Category Trends
Date 26-08-2025
By Heidi Knudsen, Marketing Manager, Lactosan A/S
If you think cheese belongs only on pizza and burgers, 2025 is about to change your mind. At Lactosan A/S we live for the first bite of something new, and tracking trends and the latest reads on confectionery— the headline is clear: consumers want adventure, authenticity, and indulgence they can feel good about. With Lactosan Cheese powder you can hit all three.
Here's the most relevant trends shaping candy and chocolate right now—and how Lactosan’s cheese powders can help brands translate those trends into irresistible, scalable products.
Innova’s Top Global Flavor Trends for 2025 call out a surge in “Wildly Inventive” mash-ups—surprising combinations that deliver a true wow moment. Think cross-category pairings and unexpected twists that still feel deliciously familiar.
Where cheese powder fits:
Cheese is the original sweet-savoury bridge. A touch of Mascarpone or Cream Cheese powder rounds sharp sweetness; Cheddar and Brunost (brown cheese) bring gentle caramel, toffee and umami tones that play beautifully with chocolate and sugar-glass textures. Lactosan’s portfolio includes provenance styles (Mascarpone, Cream Cheese, Brunost) and application-ready blends designed precisely for this kind of flavour play.
Innova notes that consumers most often choose sweet when they want indulgence, but sweet-and-salty/savoury is close behind—and flavor fusions (sweet–spicy, sweet–salty, sweet–savory) are gaining momentum across sweet categories.
Where cheese powder fits:
A curated cheese powder can deliver the “salty-creamy” cue people crave—without tipping into a savoury snack profile. It adds roundness, balances acidity, and amplifies cocoa notes thanks to natural umami and dairy fats. Lactosan’s application know-how extends to confectionery fillings, marshmallows, and chocolate systems, so you can dial that balance with accuracy batch after batch.
Another of Innova’s 2025 flavor themes is “Authentic & Rooted”: consumers seek flavours tied to real culinary traditions—often updated with a modern edge.
Where cheese powder fits:
Classic dessert cues—tiramisu (Mascarpone), cheesecake (Cream Cheese), Scandinavian brunost caramels, even “yogurt” and “date” trending within chocolate—are easy to express with clean, recognizable cheese styles in powder form. Innova’s chocolate flavour tracking also highlights emerging flavours like yogurt and honeycomb, and the rise of salt as a character note—natural pairings for dairy richness.
Fruit remains the lead flavour space in sugar confectionery, with growth in mixed fruits and newer twists; at the same time, “brown” indulgent notes (cake, cookie, pie, dairy, vanilla) are climbing. Spicy-sweet and floral hybrids are emerging too.
Where cheese powder fits:
Pairing fruit gels or aerated candies with a creamy dairy layer (think marshmallow, nougat, whipped fondant) made with Mascarpone or Cream Cheese powder gives contrast and sophistication—like a strawberry-cheesecake chew or peach-yogurt bar. Cheese powder stabilizes and enriches textures in these aerated systems, helping prevent weeping and improving bite. Lactosan’s team specifically supports confectionery textures and fillings.
“Intense indulgence” in chocolate—luxurious textures and premium flavors—continues to trend, while Innova also tracks “Indulging in Health,” where consumers appreciate mood-boosting treats with perceived upgrades (quality ingredients, mindful sugar).
Where cheese powder fits:
Cheese powders can heighten perceived premium quality (“made with real cheese”) and deliver mouthfeel without cloying sweetness. Lactosan’s Natural Culinary Booster (NCB) solutions can also support sodium reduction and mask off-notes in reformulations—useful when managing sugar or adding functional ingredients.
1) Builds Flavour Bridges
Natural dairy notes add creaminess and a subtle savoury spine that enhances cocoa and caramel flavours, unlocking complexity in pralines, caramels, fudges, and ganaches. Lactosan’s range includes styles selected for intensifying flavours or masking bitterness, helping you nail balance in dark chocolate or botanically infused pieces.
2) Improves Texture & Stability
Milk proteins in cheese powders offer emulsifying functionality that supports stable fillings, whipped centers, and layered bars—often enabling cleaner labels by reducing reliance on extra stabilizers.
3) Enables On-Trend, Cross-Category Ideas
“Dessert-inspired” and “bakery-inspired” chocolates are proliferating; cheese powders replicate signature bakery/dessert cues (cheesecake, tiramisu, caramelized brunost) in shelf-stable formats that scale.
4) Helps With Smarter Indulgence
When you’re reducing sugar or sodium elsewhere, a judicious dose of umami-rich cheese powder can maintain taste impact and perceived richness—key for permissible indulgence products. (NCB solutions are designed to help with sodium reduction and off-note masking.)
(Source: Innovamarketinsights.com, 2025)
Get inspired on cheese powder solutions in confectionery products or Get in touch!
