Future of Food EMEA: Understanding what’s shaping tomorrow’s consumer

At Cargill, helping our customers grow starts with understanding the consumers they serve. As expectations, habits, and priorities continue to evolve, businesses need more than trendspotting. They need a clearer understanding of the forces shaping future demand. This is the ambition behind Future of Food EMEA, a framework designed to translate external change into actionable growth opportunities and help connect emerging consumer behaviors to strategic business decisions.

Across EMEA, consumers are adapting to a world shaped by economic pressure, demographic change, social fragmentation, urbanization, technological disruption, resource scarcity, and geopolitical instability. These forces are influencing not only what people buy, but also why they buy it. Understanding these shifts is increasingly important for anticipating future needs, identifying growth opportunities, and building stronger customer partnerships.

The framework identifies five macro trends that are reshaping food and beverage demand across the region.

• Beyond Nutrition: Consumers increasingly expect food to support their daily well-being and performance. The focus is moving beyond nutritional content alone toward outcomes such as energy, digestion, focus, and healthy aging. This shift is already visible in everyday behaviors. In the UK, nearly half of consumers (47.5%) have actively tried to increase their fiber intake over the past three months, primarily to support gut health (Zoe, 2026). Consumers are not simply looking for food that is nutritious, they are seeking food that helps them feel and function better in daily life. This reflects a broader move from focusing on nutrients to focusing on outcomes.
• Everyday Comfort: In an increasingly uncertain and fast-changing world, food plays an important role in providing reassurance, enjoyment, and emotional well-being. Consumers are looking for products that combine comfort, reward, and balance in their daily lives. Across Europe, 28% of consumers say they indulge in snacks primarily for enjoyment and pleasure, demonstrating that food is increasingly being used to create small moments of comfort and emotional reward rather than simply satisfy hunger (Innova Market Insights, 2025). As pressures increase, comfort is becoming less about indulgence alone and more about helping people feel steady, rewarded, and emotionally cared for.
• Verified Trust: Trust is becoming a critical purchase driver. Consumers increasingly want transparency around ingredients, sourcing, claims, and sustainability commitments. 69% of European consumers say the presence of natural and non-natural ingredients is among the most important label components they look at when purchasing food, showing that European consumers are actively using on-pack ingredient information as a trust signal at the point of purchase (SAFE, 2024).
• Eating in Motion: As daily routines become more flexible and fragmented, consumers are seeking food solutions that fit seamlessly into increasingly mobile lifestyles without compromising quality or experience. This change is reflected in the growing role of snacks within everyday eating patterns. Across Europe, 34% of consumers now use snacks as meal replacements, signaling a move away from fixed mealtimes toward more flexible, portable eating occasions (Innova Market Insights, 2025). Consumers increasingly expect food to work around their schedules, creating opportunities for solutions that combine convenience, nutrition, and enjoyment.
• Resourceful Living: Resourcefulness is becoming part of everyday decision-making as consumers look for smarter ways to maximize value, reduce waste, and make better use of their money, time, and resources. In the UK, 70% of dinners now contain six ingredients or fewer, illustrating how consumers are simplifying meal preparation to make life easier, reduce complexity, and manage costs more effectively (The Guardian, 2025). Resourceful Living isn't only about spending less. It reflects a broader desire to make food choices that feel efficient, practical, and worthwhile. 

 

Understanding consumer & market direction

For Cargill, understanding these emerging consumer expectations helps us go beyond ingredients and products. It enables more strategic conversations with customers, helps identify future opportunity spaces, supports innovation, and creates stronger connections between changing consumer needs and business growth opportunities. This aligns with the broader ambition of understanding where consumer demand is heading so that we can guide innovation, strengthen customer partnerships, and unlock new growth opportunities.

Ultimately, Future of Food EMEA is about connecting changing consumer behavior to business decisions. By understanding how consumers are adapting to a changing world, we can help our customers anticipate what's next and turn change into growth.

 

The next issues of the “Co-Creating Growth” newsletter will feature detailed content on the 5 individual trends introduced here.