17 Dec 2025
The World Cup 26 will bring billions of football fans together for shared moments of joy and celebration. The football tournament taking place from June 11 to July 19, 2026 unites people through support for their national team. With so many people meeting up to watch a match together, there arise plenty of opportunities for bakeries, patisseries and confectionery brands to provide them with on-theme snacks.
Explore how brands can rise to the occasion with concepts that celebrate sharing, balance indulgence with wellness and channel local pride into irresistible creations.
175 millions viewers per match
Friends, families and entire nations flock together at home, in cafés or on public squares to watch their team. The World Cup audience is much wider than just soccer fans. It’s people who want to cheer for their country or people that just don’t want to be socially left out. The 2022 tournament had 5.6 billion viewers in total, with an average of 175 million per match.
That creates a golden opportunity for bakery and confectionery brands to become part of the shared ritual. From match-day parties to food retailers decked out in national colors for the occasion, food has become part of the game itself. To make the most of your World Cup product innovation, tap into one of these three consumer desires:
Snacks for sharing and celebration
Better-for-you indulgence
Local authenticity
Snacks made for sharing and celebrating the moment
Bringing fans together bite by bite
A football match on tv and snacks go together like peas and carrots. According to our worldwide Taste Tomorrow consumer survey, eight in ten consumers (81%) love sharing food with friends and family. Treats that are meant for sharing are therefore always a hit during major sporting events. The giant football cookie available at UK supermarket chain Morrisons, for example, a 10 inch (25 cm) wide cookie that easily feeds a group of ten.
This cookie also thicks another box: it’s a fun treat to share on social media. In our chronically online society, people are looking for food that’s not just shareable physically, but also digitally. Nearly half of global consumers (48%) say that sharing food experiences online helps them connect with like-minded people. And with 65% of people agreeing that food that looks good tastes good too, visual appeal is key to making fans pick up their phones and share the moment.
Krispy Kreme UK understood this very well during the 2022 World Cup, when they released a box of special England Doughnuts. The collection featured playful designs, from the Welsh dragon to a doughnut with a red cross against a white background echoing the English flag, and a green one decorated like a football field. Fans proudly snapped photos and shared them online, to showcase their fandom and support.
The opportunity for baked goods, pastries and desserts for the 2026 tournament is clear: create products that bring people together on the couch and on social media. That can be snacks made for sharing among cheering crowds, such as monkey bread, pull-apart bread or mini pizza bites. But also photogenic treats that make a strong visual impact, spotting national colours, symbols, mascots or even favourite players. Success will belong to products that unite taste, community and visual impact.
Better-for-you indulgence
For health-oriented fans looking for protein-powered fuel
Today’s sports fans want to celebrate, not compromise. In fact, 58% of consumers say they prefer healthier options that don’t require them to cut back on treats. This opens up a wide field of opportunity for better-for-you indulgence: products that satisfy those mid-match cravings while also supporting an active and balanced lifestyle.
To truly engage these customers, added protein is the best bet for bakery, patisserie and chocolate brands. According to Taste Tomorrow’s always-on social analysis, interest in ‘high-protein desserts’ has surged by an astonishing 7,800% in social and search mentions. Alongside protein, there’s also growing demand for low-sugar and high-fibre products, a clear signal that fans are looking for baked goods and sweets that align with their personal nutrition goals, without sacrificing taste or enjoyment.
A few brands already took this insight to heart during the past world cup. While Romania hasn’t competed in international football championships for decades, the iconic Romanian brand ROM cleverly used the 2022 Qatar World Cup as a stage to debut its new protein bar. With 12 grams of protein and 3 grams of fibre, the bar was positioned as a “protein boost for national pride”. Their witty campaign encouraged Romanians to cheer for the “National Team of Referees”, since their countrymen were participating in the tournament as officials rather than players.This kind of creative thinking shows that successful better-for-you indulgence is as much about emotion, identity and experience as it is about nutrition.
Looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup, we expect even more bakery, patisserie and chocolate brands to unlock the potential of health-oriented consumers. Beyond energy-boosting protein pastries and high-protein chocolate, there’s also opportunity for mini indulgences such as protein bites that perfectly align with the 15% increase in social conversations around smaller-sized, portion-controlled treats. The brands that win will be those that turn nutrition into celebration, with products that prove that fueling up can go hand-in-hand with indulgence just fine.
Local authenticity
Flavours that give a taste of home (or the hosting country)
Consumers are increasingly drawn to authentic, artisanal baked goods that reflect regional flavours and cultural heritage. People are seeking out products that express cultural identity, celebrate local ingredients or are made using traditional methods. This craving for authenticity continues to grow, based on our data we project a 29% online increase for the local authenticity trend over the coming year.
And since the World Cup is all about belonging, with every goal and every match offering moments to connect through national pride, it’s the perfect occasion to tap into this longing for local experiences through food.
There are two ways to feed into this hunger: by showcasing national favourites or by shining a spotlight on local specialties from the World Cup hosting countries. For national favourites, you can think of the typically Dutch tompouce – a pastry of two layers of crispy puff pastry, filled with custard cream and topped with icing – that are sold in an orange colour during tournaments to support the national team. Consumer preference for such nostalgic treasured treats is projected to grow another 28% over 2026.
Even more powerful is giving these well-known classics a modern twist, by introducing a new ingredient, texture, or format or by reinventing them as creative hybrids. Consumers love this kind of innovation because it feels both new and nostalgic. Taste Tomorrow data confirms that 69% of consumers enjoy a familiar element when trying something new.
The second approach – innovating with local flavours from the hosting nations – offers particularly great potential, as the 2026 World Cup will be the first to take place across three countries: the United States, Mexico, and Canada. A great example of how to utilise this comes from Frito-Lay’s Flavours of the World-campaign during the 2022 World Cup, which featured globally inspired chips such as Mexican Carnitas Street Taco and Latino Adobadas. These limited editions allowed fans to taste the world while watching teams from across the globe compete, blending a spirit of exploration with the shared ritual of match-day snacking.
With three diverse host countries on the horizon, the creative possibilities are endless: they can introduce authentic Mexican conchas, American waffles or Canadian butter tarts. It’s possible to apply typical flavours from the hosting countries to local favourites, think of Canadian maple and poutine, American barbecue or jambalaya or Mexican mole and chili. Or bakeries and patisseries can create creative fusion desserts, such as tres leches bomboloni or croissant taco’s.
Whether it’s a beloved national recipe reborn for a new generation or an adventurous taste inspired by the host nations, local flavour has the power to unite fans, evoke pride, and turn every game into a celebration of culture.
