What is Driving Growth in Food & Drink in 2027 and Beyond?

Food and drink brands once competed on taste, convenience and nutrition. Today, consumers are increasingly focused on what helps them feel, function and perform better. As categories blur and routines become more interconnected, the biggest opportunities will emerge where food, wellness, beauty and healthcare intersect.

As people combine products, services and technologies in new ways to achieve these goals, food and drink brands will need to earn a meaningful role within the systems consumers build around them.

Products to Systems is one of the most significant shifts Mintel has identified to date. Yet it sits alongside other powerful forces redefining authority, relevance and growth across consumer markets. Download the 2027 Global Predictions whitepaper to explore this shift in depth, then join our regional webinars to understand the wider outlook for food and drink in your market.

Mintel 2027 Global Predictions

What are Mintel’s 2027 Global Food & Drink Predictions?

1. Products to Systems

Consumers are shifting from buying products to building systems. As people become more deliberate about achieving specific outcomes, food and drink brands will need to think beyond occasions and categories, carving out a clear role within the personal ecosystems consumers assemble around health, convenience and wellbeing.

2. Authority Shifts

As AI advice expands, climate and geopolitical threats grow and influencers and wearables accelerate information overload, authority will shift to the people behind brands who can inform, reassure and connect.

3. The Segmentation Reset

Long-term growth will come from understanding the new needs emerging as consumers adapt to changing lifestyles, household structures and economic realities, creating more situational and diverse patterns of demand.

Take a Deep Dive into Products to Systems

The biggest threat to your brand may not come from a direct competitor.

For the first time, Mintel’s 2027 Global Predictions combines insights across Consumer, Beauty & Personal Care, Food & Drink, Household and Wellness to uncover how the shift from Products to Systems is transforming consumer expectations and reshaping competition.

As consumers build their own ecosystems to achieve better outcomes, category lines are blurring fast. Brands that once operated in entirely different sectors are now competing for the same role in consumers’ lives.

The question is no longer who’s in your category?

It’s who’s solving the same problem?

Download the whitepaper to uncover the opportunities, threats and white spaces taking shape beyond traditional market boundaries, before someone else claims them first.

Download insights
Mintel 2027 Global Predictions

2027 Global Food & Drink Predictions Webinars: Unlock the Full Picture

The whitepaper is only the beginning.

Register for one of our upcoming 2027 Global Predictions webinars to access the full outlook, hear directly from Mintel experts and explore the shifts and opportunities set to reshape your category – and those around it.
Mintel 2027 Global Predictions
Meet the Experts
Alice Pilkington
Alice Pilkington
Associate Principal, Food and Drink
Alice combines a flair for uncovering exciting, data-driven consumer insights with a passion for food that stems from her previous career as a cookery school teacher for Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsay. She regularly provides enthusiastic and thought-provoking presentations to both clients and trade shows. This year she led the Global Food and Drink Predictions team.
Alex Beckett
Alex Beckett
Principal Strategist, Food and Drink
Alex is a highly creative thinker with 15+ years in food market research. He is a passionate believer in inspiring clients with insights which are imaginative and spark fresh thinking, yet are also grounded in reality and empathise with consumers’ needs. Alex is also an in-demand global beverages expert, engaging presenter and all-round fan of food and drink.
Heng Hong Tan
Heng Hong Tan
Associate Principal, Food and Drink
Heng Hong, an Associate Principal at Mintel, specialises in the beverage sector. He researches and delivers crucial insights on the latest beverage trends for clients across the globe and within the region. He has been with Mintel for more than 12 years and has presented at major conferences and trade shows in the region.