Key takeaways:
- Gen Z consumers are increasingly shopping by mood, need and occasion rather than traditional food categories such as snacks, meals or beverages.
- The rise of grazing, modular eating and hybrid lifestyles is forcing food manufacturers to rethink how products are developed, marketed and positioned.
- Rather than replacing indulgence, trends such as GLP-1 use and wellness-focused eating are accelerating demand for foods that balance nutrition, convenience, comfort and emotional connection.
The modern food industry was built around categories: snacks; dairy; bakery; frozen; beverage; confectionery; breakfast; dinner.
However, Gen Z increasingly doesn’t shop that way.
That’s the uncomfortable reality emerging from a profound shift in consumer behaviour now reshaping global food and beverage markets. Younger consumers aren’t simply eating differently – they’re dismantling the very framework the industry has relied on for decades to develop, merchandise and market products.
And according to Abigail Evans, senior insights manager for Retail & Strategy at Hormel Food – who previously led pipeline development and innovation for Pillsbury and Betty Crocker at General Mills, guiding teams through Consumer First Design and Lean Startup methodologies – most brands still haven’t fully grasped how deep the disruption goes.
“Consumers don’t shop by category anymore,” she says. “Stores are still set up that way and buyers still think that way, but consumers don’t. They shop by need, by mood and by whatever problem they’re trying to solve in that moment.”
It may sound like a small change in behaviour, but in reality, it changes everything. Because once consumers stop thinking in categories, the entire architecture of food retail starts looking outdated.
A protein shake suddenly competes with yoghurt, iced coffee, cereal bars and confectionery. Frozen appetisers become dinner. Functional beverages become breakfast. Cottage cheese morphs into a dip, dessert, snack or protein booster depending on the occasion. The traditional lines between meal, snack, side dish and indulgence are becoming increasingly blurred.
The industry, meanwhile, is still organised around aisles.
“What we’re really seeing is consumers believing that combining snacks is a satisfying meal,” Evans explains. “Younger consumers are saying, ‘I can grab this and grab that and that gives me a complete meal. I don’t need that centre-of-the-plate dinner anymore.’”
That behavioural shift is far bigger than viral concepts like ‘girl dinner’ or snackification. Evans argues those trends are merely symptoms of a deeper structural transformation in how consumers approach food altogether. And it’s forcing manufacturers to rethink what they are actually selling.
The rise of modular eating
For decades, food companies focused on ownership of eating occasions: breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacking. Gen Z is turning that model on its head, transforming eating into something far more fluid.
“They’re looking for reliable bases or strong proteins they can keep in the fridge or freezer,” says Evans. “Then they pair that with leftover salad, noodles, rice or whatever else they have. It’s modular. It’s customisable. That’s what a meal looks like now.”
The drivers behind that behaviour are both economic and emotional.
Hybrid work erased many of the old boundaries between office and home life, while rising grocery bills forced consumers to rethink how they eat and shop. Solo dining also became far more common, making flexible, informal eating feel normal rather than occasional. Meanwhile, permanently connected lifestyles accelerated demand for food that can be eaten quickly, easily and almost anywhere.
“People feel like they have less hours in the day,” says Evans. “Work is home and home is work now. Consumers are typing with one hand and eating with the other.”
As a result, traditional meal structures are weakening – particularly among younger consumers who increasingly graze throughout the day instead of sitting down for fixed eating occasions.
“Gen Z and millennials are over-indexing in grazing,” she adds. “Boomers still report more traditional mealtimes, but younger consumers are snacking throughout the day and viewing that as a meal in itself.”
For product developers, the knock-on effect is enormous. Increasingly, the products winning with younger consumers aren’t necessarily complete meals; they’re adaptable components that can move seamlessly between multiple occasions and need states. Portable protein, functional beverages, snackable dairy, indulgent mini-portions, heat-and-eat and hybrid products that blur the line between categories are all benefiting from this behavioural change.
And ecommerce is accelerating it further.
“Online shopping isn’t set up by category in the same way stores are,” explains Evans. “Consumers are scrolling now. TikTok isn’t organised by category, Instagram isn’t organised by category and algorithms don’t think that way either.”
In other words, younger consumers are increasingly discovering food the same way they discover music, fashion or entertainment – through mood, relevance and personal identity rather than physical shelf placement. That’s creating a growing disconnect between how consumers actually shop and how most food businesses still internally operate.
Why authenticity suddenly matters more than flavour
One of the most significant consequences of increasingly blurred food categories is the growing importance of cultural authenticity.
