Category: Trends

Together let’s focus on the future of sides

Innovate your menu with exciting side dishes, textures, vibrant colours, and plant-based options to keep customers coming back.

Together let’s make the moment matter

The market continues to thrive on social dining experiences, with people prioritising connection and indulgence when eating out. As hybrid work remains the norm, social brunches, dinners, and weekend gatherings are becoming more popular than functional, work-related dining occasions.

At the same time, consumer preferences are evolving, with a growing appetite for fresh takes on classic favourites like fries and sides. This shift presents a perfect opportunity for operators to reimagine their menus with bold flavours, unique textures, and shareable options that enhance craveability and create memorable dining moments.

The Power of Textures

As consumers seek multi-sensory dining experiences, texture is becoming a key factor in food enjoyment. From the satisfying crunch of crispy fries to the contrast of soft and crispy elements in a dish, texture adds depth and excitement to every bite.

Crispy foods remain a staple on menus, enhancing both flavour and presentation. McCain SureCrisp™ fries are designed for lasting crunch, while McCain’s Pickers offer a delicious range of cheese snacks that are gooey, stretchy and indulgent. Making every dish more craveable and unique.

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Check out this recipe:

NANNY BILL’S AGGY FRIES feature McCain Surecrisp™ seasoned with a mixture of herbs, spices and sea salt, a sprinkling of parmesan, a drizzle of garlic and herb sauce, and a dash of hot sauce topped with some spring onions for colour.

Plant Based

The continuing driver around plant-based foods has led to the creation of further innovation to celebrate vegetables.1

Chefs and creators are increasingly pairing exciting plant-based ingredients with favourite flavours. As of early 2025, approximately 12% of the UK population, or around 6.4 million people, follow a meat-free diet.2 This trend is expected to continue, with an additional 15% of Brits planning to adopt a meat-free lifestyle within the year, potentially bringing the total to over 14 million by the end of 2025.

Consumers are seeking vegan versions of their favourite dishes that closely mimic the texture and experience of traditional products. McCain SureCrisp™ Traditional Thick Cut fries are the perfect pairing for dishes like this tofish and chips @unitydiner were serving up @thebigfeastival!

Vegan drenched fries are at festivals across the UK each summer with recipes such as Vegan Cheese & Wild Mushroom as an alternative dish to the ever-popular Poutine. The clear coating on the McCain SureCrisp™ range makes them perfect for topping as they stay crisp even when loaded.

Greener carbs are also set to be more popular and involve texture innovation. Rice and pasta made from cauliflower, peas and other plant-based proteins will be seen more and more throughout the years to come.

McCain uses British potatoes grown by local farmers and so ensure their products have lower food miles compared to imported varieties. 2025 continues to see rapid growth in the food-tech arena, with lab-grown beef, seafood, and dairy becoming more widely available alongside plant-based meat and dairy alternatives. Advances in cellular agriculture and fermentation technology are driving innovation, offering more sustainable and scalable options for consumers seeking ethical and environmentally friendly food choices.

The Power of Colour

“We eat with our eyes and so if it looks good, we expect it to taste good too.” – Observes Nathalie Pauleau, global product manager for natural colours at Givaudan.

The mental bond created by food colour is very strong. Different colours have different connotations: “In 2020 blues and greens were very popular as they have strong connections with health, vitality, relaxation and wellbeing and have long been associated with nature” she explains.3

Psychology plays a key role in how consumers experience food, and colour is a powerful tool for creating emotional connections. In 2025, vibrant colours such as yellows and oranges continue to be popular, as they are associated with energy, warmth, and vitality. McCain’s Menu Signatures Sweet Potato Fries offer a visually striking and delicious side. Try topping them with Moroccan-spiced sour cream, fresh coriander, and tangy pomegranate for the ultimate colour splash that delights both the eyes and the taste buds.

With social media continuing to dominate the digital landscape, visually striking foods are more shareable than ever. In 2025, bold and vibrant colours play a key role in making dishes more ‘Instagrammable,’ driving engagement and sparking consumer interest. Eye-catching sides offer the perfect opportunity to experiment with colour, texture, and flavour—while also commanding a premium on menus.

Try Only Jerkin’s recipe of McCain Crispers tossed in a dry jerk seasoning with black beans, red onion, chilli mango aioli, coriander and chillies.

 

½ of the brain’s capacity is visual

We also know it is possible to change the flavour of food as you eat it, by altering its colour.

Charles Spence, an Oxford experimental psychologist who helped Heston Blumenthal develop his boundary-pushing menus, places vision in parallel with smell when it comes to distinguishing flavour.

“Half the brain capacity is visual which is why the colour of food can help determine whether a food is appetising and help define its flavour” – Charles Spence

This shows the importance of visually pleasing foods and how restaurants need to be brave and innovative to keep consumers interested and happy.

