Consumer Trends 2027

The 2027 consumer trends point to the claims that are hardest to make

Innova Market Insights presented its five consumer trends for 2027 this month, with the full report due in November. People want small lifts in mood, the strength to cope with daily pressure, comfort in a turbulent world, brands they can believe, and value for what they spend. Each trend points brands toward a claim they will want to make on pack.

We wanted to know what each of those claims costs to put on a pack. So we mapped the trends against a slice of the claims and ingredient intelligence we hold across food and CPG, pulled for this report: 8 functional ingredients in 10 markets, 750 public consumer mentions, 318 claims collected across various food brands in five markets (50), and the caffeine and energy-drink rules we track worldwide.

The claims consumers want most for 2027 are the ones regulators close first. For the mood, calm, focus, energy and sleep ingredients we checked, the claim is not permitted in 71% of the markets we have assessed. It is permitted in full in only two cases, both in Japan.

The trends with the strongest consumer pull, Positivity Boost and Personal Resilience, are the ones where the claim is most often closed outright. Claims for the other three are rarely banned, but almost always come with conditions.

01 · Positivity Boost

Mood and calm claims are wanted, and closed in most markets

Innova sees younger consumers buying food and drink for a lift in mood. Ashwagandha, L-theanine and GABA carry most of that promise in new products.

In the EU the claim is closed for all three, and in the UK for the two we checked. EFSA rejected the L-theanine claims in 2011. In July 2025 the UK advertising regulator upheld complaints against an adaptogen drink brand for calm and stress wording. Japan is the exception: L-theanine and GABA claims are permitted under its Foods with Function Claims system.

Across the three ingredients, the claim is not permitted in 20 of the 29 market cells we resolved. Demand can also turn. Of the 59 US consumer mentions of ashwagandha we collected, 27 were complaints, several about emotional flatness. A brand building on mood needs to watch the backlash as closely as the demand.

02 · Personal Resilience

Energy is the claim shoppers repeat, and the one enforcement is moving on

Innova frames resilience as feeling strong and prepared for daily life, and the help consumers look for runs from energy through to sleep support. Energy is the shorthand, and it is the claim shoppers say back to brands. In the reviews of one energy-bar range, energy came up in 21 of 85 quotes, more than any claim except sugar.

The same wording travels badly. “Sustained energy” works in the US and is on Canada's list of misleading energy claims. Caffeine rules are tightening as well. The UK confirmed a ban on sales to under-16s of drinks above 150 mg/l from April 2027. India's regulator issued notices to five energy-drink brands in July 2026, and the Texas Attorney General opened an investigation into two US energy brands in June 2026.

Across the markets we track, most have a rule or guide for energy drinks, many require a caffeine warning, and several are discussing new limits or taxes. For the five energy, focus and sleep ingredients in our study, the claim is not permitted in 30 of 41 market cells.

The unmet want is energy without the jitters: caffeine with L-theanine, mushroom coffee, paraxanthine as a substitute for caffeine. Paraxanthine has real pull in the US and is not permitted as an ingredient in the EU. The other half of resilience is recovery, and there the gap is sleep: melatonin drew more “I want this” mentions than any other ingredient in our sample, most of them from UK and Japanese shoppers explaining how they import it from the US.

03 · Safe Havens

Comfort lives in childhood, where the marketing rules are strictest

Innova's safe havens are about comfort, routine and familiar things. In food, that often means a product people grew up with.

In French and Brazilian reviews of a kids' chocolate drink, shoppers call it “a safe bet, comforting” and “a return to our childhood”. The same reviews show the risk. When the recipe changes, often to cut sugar under a front-of-pack warning, people write that the taste of their childhood has gone.

Of the 72 quotes we collected, 13 were about comfort and memory, and at least 8 complained about a changed recipe. None of the 12 rules we mapped for kids and family marketing in five markets permits it outright. Mexico bars child characters on any pack that carries a warning seal, and Brazil treats cartoon characters aimed at children as abusive marketing. For comfort products, the exposure sits in the mascot and in the reformulation, more than in the words.

04 · Honest & Believable

Half the claims we captured disagree with another surface

Innova reports that honesty is the trait consumers admire most, and that they increasingly want proof of what they read. We tested how consistent brands are with themselves across every surface where a shopper meets the product: the pack, the brand site, retailer pages and marketplaces.

For the food brands in our sample we compared what each of those surfaces says about the same products. In France, one shopper saw Nutri-Score B in an online description and D on the pack they received.

Of 318 claims, 160 (50%) disagree with another surface. Badges do not close the gap. Organic is the most common label in Open Food Facts, on 272,322 products, yet in one range's reviews organic, non-GMO and sustainability badges came up in 8 of 85 quotes, against 24 for sugar. Since 27 September 2026 the EU bans generic environmental claims and sustainability labels that are not based on a certification scheme. Proof now starts with every surface telling the same story.

05 · Worth It

Health is what shoppers pay more for, and what brands get sued over

Innova finds consumers cutting back in some areas to spend more on what they judge worth it, and healthier food and drink is one of the main things that pass the test. For many shoppers, worth it is a health question before it is a price question, which is why health, sugar and nutrition claims end up carrying the proof of value on pack.

Health-value claims are also where brands have lost money in court. A USD 12M class settlement took “nutritious” off a kids' snack bar pack in the US. A gut-health soda brand reached a USD 8.9M preliminary settlement over its prebiotic claims, and a new suit against another argues that the sugar in the can cancels the digestive-health claim. In Mexico, no health claim may appear on a pack that carries a warning seal.

Sugar was the claim topic shoppers raised most in the reviews we read: 24 of 85 quotes for an energy bar, 17 of 72 for a chocolate drink. The claims that hold are the precise ones: a footnoted “reduced sugar” with a clear comparison passes. The ones that fail are the leftovers, such as “23 vitamins and minerals” still in brand copy after a reformulation removed them.

What this means for 2027 claims

The trends set the message, and each market decides whether that message can go on the pack. The answer differs by market, it changes during the year, and today it often differs between a brand's own surfaces. The same energy line can be fine in Texas, misleading in Ontario and off limits to a 15-year-old in Leeds from 2027.

This is the work Prodeen does. We are Market Access Intelligence for food and CPG: what it takes to put a product on any shelf and keep it there. Claim Fit, our claims intelligence tool, checks each claim and the ingredient behind it against the rules of every market where a product is sold, against what consumers say about it, and against what the brand's own surfaces say. The numbers in this article are a small slice of that data.

Put your 2027 claims through Claim Fit

Claim Fit scores every claim on a pack, a product page or a campaign on three questions, market by market: do shoppers want it, is it permitted, and will it still be permitted when the product is on shelf. If you are planning 2027 claims around these trends, start with one range. Scope one range with Claim Fit →

Appendix

The research data

Nothing in this article is legal advice. Brands are not named, and consumer quotes are translated where needed.