5 Foodservice Trends to Watch

The Cheez-In Diner was a pop-up restaurant open for a week in May that showcased Cheez-Its in menu items like the Deluxe Cheez-It Milkshake and the Mac & Cheez-It. © Motion Bazaar/Ryan Gregory, Photographer

​​Restaurant fare that captures the tenor of the times can be inspiration for food and beverage product developers.
​The trends shaping today’s foodservice menus, and as a result, new CPG product development, can come from anywhere. As has always been the case, some trends trickle down from Michelin-star chefs who are pushing envelopes at the very highest level. But many new menu items have more humble origins. From high-profile brand partnerships to social media–driven food trends, to a focus on functional ingredients and a passion for sustainability, what’s happening in the foodservice realm can and should inform what’s happening in CPG product development centers.

​While some may roll their eyes at yet another social media–driven food phenomenon, these things are part of the zeitgeist and should not be discounted. So, even if you have never had the pleasure of eating a “chickle,” the cheese-wrapped pickle sensation all over TikTok, it’s vital that product developers examine what’s driving food trends like this—be it new and exciting flavor pairings, convenience, health, or concern about the planet. 

The idea is not to follow a fad, explains Claire Conaghan, associate director and trendologist for Datassential, but to understand the underlying trends that helped some of these recipes become text-worthy memes. (The briny popularity of pickles and the love of grilled cheese combined with ease of execution made the chickle a hit, she says). And that understanding can play a valuable role in influencing CPG product development.

With that perspective in mind, here’s a look at five trends currently shaping foodservice menus.                                                              

​Key Takeaways
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• In addition to food and beverage trends trickling down from high-end foodservice operations, many new menu items are being influenced by CPG brands and social media.

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• Foodservice products developed in tandem with beloved brands have buy-in from brand loyalists while exposing new audiences to both the restaurant and CPG brands.

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• Mocktails with functional ingredients will continue to be popular on menus and store shelves alike.

​1) It’s All in the (Brand) Name
Foodservice brands that are well-known on grocery and retail store shelves are bringing consumers into restaurants. Taco Bell is now known for its brand innovation even more than it was known for its Chihuahua mascot in the late 1990s. The fast-food chain teamed up with cracker brand Cheez-It to develop menu items like the Big Cheez-It Tostada and Big Cheez-It Crunchwrap Supreme.

And Cheez-It had other restaurant promos, too, like the Cheez-In Diner in Woodstock, N.Y. The pop-up diner was open for a week in May and featured menu items like the Deluxe Cheez-It Milkshake and the Mac & Cheez-It.

After PepsiCo partnered with pancake restaurant chain IHOP to launch a 2,000-can run of Pepsi Maple Syrup Cola to much fanfare in 2022, the duo decided to reintroduce the beverage for a limited time in all IHOP locations this past April. And Chip City recently introduced the limited-edition Strawberry Poppable Pop-Tarts Cookie in partnership with Kellanova. Sometimes the limited editions prove there’s interest for longer-term collaborations, Conaghan says.

“The Big Cheez-It Tostada and Crunchwraps took years and hundreds of people to develop and release,” explains Mike Kostyo, vice president at Menu Matters. “But, as we’ve seen, they can be incredibly beneficial to both brands. They allow both brands to tap into each other’s customer base, keep the menu fresh and exciting in a safe way through known brands, get media attention, and hopefully taste good.

This fall, gourmet cookie chain Chip City Cookies collaborated with Kellanova’s Pop-Tarts brand to create a limited-edition Strawberry Poppable Pop-Tarts Cookie. Photo courtesy of Chip City Cookies

​2) TikTok Ticks Up Interest
It doesn’t matter what the U.S. Congress (or anyone else) says, TikTok is a trend maker and nowhere else is that more evident than in its videos of foods. The Original Pancake House DFW forged a partnership with the Cloud Bread Company to serve cloud bread for a limited time after the fluffy, eggy, baked good became TikTok famous. New York’s Angelina Bakery tested out the burn-away cake social media sensation in which a top layer is printed on edible wafer paper and set on fire to reveal a secret message underneath. Even Burger King jumped on the trend, not as a new menu item but instead as a way to promote its new contest on social media.

​Often the real benefit is in looking at the larger trends that are driving that particular TikTok trend.
- Mike Kostyo, vice president , Menu Matters

​“If you are a bakery known for inventive desserts, maybe adding an experiential burn-away cake to the menu at a time when consumers may be seeing it on social media and looking for nearby places to purchase it makes sense,” says Kostyo. “But often the real benefit is in looking at the larger trends that are driving that particular TikTok trend. You may not put cloud bread on your menu, but think through why consumers are gravitating toward it.”
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In the case of cloud bread, it ticks off a lot of what consumers are looking for in food products today—high protein, carb-free, and a clean, simple list of ingredients. “Consider the crackling latte trend,” says Kostyo. “You may not put an actual crackling latte on your menu or product line, but maybe you add more sensory experiences.”

After Cloudies became famous on TikTok, The Original Pancake House DFW in Dallas partnered with the brand to feature the carb-free bread, made with eggs, cream cheese, baking soda, and baking powder, on its menu. Photo courtesy of The Cloud Bread Co.

