5 Emotional Trends Shaping the Future of Food
Why start-ups must make people feel, not just think
At System1, we believe the more people feel, the more they buy. In food innovation, emotion isn’t just an ingredient—it’s the recipe for success.
That’s especially true for start-ups: challenger brands striving to balance mission with market reality, often without the luxury of mass budgets or wide distribution. For these innovators, creating food that feels right can be the difference between breakthrough and burnout.
That’s why we’re partnering with Meals Collective and Future of Food—to shine a light on the emerging brands that are harnessing emotion to stand out, scale up, and reshape what we eat. Together, we’re celebrating the start-ups leading with feeling and fueling change.
Here are five of the most powerful emotional food trends we’re seeing today, brought to life by start-ups already making waves.
1. Gut-Forward Nutrition: Fibre-Maxxing & Probiotic Heroes
A growing wave of challengers is making gut health delicious and accessible. Fibre-maxxing brands are finding ways to bake wellness into familiar formats, think porridges, bars or yoghurts that feel indulgent, not medicinal.
Take Bio&Me, founded by dietitian Dr Megan Rossi. Their granolas and yoghurts are bursting with prebiotics and fibre diversity, but what stands out is the branding: bold, colourful and joyful. It feels empowering, not clinical, exactly the emotional tone that drives trial and repeat purchase.
Alongside them, The Cultured Collective is bringing zing to the gut-health movement with kimchi and sauerkraut that feel adventurous, vibrant and alive. TCC brings delicious flavour along with empowerment and self-care that excites.
2. Wild Flavours & Foraged Spirits: Rewilding the Pantry
Consumers are hungry for adventure and start-ups are delivering with wild, foraged ingredients that reconnect people with nature.
Pentire Drinks, for instance, crafts non-alcoholic spirits with botanicals foraged from the Cornish coast: sea rosemary, woodruff, even wild seaweed. Beyond flavour, Pentire evokes wonder, curiosity and connection to place. That emotional journey is why people buy it once, and remember it when it’s time to buy again.
3. Crunch & Texture: Beyond Flavour Alone
Taste alone doesn’t win hearts, taste and texture does. Crunch is primal, satisfying, and instantly rewarding. It creates an instinctive emotional reaction that innovators can measure and lean into.
Boundless Activated Snacking has nailed this with their range of chips and nuts. By activating their ingredients for gut-friendly benefits, they add function, but it’s the explosive crunch and bold branding that make them addictive. In crowded snacking aisles, that sensory hook is what drives memorability.
We’re also seeing this principle at play in emerging brands like More Toddler Meals and Wildy Tasty, who understand that sensory delight – not just nutrition – is what keeps parents and children coming back.
4. Mindful Hydration & Zero-Proof Indulgence
Alcohol alternatives aren’t about abstaining anymore, they’re about indulging differently. Today’s consumers want the beauty, ritual, and self-care of a crafted drink, without compromise.
Botivo captures this perfectly. Made in small batches in the UK, it’s a bittersweet, herbal, zero-alcohol aperitif crafted with five macerated botanicals and apple cider vinegar. It’s positioned not as a replacement, but as a ritual, served simply over ice with soda, it feels sophisticated, grounding, and restorative.
What Botivo really nails is the emotional framing: this isn’t about what you’re missing out on, it’s about slowing down and treating yourself.
XOXO Soda takes a different angle, turning everyday refreshment into an act of joy and balance. With playful branding and mood-boosting formulations, it reframes soda as self-care – sparkling, uplifting, and guilt-free while When In Rome transports drinkers back to Italy with authentic, indulgent and sustainable wines that spark connection and relaxation.
5. Ethical Protein: Upcycled, Regenerative, and Algae-based
Next-gen protein is about more than nutrition, it’s about story. Consumers want to feel their purchase is a positive act, not just a personal choice.
Take Two embodies this shift with its barley milk, made from upcycled spent grain from the brewing industry. It’s creamy, tasty, and planet-positive, but what really resonates is the narrative. By turning waste into value, they give consumers a chance to feel like every sip makes a difference.
Seep extends this spirit of conscious consumption by reimagining everyday essentials, like loofahs and cleaning products, in planet-friendly, biodegradable formats. It’s a reminder that sustainability can feel simple, satisfying and empowering in the smallest daily rituals.
Meanwhile, Fermtech is pushing boundaries with fermentation-led protein innovations, giving consumers a chance to feel part of a bold, science-driven step towards a more regenerative food system.
From upcycling to fermentation, these innovators make sustainability feel not just responsible – but rewarding.
Making Emotion Work for Start-Ups
Each of these trends points to the same truth: food start-ups win when they make people feel. From gut-friendly joy to wild curiosity, from the crunch of texture to mindful indulgence or ethical pride, emotion is the shortcut to attention, memory, and choice.
That’s why we’ve partnered with Meals Collective and Future of Food—to spotlight the start-ups turning emotional insight into real-world impact. And it’s why at System1, we help innovators test not just what people say, but what they feel. Whether you’re building the next Botivo, The Cultured Collective or Seep, emotion is still the most scalable ingredient in your recipe for success.