Bulgaria: Where Wellness Meets Purpose

Clean Eating Leads the Charge

According to YouGov’s Trend Reality 2025 report, 81% of Bulgarian households express strong interest in health and wellbeing. Nearly half report a positive impact from this trend, and 45% expect its influence to grow.

At the heart of this wellness wave is clean eating—a lifestyle focused on consuming foods in their most natural, unprocessed form. With 65% awareness, clean eating is the most recognized wellness trend in Bulgaria, well above the EU average of 56%.

Why It Matters: The Deeper Drivers

Clean eating resonates deeply with Bulgarian shoppers because it aligns with their core values and decision-making drivers:

- Responsibility & Purpose: Shoppers seek to act with integrity and contribute to the greater good. Choosing clean, sustainable products supports ethical living. Responsibility & Purpose motives are perfect match for a broader audience: Millennials, Gen X and Boomers. Talking clean=talk purpose to them.

- Safety & Control: Consumers want to avoid risks and make thoughtful, trusted choices. Clean food offers reassurance through transparency and simplicity. Generation X is the generation most guided in their choices by Safety & Control.

- Development & Growth: Wellness is a journey. Clean eating helps consumers pursue personal goals, discover better options, and improve their quality of life. If your messages are around goal achievements, and being your best version, then you lead the conversation with Gen Z.

From attitudes to basket

For general audience Clean food/eating is mostly associated with freshness. Take, Fresh Food, for instance. Based on Consumer Panel data, the growth in volume over MATAug’23 compared with similar period in 2023 is +8%, driven mostly by fresh fish (+18%), fresh seafood (+14%) and fresh fruits (+14).

Water is indispensable part of clean eating concept and in Bulgaria it has one of the biggest consumer bases among all measured FMCG products. Water with minerals and vitamins has added new shoppers and marked up +63% growth in penetration MATAug’25 vs. MATAug’23.

Those who relate Clean food/eating with organic & bio are growing number of shoppers during the past two years (+22%) reaching 57% of Bulgarian households (MAT Aug’25). Therefore, growing in volume +46% comparing the same MAT August periods.

Retailers: Turning Wellness into Growth

For retailers, the clean eating trend is a strategic opportunity to evolve the in-store experience and build deeper consumer trust. Retailers who curate for clarity, build trust, and shift the narrative from price to purpose will be best positioned to win in this new wellness economy.

Brands: From Product to Purpose

For FMCG brands, clean eating is a call to action. To stay relevant, brands must reformulate to reduce additives, highlight health benefits, invest in transparency, and tell stories that connect with consumers’ desire for clarity, integrity, and self-improvement.

Clean eating in Bulgaria isn’t just about what’s on the plate—it’s about what matters most. Brands and retailers that deliver clarity, integrity, and purpose will earn new shoppers’ audience, in a market where wellness offers the opportunity to grow.