Report Detail

November 2025

10 Key Trends in Food Nutrition and Health 2026

PDF: 140 pages

Price (PDF): US$790 £625 €720 NZ$1300 AU$1200 ¥90000
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The purpose of 10 Key Trends in Food, Nutrition & Health is to help you:

be the best-informed that anyone in our industry can be about the most important growth trends in food, nutrition and health.
be the best-informed anyone can be about what strategies you can use to create growth for your business with those trends.

Written in an easy and accessible style, lavishly illustrated with charts and graphics, 10 Key Trends sets out:

which trends will grow, and why
how much they will grow and why
which are higher risk, which are lower risk
what strategies you can use to implement each trend in your own business, with mini-case studies illustrating what brands are already doing

This practical "how can you do it" focus is what sets 10 Key Trends apart and reflects our own industry background, our own experience of running and growing businesses and our team's deep and broad knowledge. 10 Key Trends comes in both PDF and PPT formats, laid out so that you can easily incorporate it into your own presentations and use it with colleagues and customers.

This report is called 10 Key Trends 2026, but in fact we're focused on what’s going to matter for your business not only in 2026, but also for the next five years. Two subjects we explore in extra detail this year, which will be important for the next five years, are:

Protein quality
Weight wellness & metabolic health

Companies from American to Japan, Australia to France, and Sweden to South Korea rely on this report and return to it again and again for ideas and inspiration. Companies value the fact that 10 Key Trends has opinions, clearly expressed, backed up with information and case studies, from consumer beliefs to science.

Introduction

Key Trend summaries

Category opportunities

Mega Trend 1: Weight Wellness & Metabolic Health

Mega Trend 2: Fragmentation of Health Beliefs

Mega Trend 3: Naturally Functional

Mega Trend 4: Snackification at the Heart of Strategy

Mega Trend 5: Sustainability

Key Trend 1: Animal Protein Powers On

Key Trend 2: Digestive Wellness Diversifies

Key Trend 3: Energy 3.0

Key Trend 4: Weight wellness and Metabolic Health

Key Trend 5: Mood & Mind

Key Trend 6: Carbs – Better and Fewer

Key Trend 7: Rethinking Fat

Key Trend 8: Plant Protein

Key Trend 9: Real Food

Key Trend 10: Plants Made Convenient

Chart 1: Success comes from connecting to multiple trends

Chart 2: For younger consumers, social media is the dominant source of information about food & health

Chart 3: Sustainability trails other purchase drivers

Chart 4: Protein’s journey from sports niche to good for all

Chart 5: Americans’ top three preferred sources of protein are animal-based: meat, eggs, seafood

Chart 6: Meat offers multiple benefits for consumers

Chart 7: Dairy protein’s many advantages

Chart 8: Whey protein has a superior amino acid profile to any plant protein

Chart 9: Consumer attitudes to meat are growing more positive

Chart 10: % of consumers increasing meat consumption, by age

Chart 11: Meat snacking sales surge

Chart 12: US cottage cheese sales ($bn)

Chart 13: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 1, Animal protein

Chart 14: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 1, Animal protein

Chart 15: Interest in consuming more fibre skews older in every country, including the US

Chart 16: US sales of lactose-free milk & plant milks by value, 2019 to 2025

Chart 17: US sales of lactose-free milk & plant milks by volume, 2019 to 2025

Chart 18: In probiotics Asia is out-innovating western markets

Chart 19: % of consumers avoiding gluten (USA

Chart 20: US volume sales of plant milks have been sliding for four years

Chart 21: % of consumers eating fewer grains (average all five countries)

Chart 22: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 2, Digestive Wellness

Chart 23: Product Life-cycle– Key Trend 2, Digestive Wellness

Chart 24: Energy tops the list of health benefits Americans seek from their diet

Chart 25: Creatine is getting more consumer attention than collagen

Chart 26: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 3, Energy 3.0

Chart 27: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 3, Energy 3.0

Chart 28: GLP-1 is only part of the picture of changing consumption patterns

Chart 29: Consumer attitudes to GLP-1a drugs

Chart 30: Changes in diet and exercise as a result of using GLP-1a drugs (all five countries)

Chart 31: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 4, Weight wellness & Metabolic Health

Chart 32: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 4, Weight wellness & Metabolic Health

Chart 33: Eating for better mood is a behaviour driven by younger consumers

Chart 34: Eating for better mood skews slightly towards female consumers

Chart 35: Which of these foods are you eating to boost your mood and mental wellbeing? (average all 5 countries)

Chart 36: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 5, Mood & Mind

Chart 37: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 5, Mood & Mind

Chart 38: % of consumers trying to eat fewer carbs, (average all 5 countries)

Chart 39: Percentage of consumers who say they are reducing their sugar consumption, by age group

Chart 40: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 6, Carbs – Better & Fewer

Chart 41: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 6, Carbs – Better & Fewer

Chart 42: Consumers’ increasingly positive view of dairy fat (average of five countries), 2018-2025

Chart 43: US sales of whole milk have grown steadily thanks to the rehabilitation of dairy fat

Chart 44: Consumers’ perceptions of the healthfulness of fats (average of five countries)

Chart 45: Trend Diamond– Key Trend 7, Rethinking Fat

Chart 46: Product Life-cycle– Key Trend 7, Rethinking Fat

Chart 47: % of consumers who are trying to reduce meat consumption (average of all 5 countries)

Chart 48: Quorn operating profit (£m)

Chart 49: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 8, Plant Protein

Chart 50: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 8, Plant Protein

Chart 51: % of consumers who say they try to avoid consuming UPFs by age group

Chart 52: % of consumers who say they try to avoid consuming UPFs (USA)

Chart 53: Siete’s premium price makes it for the health-active consumer

Chart 54: Charlie Bigham’s focus on simple processing and taste appeals to lifestylers

Chart 55: Kind Snacks was a pioneer in the evolution of packaged food to real food

Chart 56: Trend Diamond – Key Trend 9, Real Food

Chart 57: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 9, Real Food

Chart 58: Trend Diamond– Key Trend 10, Plants Made Convenient

Chart 59: Product Life-cycle – Key Trend 10, Plants Made Convenient

Contents