But what’s coming up next? As we look ahead to 2026, several powerful shifts are reshaping how food and drink brands connect with their audiences. Whether you're running a restaurant, producing artisan foods, or managing a hospitality venue, Eat Marketing has compiled a list of all the top food marketing trends you need to know as we head into the new year.
1. TikTok will continue to create food marketing trends
The proof of TikTok’s power to create and define trends in food marketing is (literally) in the pudding; remember when Greggs turned a viral TikTok mac and cheese recipe into a permanent menu item across 1,750 locations, just because the online community loved it? That's the power of TikTok-driven demand.
Trends we’ve seen performing well on the platform right now include:
- Authenticity over polish: raw, behind-the-scenes kitchen footage outperforms slick ads
- ASMR soundscapes: sizzling, chopping, scraping a crispy edge, and satisfying crunches drive engagement
- Hook in three seconds: attention spans sit at just eight seconds, so front-load your best content
- Keeping it short and sweet: TikTok themselves say that 21-34 seconds is the ideal length to stop scrolls without losing attention halfway through, always in the platform’s native vertical 9:16 format
Cross-section food reveals, budget meal hacks, and user-generated content consistently outperform traditional product shots. If your brand isn’t on TikTok yet, 2026 is the year to change that.
2. Capturing attention and clicks through storytelling
Gen Z audiences and the advertising-fatigued general public are connecting more with authentic, even slightly cheeky storytelling from brands, with the days of polished corporate messaging seeming numbered. Consumers want now more than ever to see the real people behind their food.
User-generated content has become the trust currency of food marketing, with over 86% of consumers saying they're more likely to trust a brand that shares customer content, versus just 12% who trust traditional influencer promotions. That's a stark difference that should shape your content strategy leading into the new year.
Experiential marketing is also having a moment:
- Social media challenges that encourage participation
- Physical pop-ups that create shareable moments
- Branded hashtag campaigns inviting customers to share their experiences
- Instagram Stories polls letting audiences vote on new menu items before launch
The brands winning in 2026 will be those that build communities around content, not campaigns. Want to learn more about how to build a bulletproof UGC strategy for your brand? Check out our guide here.
3. Blogging is back on the menu
Remember when blogging was all the rage? Although corporate blogging has fallen out of favour in recent years, we predict that 2026 will be the new 2006, sparking a resurgence in blog-based content largely as a result of AI platforms’ preferences for authoritative, human-authored writing. Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google’s AI answer engines frequently cite high-quality content from real people with real experiences, meaning that websites producing regular, well-written blogs are being pushed to searchers more than those neglecting their blogging.
According to research from SEO guru Neil Patel collected over 12 months from 20 different companies, the 10 businesses that stopped blogging saw alarming declines in traffic and engagement:
- 39.7% loss of SEO traffic
- 10.4% revenue drop
- Only 6.5% increase in LLM traffic
Whereas the 10 brands which continued to publish well-researched, informative blog content saw:
- 85.8% increase in LLM traffic
- 9.1% revenue growth
- A much smaller 18.2% average loss of SEO traffic
These stats make almost certain the prediction that 2026 will be the year of blogging, with content rooted in lived experiences, expertise, transparency, and storytelling looking set to perform strongly across both traditional SEO and AEO-powered AI discovery. Unfamiliar with some of the acronyms we’re using? Check out our in-depth blog on the differences between traditional SEO and the AI-driven AEO, GEO, and LLMO.
4. Health and wellness foods will continue to dominate, with a new focus on fibre
Online searches for high-protein foods have more than doubled year-on-year, with grocery delivery service Ocado reporting a 105% increase in what’s been nothing short of a protein boom. But here's our prediction for 2026: the humble fibre is about to have its moment. 'Fibre-maxxing' has already become a veritable social media movement, with industry experts noting that fibre is emerging in popularity on a similar scale to protein. Beans, legumes, pulses, and wholegrains are featuring prominently in this trend, driven by growing awareness of gut health benefits and how beneficial fibre is for overall health.
Speaking of gut health, this category represents a massive opportunity: the global digestive health market is valued at $116.92 billion (approximately £92 billion), with gut health products expected to exceed £25 billion by 2035. Kefir, kimchi, kombucha, and probiotic yoghurts are leading the charge, with green powders and a thriving supplements industry in quick pursuit.
For food brands and hospitality venues, this means highlighting functional benefits on menus and packaging – don’t just write 'healthy' and call it a day, specify and champion what health benefits your products actually deliver. (We've written more about this in our blog on the transparency gap in food packaging.)
5. Typography takes centre stage
In 2026, typography is finally doing the talking for brands. We’ve seen a surge in popularity for packaging and marketing materials that use bold, fun, and visually appealing typefaces, with bright colours and interesting animated accompaniments helping businesses to stand out from the crowd both online and on the supermarket shelves. Digitally-native Gen Z is leading the push away from the safe neutrals and sans-serif fonts of Millennial-era minimalism, embracing anything that dares to take a creative leap of faith within a design landscape which feels “a little homogeneous” as of late.
Brands have seen success with creative, ‘out-there’ typography styles like:
- Brutalist typography that combines raw geometric forms and ultra-bold strokes with an unpolished simplicity
- Heritage-signalling serifs that lean into a rich brand history instead of trying to hide it.
- Nostalgic, neo-retro typefaces that evoke the 80s and 90s design eras, signalling a bygone era of quality and brand trust to consumers
- Bright, bold, versatile fonts that work across a variety of digital and physical touchpoints, creating a super-recognisable brand identity
6. Circular packaging systems
Reusable packaging is becoming a core focus for 2026, sitting alongside recyclability, fibre-based formats, and mono-material structures as a top priority for brands and retailers. Instead of designing only for single-use, companies are creating durable, attractive, easy-to-use packaging that can be refilled or returned repeatedly. This shift goes beyond basic sustainability, as sustainable packaging is now (or should be!) the baseline, positioning circular, multi-use systems as the next major step in reducing waste and driving stronger brand–consumer relationships.
What does this mean for your food business? It's time to start thinking beyond simply 'recyclable' to 'reusable'. Consider where deposit-return or refill systems could work for your products, and explore partnerships with circular packaging providers. The brands getting ahead of these shifts now will build customer loyalty and regulatory compliance simultaneously, whilst the laggards scramble to catch up when various legislation like the EU's Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation (PPWR) is set to take full effect.
Looking ahead to 2026
The through-line connecting all these trends is authenticity and creativity. Whether it's raw TikTok content, bold typeface choices, genuine brand storytelling, or honest health claims, we forecast that consumers in 2026 will continue to reward brands that keep it real and don’t try to trick them with meaningless marketing fluff.
For food businesses of all sizes, the message is encouraging: you don't need the biggest budget to succeed, just a genuine story, products you believe in, and a willingness to meet your customers where they are. Increasingly, that's on their phones, scrolling through short-form video content, so get those cameras at the ready.
Want to know more about how to integrate these trends into your food brand strategy for 2026? Get in touch with us today.
