2025 Food and Beverage Trends Forecasts Suggest Dairy—even Fluid Milk--Is Going to Rock!

 

It’s been an amazing dairy week that started on Sunday when the woman in line behind me at the supermarket had a cart full of dairy foods. I know, I should have taken a picture. But I was so engrossed in the conversation, that I forgot it’s the year 2024 and we are expected to take a picture of everything and share it on social media. Forgive me, you are going to have to trust me that this happened.

She had four red bottles of Fairlife whole milk, three boxes of Stonyfield kids’ yogurt pouches, numerous cheese snacks, some ice cream and there was more, I just don’t remember what.
I had to ask her about this picture-perfect cart. I did preface that I work in the dairy industry so she did not fear I was some PETA crazy who was going to go off on her. 

She explained that her 15-month old daughter loved dairy. It’s all she will eat. So she tries to mix it up, even adds some mashed veggies into the vanilla ice cream. Then she justified it, which, of course, to me, was not necessary. She explained that whole milk dairy foods have healthful fats for brain development, along with protein, vitamins and minerals for strong bones and proper growth. I walked out of that store with the biggest smile on my face that has lasted all week. (I am still smiling!)

Two days later, I was at a family farm in Upstate New York that supplies 100% grassfed organic milk to Maple Hill. Yep, that’s me and one of the happy cows. You can read about how “Maple Hill is embracing sustainable practices to differentiate” HERE. 

When Tim Joseph founded Maple Hill Creamery in 2007, “grass-fed dairy was not cool,” he said on Sept. 24, during a media tour of Dharma Lea, Maple Hill’s first family farm. “Vets were not fans of 100% grass-fed herds, because the cows were healthier and that was not good business for them.”

Maple Hill is the marketer of America’s first national brand of 100% grass-fed organic fluid milk, yogurt, kefir and butter, one of the fastest-growing categories in dairy. Whole fluid milk, in general, is also driving dairy sales growth. That’s mostly what Maple Hill sells.

“And our whole milk plain yogurt outsells vanilla (the only flavored offering) by a factor of 10,” said Jim Hau, president of Maple Hill.”  

In case you missed it, the Dairy Market Report from Dairy Management Inc., and National Milk Producers Federation came out this week. It states that “over the 10 months beginning in October 2023, monthly total U.S. fluid milk consumption compared with the same month one year earlier rose more often than it didn’t, a strong contrast with historical norms. In 57 months since the beginning of 2019, a positive monthly rise has happened less than one-sixth of the time. This recent strong demand raises the possibility that fluid milk consumption may rise overall for 2024, as up months outstrip down ones, bucking a five-decade trend that was only briefly interrupted by oddities related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Meanwhile, domestic use of yogurt, butter and total cheese, especially other than American types, showed positive growth during May to July.”
 

This all makes sense after listening to numerous 2025 trends forecasts this week while soaking up some of the final sunshine of the never-ending summer of 2024 on my deck in Chicago. I was still smiling from that supermarket encounter. 

My colleagues at Sosland Publishing produced The State of Food and Beverage Innovations webinar featuring results from a survey of 224 food processing industry professionals during March and April 2024. Results showed that “innovation is important.” In fact, 40% of those surveyed said it is “very important.” 

The top-five trends influencing a food company’s product development/research and development strategy for the next 12 to 18 months are: cost reduction (59%), clean label (53%), convenience (50%), ingredient reduction, e.g., sodium, added sugars, etc., (43%) and health and wellness (42%). 

Clean label is the norm, and those not on board will likely regret it in the near future. Most dairy foods are super-uber clean label. Those that are not, need to get busy. However, “clean label has moved beyond ingredients.” Read more HERE in an article I recently wrote for Food Business News.

The Sosland innovations study, which was conducted by Cypress Research, compared results from 2024 to the last study conducted in 2022. It is safe to say that true innovation is on full throttle ahead and dairy processors need to get busy to give consumers what they want.

When asked about “invention” innovation, which is breakthrough product development typically involving the introduction of new brands and/or applications, 67% of respondents in 2024 said this is an active effort, while only 59% said the same in 2022. Two years ago, the efforts were more towards product reformulation within existing brands and categories (71% in 2024 vs. 76% in 2022). In other words, formulators were cleaning up labels. Now there is focus on new products within existing brands and categories, a.k.a. line extensions, and probably of clean-label products (91% in 2024 vs. 88% in 2022).
So what are all those inventions focusing on? A forecast webinar by Innova Market Insights indicates one of the hottest areas of innovation is “nutrition forward.” 

“Consumers are much more engaged with the positive role of nutrition,” said Lu Ann Williams, global insights director at Innova. “And, weight management is back. The focus is on what is natural.” 

(Milk is au natural! Just look at mom and baby at one of Maple Hill's family farms.)

This new nutrition research from Innova surveyed consumers across 11 countries and they were only able to choose one answer when asked about how they seek out healthier eating approaches. The four options were almost equally split. 

“About half of consumers look at function rather than reduction,” said Williams. 

This is positive nutrition. It’s the “what” in the product that will do me good. Of that 50% of respondents, about half seek out inherent nutrition in foods, while the other half is drawn to fortified and nutritionally enhanced foods. 

Williams refers to the inherent nutrition products as “hero foods.” Think fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, and, yes, dairy foods.

The other half of consumers look at foods with fewer of the negatives, with half finding appeal in products formulated to have “less added sugars,” “less sodium,” etc. The other half look for foods naturally lower in negatives. 

“Consumers are into ‘natural’ when it comes to well-being,” said Williams. “Clean label has stuck. The overall trend has grown from taking out things that are not natural to putting more in of what is natural.”

(Milk and foods made with milk may help consumers connect with nature. It's a story to tell.)

 

When it comes to weight management, expect a lot more going on with portion control. (This plays into that convenience effort in the Sosland study.) But here’s where it gets very interesting. Both Innova and the speakers at a Tastewise webinar on 2025 trends said that hyper-personalized nutrition has arrived. This includes genderized foods and beverages, as well as hormone regulation. 

“Consumer knowledge (of diet and the impact on hormones) has ‘woken up,’” said Miriam Aniel Oved, director of marketing communications at Tastewise.

This includes the role of foods and food ingredients that influence stress hormones, muscle function, weight loss, satiation and more. The GLP-1 weight loss drugs lifted the taboo on talking about hormones for both men and women. Products formulated for gender and age will gain momentum this coming year. 

Dairy foods can be formulated to speak to all of these trends. Also, a simple glass of whole milk speaks to these trends, naturally.