February 24, 2025 – Bakery products are integral staples in diets across the globe. The global bakery market expands beyond traditional offerings to embrace health-conscious trends, catering to various culinary preferences while offering a sensory experience of variety, convenience, and indulgence.
Every year, created through our extensive 360 research, Innova releases the Top 10 Trends for the upcoming year. Here we take a look at how five of our Top 10 Trends of 2025 and other factors are impacting the global bakery trends: “Ingredients and Beyond,” “Wildly Inventive,” “Flourish from Within,” “Tradition Reinvented,” and “Rethinking Plants.”
Ingredients and Beyond Trends
‘Ingredients and Beyond,’ highlights consumers demand for added value becomes standard, elevating quality beyond ingredients is key for brands and companies.
Bakery trends highlight that quality is the top priority for consumers in bakery products. Globally, 61% of consumers notice the product quality of store brands and supermarket brand products. Besides a higher price, they mostly associate quality with freshness and health benefits. Freshness is particularly influential, with 50% of consumers highlighting it as the key factor in purchasing fresh bread.
Private labels are gaining attention in this space, with a 30% rise in purchases over the past year due to their good value for money, accessibility, and high quality. Different generations prioritize different quality attributes in bakery products. Gen X and Boomers prioritize freshness, health benefits, shelf life, and naturalness, while Gen Z and Millennials focus on branding, safety, packaging, and advertising. Safety claims are most impactful in preserved bread and sweet biscuits, while natural ingredients drive purchases of cakes, pastries and sweet goods.
Flavor Trends
The top trend of ‘Flavors: Wildly Inventive’ is about consumers craving extraordinary flavor experiences, driving brands to create bold mashups and surprising combinations. Globally, 43% seek out crazy and indulgent creations, making flavors a key focus in bakery innovation.
Bakery market trends research shows that over 60% of consumers prioritize taste when purchasing sweet bakery products. They are most interested in cross-category mashups like dessert hybrids, snack-main course fusions, and savory-sweet combinations. While consumers prefer plain flavors in bread, sweet bakery offers space for experimentation. There has been an exponential growth in new bakery launches with sweet and salty/savory flavors over the past year. Several dessert mashups of hybrid baked goods are growing in the bakery trends, such as cruffins (croissant and muffin), crookies (croissant and cookie), cronuts (croissant and doughnut), and biskies (biscuit and cookie and cake).
Limited-edition flavors also shape purchasing decisions, with 1 in 4 consumers influenced by seasonal offerings. This preference is reflected in the 38% growth of new bakery launches with limited-edition claims in the past year. Brands are responding with special launches, including OREOiD’s Valentine’s Day I Love You Box, Ringo Pop’s popcorn flavored cream filled biscuits, and the ERAS Mix honoring Taylor Swift’s Toronto concerts.
Gut Health Trends
‘Gut Health: Flourish from Within’ highlights the growing awareness of the microbiome, creating a space for ingredients like fiber and probiotics.
Digestive/gut health is the top health aspect mostly driving the purchase of functional food and beverages. Bakery market trends show that there has been a 22% growth of new bakery launches with a digestive/gut health claim over the past year. Ingredients like fiber, vitamin D, and probiotics are leading innovations in the bakery market trends.
Gut health innovations are expanding across various bakery subcategories. Bread and bread products highlight digestive support, while sweet biscuits and cookies promote fiber for good digestion. Savory biscuits and crackers emphasize fiber’s role in digestion, and cakes—pastries and sweet goods increasingly feature digestive health claims. Among all subcategories, cakes—pastries and sweet goods display the highest growth in new launches with digestive/gut health claims.
Bakery Tradition Trends
This food trend, ‘Food Culture: Tradition Reinvented,’ reflects consumers desire to rediscover the flavors of their culinary heritage and embrace authenticity and tradition. Nearly half of consumers globally consider food that expresses their heritage and diversity as important values in their diet. Made with local ingredients, familiar flavor, and traditional cooking techniques are the most important aspects.
Bakery brands are tapping into this trend by blending nostalgia with innovation. There has been a 14% rise in new bakery launches with traditional claims in the past year. As 42% of consumers show a strong preference for authentic bread over modern alternatives. Brands like Vainol’s Three Milks Traditional Sponge Cake and Bettergoods Apple Cinnamon Empanadas highlight tradition to engage consumers seeking familiar, comforting flavors.
Plant Based Trends
This ‘Plant Based: Rethinking Plants’ food trend shows that the intense buzz of plant-based alternatives has quieted, and consumers are rerouting towards natural pursuits to plants in real and recognizable form.
Consumers globally seek plant-based bakery products for their natural and healthy qualities, driving 21% of new bakery launches to feature plant-based claims over the past year. Cakes, pastries and sweet goods, and sweet snacks are the key areas of interest, with taste being the primary challenge for brands in this space.
To enhance appeal, brands are focusing on delivering a natural and authentic taste while minimizing synthetic flavors. A cleaner approach is gaining attention, indicated by the 24% of plant-based bakery launches highlighting no additives or preservatives claims. Additionally, with more than 1 in 5 consumers globally considering bakery as their preferred protein source, brands are increasingly incorporating plant proteins to meet this demand.
What’s Next in the Global Bakery Trends?
Quality remains the top priority for consumers globally, driving brands to highlight premium ingredients in product descriptions and promotions to attract attention. This focus on premium quality appeals to diverse consumer markets by offering unique health benefits.
At the same time, indulgent experiences are in high demand, with TikTok and Instagram shaping consumer preferences. Brands can tap into social media trends for inspiration for creating bold and innovative treats that captivate consumers.
Health remains a key driver, with 28% of consumers seeking wholegrains for gut health. Functional bakery products that balance indulgence with digestive wellness are gaining traction, opening opportunities for brands to blend both aspects. Similarly, traditional flavors in bread and sweet bakery appeal to consumers, especially when sharing a snack with family and friends. Highlighting homemade and traditional claims is likely to help brands to connect with nostalgia while modernizing heritage-inspired offerings.
Protein in bakery is also on the rise, with more than 1 in 5 consumers prioritizing it as their preferred protein source. Pea and fava bean protein are expanding opportunities in plant-based bakery market. Brands that combine indulgence, health, and authenticity are likely to shape the future of the global bakery trends.
This article is based on Innova’s Top Trends 2025: Bakery – Global report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to find out more
