These Are Whole Foods’ 2025 Trend Predictions

Come 2025, you’ll be boiling sourdough pasta, hosting tea parties, and sprinkling seaweed salt on everything, according to Whole Foods’ just-released trends report. 

To determine its 10th annual list of anticipated food and drink trends, the Austin-based retailer — known for its ethically sourced groceries and stellar baked goods — relied on a council of more than 50 employees, ranging from floor members to senior vice presidents. “The bottom line is we are food lovers who are culinarily inquisitive,” says Cathy Strange, Whole Foods’ ambassador of culture and a team member since 1990 who previously worked as the grocer’s global cheese buyer. “We’re always questioning and searching, compiling and communicating.” 

And while real-life experiences inform the team’s predictions, other factors are considered as well. Among these influences, the council takes inspiration from members’ personal travels, trade groups (Strange herself is a member of Les Dames d’Escoffier International), and informal conversations with suppliers and partners. 

Less important, according to Strange? Social media platforms such as TikTok and Instagram. “Social media is used as a level of validation,” she says. “We’re focused not on what’s already out there now, but what could be out there.” 

In addition to inspiring its own in-house 365 line, the trend report allows Whole Foods, which now has more than 530 locations across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom, to highlight products from its vast network of suppliers, including F&W Game Changers Siete Family Foods and MìLà Dumplings. 

Here are 10 trends to look out for in your grocery store aisle — plus items to try. 

Sourdough everything

Sourdough bread had a moment during the pandemic and beyond as home bakers cultivated their starters. Now gut-friendly, tangy sourdough starter discard is showing up in all kinds of snacks and viral recipes. But the most compelling example of the everything-sourdough trend just might be Bionaturae’s Sourdough Spaghetti, which launched this past spring and is set to enter Whole Foods Markets in February 2025. Strange also calls out Pump Streets Sourdough Sea Salt Chocolate that’s available in U.K. markets — which we can only hope will land stateside very soon. 

Seaweed and more plant-based aquatic ingredients

The ocean holds more treasures than just fish or shellfish — many of which can be farmed regeneratively. In its trend report, Whole Foods points to the increasing popularity of ingredients like sea moss, spirulina, and duckweed (aka water lentils). It’s rewarding to “support people who make their living in the water without draining their resources,” says Strange. Beyond their environmental value, ingredients like Simply Organic Sea Lettuce Finishing Salt add umami flavor to dishes without meat or smoking, she adds. 

Ready-to-eat dumplings

What is a dumpling? According to Whole Foods, it’s anything encased in dough — that includes F&W Game Changer MìLà Dumplings, which has revolutionized the freezer aisle with its restaurant-quality, ready-to-eat soup dumplings. But the retailer’s definition also encompasses portable tamales, frozen iterations of Polish pierogi, and Nepalese momo — plus mashups like pepperoni pizza bao buns. Whole Foods has also developed Basil Pesto Plin, a rolled stuffed pasta from Italy that’s the first product of its kind in the United States. 

Crunchier textures 

The grocer has named “crunch” the “texture of the moment.” While crunch has always dominated the snack aisle, Whole Foods is betting on added crunch for every meal thanks to the ubiquity of chili crisp, which the 44-year-old retailer sells from cult producer Fly by Jing.

What’s more, already crunchy foods are upping the crunch factor. Whole Foods points to fruit and veggie chips, plus sprouted nuts that are soaked in water then dehydrated for an extra-crispy texture — the retailer worked with sprouted nut brand Daily Crunch to develop a variety seasoned with, what else, chili crisp. For dessert, a pistachio crumble will hit stores next January.

Tea-flavored snacks and baked goods

Whole Foods says to look out for tea in all kinds of formats: served at “vintage-inspired adult tea parties” and incorporated into snacks and desserts like hibiscus tea-infused granola and the bakery department’s new Figgy Foggy Chantilly Cake (a chocolate cake with layers of fig jam and Earl Grey frosting) and Vanilla Earl Grey Scones.

Functional water

As Stanley Cups and Owala tumblers have become the latest fashion accessories, the liquids they hold are also getting a closer look. In its report, Whole Foods points to off-the-wall options like chlorophyll water and protein water showing up at beverage trade shows. Of particular interest to the retailer are sports drink alternatives made with natural ingredients, and electrolyte-filled cactus water from brands like Pricklee and True Nopal. Strange chalks the trend up to “awareness around wellness, in a way that’s fun.” 

A focus on sustainable wine and beer

From lower-impact packaging to regenerative practices, beer and wine producers are seeking to reduce their carbon footprint. Whole Foods was a founding member of the Sustainable Wines Roundtable, which aims to drop bottle weights by as much as 25% by 2026. “The bottle weight reduction reduces carbon footprint so dynamically that the percentage saved is a higher level than a total conversion to regenerative [agriculture],” says Strange. 

And California’s Bonny Doon Vineyard is attempting to ditch the glass bottle altogether with its new Carbon Nay! Pink, a rosé packaged in recycled paperboard. The hottest new beer ingredient, meanwhile, is fonio, a drought-resistant West African grain that Brooklyn Brewery’s Garret Oliver is helping to put on the map with Fonio Rising Pale Ale and a collaboration with Guinness. 

Protein in every form imaginable

Consumers are thinking beyond protein bars and powders, says the retailer. Instead, meat eaters, vegetarians, and flexitarians alike are looking to whole-food sources that don’t require cooking animal or plant-based proteins. Think: cottage cheese, hot-smoked salmon snack cubes, and “protein greens” made with protein-rich sweet pea leaves. On the other hand, Whole Foods predicts that carnivores will be seeking out meat blends that combine traditional proteins with organ meats for additional health benefits. 

Compostable packaging

If you don’t already compost, there are several products on the market that make it easier to do your part, such as Compostic, which manufactures “home-compostable” plastic wrap. Whole Foods also notes that Rainer Foods is working on commercially compostable fruit stickers. Not everything is marketed as compostable, of course: Strange also calls out Coyotas, a grain-free alternative to tortillas from a native of Sonora, Mexico (home of the flour tortilla), which is packaged in fully compostable paper.  

Snacks with international influences 

According to Whole Foods, the snack aisle is increasingly filled with products that draw on global flavors — and there’s plenty of crossover with other trends on this list. Take the Geem Korean Seaweed Chips from graduates of Whole Foods’ LEAP program, which provides mentorship to emerging suppliers.