New Flavour Dimensions

Taste sensations are created by something called entropy; this is the measure of the number of possible arrangements atoms in a system can have. It is a measure of uncertainty and randomness. We experience entropy in the mouth when we eat. Food ends up in a state of disorder within the mouth as flavours make their way across the palate of the tongue.

It is predicted that chefs will use the science of entropy to rearrange food atoms within the mouth to produce new textures, flavours and even more from sweet to savoury within a few bites.4

The trend for entropy will continue to evolve in the area of umami and is due to become even more extreme and prevalent across menus over the coming years.

Flavour Fixers

Sides are the perfect transporter of flavour, especially those with skin-on rugged textures that grip spice blends and seasonings. Discover a whole new world of flavour with our own expert flavourologists map exploring botanicals, flavours of the sea and botanical flavour combinations that will elevate your sides to the next level!

There is a need for multi-sensory experiences, and this had led to a raft of experimental dishes.5

OUR FLAVOUROLOGIST MAP

Wild & Wacky Trends

In 2025, the trend of “vehement foods” continues to push boundaries, turning dining into a multisensory experience. Experts predict a future where food becomes interactive—changing colours, textures, and even movement to evoke emotions and enhance flavour perception.

This trend is set to further integrate social media platforms and immersive technologies, with apps allowing you to watch your chips dance on your fork, or a burger that evolves to the beat of music, or a dessert that changes color as you eat it, responding to temperature.

Take a look at ‘Mirage’, an app by City Social, which introduces the an Augmented Reality Cocktail Menu, using VR to bring cocktails to life.

Vibrant, experiential foods are expected to rise in popularity, offering a visual spectacle for diners. As the demand for more “elevated experiences” continues to grow, dining is increasingly becoming a multi-sensory adventure.

Upcycled food is projected to continue growing as a prominent food trend, with a report from Future Market revealing that the upcycled food market is currently valued at $46.7 billion, with an expected compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5% over the next decade.

A 2021 study published in Food & Nutrition Sciences revealed that only 10% of consumers are familiar with upcycled food products, but the great news is that once educated about them, 80% say they would seek them out.6

McCain are committed to being zero waste to landfill and 100% potato utilisation by 2030 with products such as their skin-on fries.7

 

Discover Our Ranges

Like you, we’re passionate about bringing people together over food to create truly memorable moments. It’s our ambition to help keep customers coming back with exciting ideas, future trend predictions and product solutions that help you bring them to life on your menu. Here at McCain Foodservice Solutions we are dedicated to future innovation and sustainability.

Our potatoes are grown in Britain by our network of 250 farmers who work with us on using sustainable irrigation systems and renewable energy. Our unrivalled consumer insight when it comes to fries and sides helps us create ranges that your customers will love.

 

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Sources

  1. https://www.wgsn.com/fd/p/article/92048#page1
  2. https://www.finder.com/uk/stats-facts/uk-diet-trends
  3. https://www.foodmanufacture.co.uk/Article/2021/04/01/How-food-colours-tap-into-consumer-mood-and-wider-trends
  4. https://greenseedgroup.com/food-trends-2021/
  5. https://www.wgsn.com/fd/p/article/92048#page1
  6. https://www.forbes.com/sites/daphneewingchow/2021/05/31/upcycled-food-is-the-coolest-trend-you-probably-never-heard-of/
  7. McCain’s 2020 Sustainability Report https://documentcloud.adobe.com/link/review?uri=urn:aaid:scds:US:67d671d9-6b4a-41d3-b04b-4c06b08e59ba

The importance of chips, when dining out

Stay ahead of consumer desires with McCain—insights on what truly matters when dining out.

McCain has teamed up with professional research company, Toluna. Toluna conducts research all over the world to help household brands best understand their consumers. Their brief was to uncover what really makes diners happy when eating out (and the role of chips, of course) to better understand how this leads to positive dining experiences.

Using an online survey, the research collected data from over 700 UK respondents who had eaten out in the last 6 months. The fieldwork was carried out in February 2023.

Chips are Important to Customers

6 in 10 diners would be more disappointed if chips were missing from the menu than any other menu item.

Chips are the first food encounter

45% of people admitted to stealing a chip from someone else’s plate before their meal arrived (cheeky), and 54% said it’s always the first thing they try.

Chips are the first food encounter a diner has with a pub, bar or restaurant. The quality sets a precedent for the meal to come and ultimately leaves a lasting impression.

Not everyone will complain if the quality isn’t right; they just don’t come back…

In fact, our survey revealed that 44% of customers would not complain if they got a poor-quality meal, but 89% would be unlikely to return if their meal did not live up to their expectations. So don’t cut corners where it matters!

Did you know?

9 out of 10 diners said quality was more important than portion size (200-250g) when it comes to chips. Serving better-quality, optimum portions makes diners happier and leads to a more positive dining experience.
55% of customers agree that the quality of the chips served is important to the overall enjoyment of their meal.

