The U.K. consumer is no stranger to a food trend. Unashamedly, we are a nation of followers – with a boundless appetite for the next big thing. The retailers: in a perpetual state of crystal-ball-gazing to predict what will take our collective fancy next, and stocking shelves accordingly.
It feels like only yesterday that celebrity chefs were leading the charge when it came to emptying supermarket shelves. Delia Smith famously caused a national cranberry shortage in the mid-90s, thanks to the “Delia Effect” which rippled on into the early 2000s.
I believe charity shops are the bellwether of cultural change in our country – and they are cookbook graveyards. Filled with piles of well-thumbed, food-splashed relics of a time where our weekly menu was shaped by ‘the big 4’ (Delia, Nigella, Jamie and Gordon) and their latest 300-page tome.
Fast forward to 2025, and a new force is dictating what fills our trolleys: the endless scroll of the For You Page. The Delia effect has given way to the TikTok effect, where seemingly anyone can become an overnight success and trigger a national shortage.
TikTok is profoundly reshaping how Britons find, desire, and ultimately buy their food. Influence can come from any of TikTok’s 1.8bn users; a viral recipe or 30-second clip of a new product can empty supermarket shelves overnight. In recent years the retailers have seen it all: shortages of matcha powder driven by the matcha latte boom on social media, a severe pistachio shortage thanks to the Dubai chocolate craze and shoppers emptying shelves of feta cheese to create a viral pasta recipe.
Where trends go, money follows. A recent study found that one third of UK shoppers have bought food directly through social media – with 43% likely to make a food purchase from TikTok specifically. This strong link between content discovery and purchase behaviour is undeniable, with retailers innovating to follow suit.
Lidl became the first mainstream UK supermarket to launch on TikTok Shop, selling out its first drop of protein bundles in under 20 minutes. They followed this with their take on the viral Dubai pistachio bars, selling 72 bars a second. This goes to show the huge commercial potential of adopting new sales channels.
With the traditional grocery ecosystem being disrupted by TikTok and its taste-making algorithm, what does this mean for brands?
Agility is everything
TikTok trends emerge and dissipate quickly, meaning brands need to shorten NPD cycles from months to weeks to ride the wave. The ability to recognise early signals from ‘FoodTok’ and being open to adapting production to get relevant products onto shelves (or TikTok Shop) will differentiate winners from those left with static stock.
The perfect example: Co-op releasing a limited-edited “Marry Me” chicken sandwich inspired by the TikTok trend.
Evolve your content strategy
In the past, brands invested heavily in campaigns designed to tell consumers what to buy. Now, social media means consumers are telling each other what to buy. Brands must therefore shift their focus from traditional advertising to engaging with their community in more meaningful ways. This means empowering user-generated content, collaborating with micro-influencers and even creating their own short-form, engaging videos that inspire rather than just inform. Your brand’s “virality potential” now trumps pure marketing spend.
The perfect example: the organic, word-of-mouth viral success of Little Moons in early 2021 was almost entirely driven by users, with videos of people “finding” Little Moons in supermarket freezer aisles and doing taste tests causing a chain reaction.
Diversify sales channels
The purchasing journey has fundamentally changed. While supermarkets remain crucial, the direct link between ‘discovery’ on TikTok and ‘purchase’ means brands can no longer rely solely on conventional retail distribution. Brands must actively explore and invest in nascent social commerce channels like TikTok Shop, leverage TikTok Lives for interactive sales events, and optimise their own e-commerce platforms to handle direct-to-consumer demand.
The perfect example: CBD drinks brand TRIP, who saw a spike in product demand which it attributed to social media, achieving 30 million impressions on TikTok and Instagram in a single month.
If you’re a food and drink brand interested in how we could support your marketing strategy, get in touch.