For years, global flavours were treated as trend cycles – spicy launches, fusion concepts or limited-edition experimentation. Gen Z, however, sees them very differently.
“With Gen Z and Gen Alpha, multicultural consumers are the majority,” Evans says. “They want to see their cultures represented in the foods they’re eating. This isn’t just about global flavours being trendy anymore.”
That evolution is forcing brands to rethink how they approach innovation. Consumers still want convenience, affordability and functionality. But they also expect products to feel culturally credible and emotionally authentic.
“You can’t just throw a spicy flavour into something and assume your brand belongs there,” Evans says. “Consumers will see right through you. These younger generations are very smart about authenticity.”
That pressure is becoming particularly intense for multinational brands eager to capitalise on global flavour demand without appearing opportunistic or performative. “It has to feel authentic and not forced. Otherwise, you risk offending people or losing entire groups of consumers.”
The challenge for brands is no longer simply identifying flavour trends quickly enough. It’s understanding whether they have permission to participate in those spaces at all. And younger consumers are increasingly willing to punish companies they believe are inauthentic.
“We’ve seen younger generations walk away from brands if they don’t feel genuine,” notes Evans. “That matters now more than ever.”
As a result, flavour innovation is becoming inseparable from brand trust, cultural fluency and identity.
The future of food may actually slow down
Ironically, even as convenience culture accelerates, Evans believes the next major shift could involve consumers reclaiming more intentional food experiences. Particularly once Gen Z enters parenthood in larger numbers.
“I still think there’s a desire for sit-down meals and making them feel special,” she says. “People want to replicate the dinner times they had with their families.”
That contradiction sits at the centre of modern food culture. Consumers want speed and flexibility but they also crave ritual, connection and emotional comfort – especially after years of digital overload, pandemic disruption and blurred work-life boundaries. “One of the easiest ways to reconnect is through food, especially with the technology divide we’re living through.”
That emotional complexity is also reshaping how younger consumers think about health and wellness. Rather than pursuing rigid restriction, many are embracing a more holistic mindset where indulgence, emotional wellbeing and nutrition coexist.
“We’ve lived through some really hard times,” Evans says. “There’s this feeling now that indulgence in small doses is okay. Food brings joy and connection.”
That helps explain why indulgent categories continue to thrive alongside functional and protein-forward products rather than being displaced by them. Functional sodas are booming, sweet treats remain remarkably resilient and protein-rich products continue attracting younger consumers, as consumers increasingly seek comfort, wellness, energy, nostalgia and emotional reward all at the same time.
The rise of functional snacking
The tension becomes even more apparent in the GLP-1 conversation, where much of the industry is still trying to determine whether weight-loss medications represent a temporary disruption or a fundamental reset of modern eating habits.
Evans believes many companies risk oversimplifying the opportunity. “We are naturally in a protein-first space, so we have a right to win there,” she says of Hormel Foods, which lists brands like Planters nuts and snack mixes, Skippy peanut butter, SPAM, Hormel Black Label and Jennie-O within its portfolio. “Our products solve a lot of what consumers are looking for when they’re focused on protein, portion control or eating well.”
But she’s wary of treating GLP-1 users as a standalone consumer tribe requiring entirely separate innovation strategies. “Consumers on GLP-1s are not a segment. People are cycling on and off these medications. Some consumers have been living with them for years because they’re diabetic, while others are only just starting to change how they eat.”
Instead, she argues the medications are accelerating behaviours that were already reshaping the market long before GLP-1s exploded into mainstream culture: smaller portions, grazing, protein prioritisation, convenience and more intentional eating.
That mindset could prove critical for food manufacturers rushing to launch GLP-1-specific lines, reformulations and marketing campaigns.
For Evans, the bigger opportunity lies less in aggressively targeting weight-loss consumers and more in recognising how eating habits are evolving more broadly. Consumers increasingly want foods that feel nutritious without feeling restrictive, portion-controlled without feeling clinical and functional without sacrificing comfort or enjoyment.
“What matters is understanding the problems consumers are trying to solve,” she asserts. “It’s about creating products that support consumers in their wellness journey rather than redesigning your whole strategy around one trend.”
Consumers no longer eat according to retail logic. They’re eating according to fragmented schedules, emotional needs, cultural identity, convenience, wellness goals and moments of connection squeezed into increasingly chaotic lives.
And as those behaviours continue reshaping how food is discovered, assembled and consumed, traditional category boundaries are starting to look increasingly out of step with reality.
Consumers have already stopped shopping by category. The rest of the food industry just hasn’t fully caught up yet.