Chips really do matter

1 in 2 customers identified chips as a favourite food when eating out, ranking higher than any other menu item. With the potential for chips to make or break a meal out, McCain decided to build a model to deconstruct what the key factors are in the perfect chip when influencing a great dining experience.

Offering a WIDE RANGE of chips (from skin-on to triple-cooked) generated the most happiness for diners. This was closely followed by CRISPNESS and TASTE, which generated high levels of emotion when it came to the chip experiences.In essence, offer an array of size and style and get the crispness, taste and temperature right when serving a perfectly portioned side of chips, and you’re 89% of the way to total chip perfection.

Get them wrong at your peril! 32% of diners said they would leave a bad review after a terrible chip experience.

Here at McCain we only use the best-quality potatoes that deliver consistent, all-year- round flavour. Our Surecrisp™ range stays crispier and warmer than uncoated fries on plate1, and they stay crispier for longer than the nearest branded coated competitor.¹

In tests, consumers agree McCain SureCrisp™ is crispier and more enjoyable on plate when compared to an uncoated fry.²

Range Appeal

Increasingly, range is becoming more important to diners as certain chip varieties have become synonymous with key mains.

Offering a good and varied range of chips contributed 37% TOWARDS HAPPINESS and positive review intention, making a significant contribution to offering the perfect chip experience. The McCain range allows you to serve the perfect chip with every dish, adding to the overall happiness of your customers and influencing their positive review.

Understanding Diner Experience

Of course, it’s no surprise that food quality is an extremely important factor when it comes to diner experience. In fact, our survey found that the quality of food served is the most important ingredient of an enjoyable meal out, with 73% of respondents saying it made the largest contribution in generating happiness and influencing positive reviews.

We used some clever maths (structural equation modelling) to discover how important each aspect of the dining experience was at driving overall happiness, and the subsequent impact each had on affecting an online review.

We drilled down into each of the four overarching areas to build a Happiness Model that can help operators better understand what areas of their business are directly impacting customer reviews.

 

Eating out Happiness Model

 

Quality is King

It’s no surprise that great food quality is THE most important happiness indicator in the mind of the customer. But it turns out size doesn’t matter as much as taste anyway!

Quality was nearly ten times as important as portion size. It’s all about the taste and variety, and that’s especially true when it comes to chips. 

Our research found that a whopping 93% of customers are more likely to treat themselves to higher-quality food, with 87% agreeing that it’s important their food is of a good quality as they don’t dine out regularly. 

And with 90% of customers now actively looking for outlets that serve good-quality food, this demonstrates an increasing demand for quality over quantity. A perfectly portioned side of delicious and crispy chips will deliver greater levels of happiness than a vast serving of average quality chips. This is a great way to reduce waste and make your diners even happier! 

Menu range was also a large contributing factor to the overall happiness index, with customers citing a variety of options as a key factor to their overall dining experience. 

But what does that actually mean?

Our research discovered a quarter of diners liked to see a range of different cuts of chips on the menu – from skinny skin-on fries to chunky triple-cooked chips. Menus need to offer enough choice to make guests happy and side orders and fries are a great way to add choice without complexity, and also allow for a level of personalisation which is very important when it comes to achieving customer satisfaction. 

Interestingly the range of speciality meals (e.g. vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free) showed almost no correlation with people’s happiness with the food. This can widely be explained by the fact that today customers expect to see these options available. It doesn’t make them any happier to see them, but take them away and happiness would certainly be impacted. 

McCain has a range of gluten-free chips that allow you to cater for everyone without the worry of listing a second fry. 

The Power of Reviews

The Happiness Model revealed the overall quality of the outlet foremost in customers’ minds (90%) when they consider the impact of where to dine. 

Although almost half of diners don’t regularly leave online reviews of their experience (49%), this doesn’t render online reviews obsolete.

In fact, the study revealed 66% of diners would happily pay more if they were reassured by a pub, bar or restaurant’s excellent online reputation. This demonstrates that guests are happy to pay for quality and are actively looking for consistency when it comes to food quality.

82% of diners say they’ve left an online review, with around only 20% doing so frequently. This means there’s a hardcore set of reviewers out there controlling the agenda. Our research has identified these as the ‘organisers’ who punch above their weight when it comes to opinion forming. 

 

Review Platforms

 

Diners across all ages predominantly check with TripAdvisor (38%) and/or Google Reviews (46%) before deciding where to eat. The over-55s prefer to check out the pub, bar or restaurant’s website, whereas the under-30s will access the outlet’s social feeds before forming an opinion and deciding where to spend their time and money. 

Unsurprisingly, younger diners are more likely to use image sharing and social media platforms like Instagram (45%) than people over 55 (21%). 

 

 

 

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Sources

  1. Sensory testing for crispness, Sensory Dimensions – August 2018
  2. Consumer preference testing, Blue Yonder – April 2019. Products tested was McCain 3/8 cut. Outcome may vary depending on climate