is one of market intelligence company Mintel’s global food trends for 2025. Innova has pinpointed ingredients, precision wellness and gut health as top trends for next year.
In the new year, we expect to see more nutrient-dense new product developments (NPD) to support consumers in managing their diets to improve their short and long-term health. Mintel has found that 33% of Thai consumers agree it’s worth spending on healthy foods that provide a good amount of daily nutritional needs, such as vitamins and fibre.
With the focus on better-for-you, healthier alternatives to conventional candy and functional confectionery on the rise among brands and manufacturers, we can expect to see trend shifts and a wave of innovations from the natural and clean space in 2025.
Megatrends converge to create impact
Health, nutrition and sustainability have become increasingly important to consumers, spurring natural and clean confectionery to gather pace. “People are concerned about the impact of food on their health, particularly foods high in sugar, high in fat and high in salt (HFSS),” says Andrea Cattaruzza, Director of Food Science of Clean Food Group, an oils and fats solutions provider.
With HFSS laws and the increasing attention on ultra-processed foods (UPFs), this emphasises a challenge for confectionery brands and producers. However, the sector has also embraced it as an opportunity to shift formulations towards healthier alternatives that strive to balance permissible indulgence with functional confectionery with added nutrition compared to traditional candy products.
“More recent concerns are linked to the presence of additives in food, with a growing preference for natural ingredients,” adds Cattaruzza.
“People are also concerned about the impact of the food they eat on the environment, with growing interest in and awareness of the sustainability profiles of the products and their key ingredients,” Cattaruzza shares.
Innova’s leading trend for 2025 is ingredients and beyond. Innova highlights that ingredient quality plays a crucial role in consumer demands, indicating the impact of ingredients on consumers' purchasing decisions.
“Our top trend for 2025, ‘Ingredients and Beyond,’ underscores the necessity for companies to captivate consumers by enhancing the quality attributes of their ingredients,” says Lu Ann Williams, Global Insights Director at Innova. “Freshness, nutrition, health benefits, and ingredient sourcing are paramount to consumers,” adds Williams.
In 2025, we may see confectionery companies seek to gain a competitive advantage and stand out by focusing on optimising quality. “Brands can distinguish themselves in the market by offering superior quality ingredients.” Confectionery brands that inhabit in-store spaces are likely to appeal to consumers, as we can expect to see private labels pay more attention to ingredient quality.
Better-for-you confectionery has a role in healthier food alternatives
Many food industry insiders may question whether there’s a role for confectionery in the natural and clean space. “Having spent 30 years at Mars Global Chocolate, I believe confectionery products will retain their place,” says Cattaruzza.
“Confectionery is about pleasurable moments and indulgence, for which consumers are prepared to make compromises, and because it’s not a big part of the diet, the control of portion size is a good way to reduce intake and reduce impact,” Cattaruzza details.
Natural and clean brands like Clean Food Group believe there is an opportunity to develop functional confectionery ingredients that are better for the individual and the environment. At the same time, they also value not compromising on taste or texture and ensuring a cost-competitive price point.
Questions then revolve around how the confectionery sector can balance providing permissible indulgence with better-for-you, healthier confectionery options. The word on the chocolate-laden street suggests the answer lies in creating healthier, more sustainable and tastier sweet treats that appeal to consumers’ senses.
“From my experience in the confectionery business and from speaking to a number of industry partners, we believe that there are opportunities to develop healthier and more sustainable options without compromising taste and texture,” says Cattaruzza.
Natural and clean confectionery developments in 2025
Here are some expectations for how confectionery brands will create and modify their sweet formulations to appeal to consumers’ healthier alternative demands.
- Reducing saturated fats by replacing high saturated fats such as butter, palm oil and cocoa butter with unsaturated fats like sunflower, rapeseed and high oleic palm oil.
- Reducing sugar content. Maintaining texture and price presents a challenge, though.
- Increasing protein and fibre content
- Reducing products’ environmental footprint by using as many low-impact ingredients as possible. Low-impact formulations use ingredients that don’t come from deforested land and have low environmental and social impacts.
From 2025, Mintel states that brands will need to modify their health claims to focus on key nutrients. We can also anticipate simplified claims on products rising to highlight protein, fibre, vitamins and minerals. With the rise of GLP-1 nutrition, better-for-you products’ presence is expected to appeal to consumers who use weight-loss medication and base their diets and nutrition on the impact of the foods they eat and personal healthcare needs.
Clear campaigns communicating confectionery’s content
Campaigns and marketing messaging that remind consumers of better-for-you and healthier alternatives to conventional candy will likely attract on-the-go consumers with busy lifestyles and cost-consciousness considerations. Emphasising these claims or content may stand out to consumers in 2025 who would previously be sceptical of the value of functional confectionery.
Innova’s second top food trend for 2025 focuses on precision wellness, reflecting brands’ growing interest in permissible indulgence and health. Almost 60% of consumers report being proactive about their health, with over half of their nutrition intake influenced by health concerns.
Adding protein and fibre while reducing sugar, fat and carbohydrates from sweet treats is becoming popular among confectionery brands. The precision wellness trend refers to consumers’ calls to access nutrition through easy-to-consume functional products customised to their health, lifestyle needs and life stages. Looking ahead, we can anticipate confectionery products personalised to consumers' health, weight management, mood and performance.
Fibre and probiotics have been closely linked to gut health in food. Now, with fibre, prebiotics, and probiotics making their way into confectionery launches, consumers are supported by their interest in digestive health and these key ingredients. In the wider food and beverage sector, there has been 8% year-on-year growth of products with digestive health claims.