​3) Functional Foods in a Glass
It’s not enough for a mocktail to just get to exist on a menu alongside a wine list, although a few years ago, sober folks may have settled for merely having any nonalcoholic options on the menu. One of the main things Stephanie Styll, owner of Killjoy, a Nashville nonalcoholic bottle shop, sees now is “the desire for the drink to do something. People are gravitating toward drinks with function and seem less concerned about mimicking the taste of alcohol,” says Styll. That means hemp-infused and adaptogenic ready-to-drink beverages and spirits are top sellers.
Of all the mocktail ingredients that can fulfill a purpose in addition to quenching thirst, the herb ashwagandha is among the most popular. Its adaptogenic properties include reducing stress and promoting restful sleep. Ashwagandha is featured in the canned sparkling Droplet beverages, which can be sipped on their own or used by a mixologist to create a custom cocktail or mocktail. Ritual Zero Proof’s beverages include better-known functional ingredients, such as turmeric, kale, antioxidant berries, and ginger.

​A good opportunity here is to not only menu these types of functional beverages but call out specifically what benefits they have—on menus or in marketing materials—so that consumers are more informed/aware.
- Katie Belflower, manager , Menu Research & Insights, Technomic

​“We’ve seen a lot of menu development around functional ingredients lately,” says Katie Belflower, manager, Menu Research & Insights, Technomic. “Part of this stems from refocused thinking on health and wellness post-pandemic, as well as just an overall shift in the idea of what healthy means. Rather than just taking something out of a diet, adding something to a diet is getting much more of a spotlight lately.

“A good opportunity here,” Belflower continues, “is to not only menu these types of functional beverages but [also] call out specifically what benefits they have [on menus or in marketing materials] so that consumers are more informed/aware.”

The trick, adds food futurist Liz Moskow, is that you must have enough of the functional ingredient for it to be, well, functional. It needs to be in an amount substantial enough to be effective, she notes.

Ashwagandha is among the featured functional ingredients in the canned sparkling Droplet beverages, which can be sipped on their own or used by a mixologist to create a custom cocktail or mocktail. Photo courtesy of Droplet

4) On the Go, No Plate Needed
Convenience foods aren’t new, of course. People have been eating in their cars and at their desks for ages. According to Datassential’s 2024 Food Trends Report, 84% of consumers who went to the supermarket visited the prepared foods section.
But the expectations that Gen Z and Gen Alpha consumers have for food on the go are different. They want and need to eat on the go, even if they aren’t working in offices like previous generations. At the same time, they want high-quality food and don’t want everything to be restaurant takeout or a bag of Doritos.

Farmer’s Fridge, the Chicago-based salad vending machine company, is busy with expansion for this very reason. There are more than 2,000 places around the United States where you can get fresh yogurt, chia pudding, salads, and other healthy meals in a reusable jar with a screw-on lid from the company’s vending machines. The fridges are in airports, retail stores, public schools, and other locations where customers want to eat well while on the go and at all hours of day and night.

Moskow notes that Farmer’s Fridge is a labor-intensive model, given the regular stocking of fresh products that is required. Foods that have an extended shelf life but are not overprocessed, would do well in this space, she says.

And while getting ramen (Yo-Kai Express) or freshly made pizza (PizzaForno) from a high-tech vending machine may work as a one-time curiosity, it isn’t novelty that will drive this category for the long term. The food still needs to taste good and be a value for the health and convenience offered.

5) Fermentation on the Menu​
Fermentation. It’s the word on every gut-health specialist’s lips. In addition to its well-known flavor boosts and the extended shelf life it offers, fermentation can provide probiotics that support digestive health and also increase the protein digestibility of plant matter. Kombucha has been the darling of all fermented menus for decades.
Mother Kombucha in St. Petersburg, Fla., works with several foodservice chains to provide kombucha on tap, eschewing bottles for a sustainable, reduced-waste fermented beverage. True Food Kitchen, the chain founded by integrative medicine expert Dr. Andrew Weil, added a fermented turmeric sauerkraut to the seasonal menu; it combines some functionality of the anti-inflammatory properties of turmeric with the probiotics of sauerkraut. California’s DonerG has house-made kefir on the menu.
On the manufacturing side, fermentation has the added benefit of reducing food waste, as food scraps and ingredients that otherwise might not be able to be used in a product can often be fermented as part of an effort toward whole food utilization.
“Not only does fermentation have gut-healthy connotations, but it does also help extend the shelf life of ingredients, which can be helpful to restaurant operators,” says Belflower. “It also allows for a lot of unique culinary experimentation, with operators able to ferment or pickle tons of ingredients.”
At a panel discussion run by The Fermentation Association, Jeremy Kean of Brassica Kitchen + Cafe in Boston talked about his food map, which allows the kitchen to track what products they’ve fermented (and otherwise processed) to develop recipes to use. That way, they don’t end up with a shelf full of miso without plans for how or when to use it.
Foodservice trends are crucial to monitor because they often serve as early indicators of broader shifts that influence CPG food and beverage product development. In today’s marketplace, this relationship is becoming more symbiotic, with CPG brands driving foodservice innovation as well. What starts as a popular menu item or social media sensation can inspire retail products, just as beloved CPG brands create excitement when featured on restaurant menus. By staying attuned to these evolving trends in both sectors, product developers can anticipate consumer desires, creating products that resonate with current tastes while addressing growing demands for health, convenience, and sustainability across both foodservice and retail.

​Source:IFT