Healthy Eating – UK Consumer Analysis
- The rapid churn of healthy eating trends makes eating healthily less appealing for half of adults. This highlights the need for brands to tread carefully when capitalising on changing health trends and to anchor their better-for-you propositions in consistency and reliability.
- A moderation mindset is a significant barrier to healthy eating, with two-fifths of people who don’t always try to eat healthily viewing occasional unhealthy treats as acceptable. Brands can address this by raising awareness of where treats are unexpectedly unhealthy and the cumulative impact of consuming them, encouraging a shift towards better-for-you alternatives.
- The public focus on ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has led to high levels of avoidance. However, there is an opportunity for brands to communicate the benefits of processed ingredients, which could help drive their acceptance among consumers.
- Promisingly, almost three-quarters of people find at least one consideration or benefit that would make processed ingredients acceptable, with over a third citing their ability to reduce negative nutrients or add positive ones as a key factor. This presents a compelling opportunity for brands to reframe the narrative around UPFs.
- To succeed in the better-for-you space, brands must balance innovation with education, helping consumers make informed choices while offering consistent, trustworthy products that align with their health goals.
Healthy Eating Statistics in the UK
- Healthy eating is firmly on people’s mind, with half of adults saying they try to eat healthily half the time.
- UPF avoidance is still on consumers minds’, with the number of consumers trying to avoid ultra-processed food remaining unchanged from 2023.
Key Topics Analysed in the Report:
- An overview of consumer intentions to eat healthily
- Barriers to eating healthily more often, including a moderation mindset
- Attitudes towards highly processed foods and ingredients and considerations that make these acceptable, including cost and health
- Consumer behaviours and attitudes related to keeping up with the latest health trends and the role of protein and fibre in tapping the heightened relevance of satiety
| Report Attributes | Details |
|---|---|
| Published Date | June 2025 |
| Report Author | Kiti Soininen, Head of UK Food and Drink Research |
| Consumer Data | 2,000 internet users aged 16+, March 2025 |
| Number of Pages | 57 |
| Report Scope | How often people try to eat healthily, Barriers to eating healthily more often, Attitudes towards UPFs, Behaviours related to healthy eating, Attitudes towards healthy eating |
| Brands Mentioned in the Report | Surreal, Grenade, Pukka Tea, Whitworths, Grass & Co, Heck, Actimel, Yakult, M&S Food, Twinings, This, The Gut Stuff |
Meet the Expert Behind the Analysis
This report was written by Kiti Soininen. Kiti manages Mintel’s UK food and drink research team, which produces some 50 reports annually spanning across the key UK food and drink industries as well as exploring topical consumer trends. She joined Mintel as a European Retail Analyst, before specialising in the food sector and taking responsibility for the team in 2011.
More than two in three people try to eat healthily all or most of the time. UPFs are under intense scrutiny, but benefits win amnesty for processed ingredients.
Kiti Soininen
Head of UK Food and Drink Research
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
- Opportunities
- Benefits make processing acceptable for many
- Aligning with health trends holds risks and rewards
- Rapid churn of health trends both entices and exhausts
- Weight-loss medicines heighten relevance of satiety
- Market dynamics and outlook
- Outlook for healthy eating
- Government plans new food strategy in 2025, HFSS ad rules due in 2026
- UPFs and GLP-1s make headlines
- What consumers want and why
- Two in three try to eat healthily all or most of the time
- Graph 1: how often people try to eat healthily, 2018-25
- Moderation mindset is the top barrier to healthy eating
- Graph 2: barriers to eating healthily more often, 2025
- Spotlight benefits of processed ingredients to drive acceptance
- Graph 3: behaviours related to highly processed and fortified foods in healthy eating, 2025
- Churn rate of healthy eating trends engages and exhausts people
- Graph 4: attitudes towards trends and trust in claims/evidence in healthy eating, 2025
- Fibre and protein enjoy strong filling connotations
- Graph 5: attitudes fibre and protein in healthy eating, 2025
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MARKET DYNAMICS
- Market drivers
- Subdued financial wellbeing hampers health focus
- Graph 6: the financial confidence index, 2016-25
- Highly processed foods remain under scrutiny, but varied views emerge
- Experts across the industry to help the government develop a new food strategy
- Government responds to House of Lords food system recommendations
- Leading grocers support mandatory health reporting
- Labour Government confirms HFSS advertising restrictions
- Nutrient profile defines HFSS status
- Uptake of GLP-1 drugs remains low
- Interest in weight loss drugs is high, but NHS roll-out set to be slow
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WHAT CONSUMERS WANT AND WHY
- How often people try to eat healthily
- Healthy eating is firmly on people’s minds
- Two in three try to eat always or mostly healthily
- Graph 7: how often people try to eat healthily, 2018-25
- Men aged under-35 report highest healthy eating
- Graph 8: consumers trying to eat healthily all or most of the time, by gender and age, 2025
- Different responses to body image pressures underpin this
- Gym and fitness terms are ebbing in young men’s healthy eating online tags
- Parents and the financially secure try most to eat healthily
- Graph 9: consumers trying to eat healthily all or most of the time, by age and presence of children, and by financial situation, 2025
- Barriers to eating healthily more often
- Moderation mindset is the top barrier to healthy eating
- Two in five list moderation mindset as barrier to healthy eating
- Graph 10: barriers to eating healthily more often, 2025
- Older groups are relaxed, younger ones hampered, in healthy eating
- Graph 11: top five barriers to eating healthily more often, by age, 2025
- Falling short on taste puts off many under-25s
- Tie-ups can make healthy indulgence credible
- Functional claims spark high expectations of tangible effects
- Pukka and Whitworths offer cues on helping users notice benefits
- Ensure functional elements and manage expectations
- Bring long-term benefits to life
- Attitudes towards highly processed foods and ingredients
- UPFs continue to draw attention
- Noise around UPFs props up avoidance
- ‘No artificials’ messaging remains relevant…
- …especially to engage the young and young parents
- Leverage ‘clean’ ingredient lists for standout
- ‘Only N ingredients’ attract high-profile launches
- Communicate ‘processed’ ingredients’ benefits to drive acceptance
- High acceptance among the young offers good news for ‘processed’ ingredients
- Cost and health lead for acceptance of processed ingredients
- Affordability, shelf-life and healthiness are top factors to make processed ingredients acceptable
- Graph 12: outcomes and attributes that make highly processed ingredients OK in a food/drink, 2025
- Inspiration on communicating benefits of processed ingredients
- Blood sugar is in the spotlight
- ‘Lower blood sugar rise’ claim holds unique potential for sweeteners
- Behaviours and attitudes related to healthy eating – keeping up with trends
- Churn rate of healthy eating trends engages and exhausts people
- Graph 13: attitudes towards trends and trust in claims/evidence in healthy eating, 2025
- Anchor better-for-you propositions to constancy
- Promise of longstanding wellness commitment will chime
- Delivering core health tenets faster, higher, tastier
- Draw on ‘traditional wisdom’
- A case for agilely aligning with changing health trends
- Graph 14: behaviours related to keeping up with trends and dietary choices in healthy eating, 2025
- Linking with health trends must be handled carefully
- Communication has a role to play
- Social media shapes dietary changes
- Behaviours and attitudes related to healthy eating – fibre, protein and keeping full
- Spotlight on GLP-1 drugs lends fresh relevance to satiety
- Fibre and protein can tap demand for feeling full
- Fibre and protein enjoy strong filling connotations
- Graph 15: attitudes fibre and protein in healthy eating, 2025
- Graph 16: behaviours related to fibre, protein and blood sugar spikes in healthy eating, 2025
- Look beyond widespread high-fibre and -protein claims
- Graph 17: product launches with high/added protein claims in processed protein and dairy, and in all food, 2020-25
- Graph 18: product launches with high/added fibre claims in all food and starchy foods, 2020-25
- Stalwart categories lead protein and fibre claims; challengers step up
- Tangibility and more rounded nutrition hold potential to push beyond ‘high in’ claims
- Small and international launches offer inspiration
- Spotlight resistant starches
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APPENDIX
- HFSS categories
- Categories in scope of HFSS regulations
- Consumer behaviours and attitudes – topline findings
- Consumer questions included in this Report
- Behaviours related to healthy eating – topline findings
- Graph 19: behaviours related to healthy eating, 2025
- Attitudes towards healthy eating – topline findings
- Graph 20: attitudes towards healthy eating, 2025
- Report scope and definitions
- Market definition
- Infegy Atlas
- Abbreviations and terms
- Consumer research methodology
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