Here’s the thing about trends: they rarely appear out of thin air. More often than not, they’re an evolution of something that’s come before, and that history is just as important a part of the story as the trend itself.
So before we start looking ahead to 2026 (sign up for our 2026 trends webinar here) let’s revisit our predictions for 2025.
2025’s trends were split into two categories:
- Brand & product: trends that underpin next-generation brands
- Category, population & need: trends that define where to focus propositions and build expertise
Innovation x communication
Innovation alone is no longer enough. As categories become more homogenous, how brands communicate their innovation is just as critical as the product itself. Communication is an art as well as a science, and it's often overlooked as an area of innovation. Many brands launch new ingredients, formats, or technologies, yet fail to tell a story that resonates with consumers.
Some categories that exemplify this need include:
- Creatine: traditionally positioned for muscle and strength, we now know that creatine is beneficial for brain health, too. But where are the products using creatine to lean into the brain health messaging? There’s a huge opportunity here to innovate this well-known product for a different market.
- Non-dairy dairy: although plant-based dairy alternatives have been trending for years, adoption hasn’t accelerated in many markets. The challenge lies in positioning and proposition rather than the products themselves.
- Plant protein: a category dominated by pea and rice protein where taste is often a barrier. Brands need to either innovate with ingredients (expensive) or communicate existing benefits more effectively to stand out.
Specialist vs generalist
Brands are increasingly specialising, building deep expertise around a single platform, product, or ingredient, allowing them to become leaders in their niche. Specialism can be defined in several ways:
- Targeting a specific consumer group
- Focusing on a particular need state
- Leveraging a proprietary technology
- Owning a single, signature ingredient
Being a specialist can reduce flexibility, but it can also create authority and brand clarity. Some of the most successful brands today are specialists, proving that mastery of one area often outweighs mediocrity in many.
Back to basics
Innovation isn’t always about creating something entirely new. Sometimes it’s about shining a spotlight on core products. Whether it’s creatine, protein, hydration, or foundational superfoods, there’s real value in emphasising what a brand does best.
Back-to-basics innovation reintroduces classic products in ways that resonate with modern consumers. It’s not flashy, but it’s effective, reminding us that foundational health is often the most enduring form of innovation.
The birth of originality
Originality is increasingly important in crowded categories. While flavour is an obvious starting point, especially in an industry where true flavour variations are hard to come across, originality can extend to packaging, concept, ingredients, and positioning.
Originality drives identity. When done well, it transforms a product from functional to aspirational, giving consumers a reason to choose it over countless similar options.
Substance behind the logo
Consumers want brands to live their values, not just claim them. Sustainability and clean labels have become table stakes, but consumers understand that brands can’t do everything perfectly.
What matters is the substance behind the logo: showing purpose through tangible actions, not marketing claims. Brands like Wild Nutrition and ALL Real demonstrate that integrity, authenticity, and transparency resonate with today’s consumers.
Health hacks
Health hacks take daily essentials to the next level. Instead of creating complex products, brands are embedding functional benefits into routines consumers already have. Health hacks are taking these daily essentials to the next level. Examples include adding electrolytes to water, mushroom coffee, and ready-to-eat superfood balls.
Health hacks are the evolution of foundational nutrition. By removing barriers to consumption and integrating benefits seamlessly into daily life, they make healthy behaviour easier to adopt and maintain.
Recovery redefined
Recovery redefined is about shifting from reactive to proactive approaches to recovery and wellness. Consumers are no longer waiting until they feel the effects of fatigue, stress, or indulgence, they want solutions that support them before, during, and after challenging days or events.
This can mean products for sleep, overnight recovery, stress management, or pre-emptive support for social occasions (aka hangover cures).
That said, recovery redefined isn’t just about hangovers – it’s about creating products and routines that help people perform at their best every day while reducing the impact of life’s demands.
Performance 2.0
Performance is no longer confined to sport, it’s a lifestyle goal. Performance 2.0 helps anyone be their best self, whether through focus, energy, sleep, or wellbeing.
Product examples include:
- NOOMA energy drinks: Supporting performance “wherever you’re headed.”
- HMN24: Products aligned with circadian rhythms for athletes, frequent flyers, and busy lifestyles
- Healf mushroom chocolate: Enhancing focus, energy, sleep, and even arousal
- ESN Perfect Base & Myprotein HYROX: Supporting hybrid sports performance and recovery
Performance 2.0 highlights that wellness is no longer a niche pursuit, it’s integrated into everyday life.
Root cause
This trend is all about getting back to the root of the problem and we’re seeing a shift toward the lowest common denominator of cellular health; that is, addressing the underlying mechanisms of ageing and disease rather than just the symptoms.
We all love the ideas of agelessness and longevity, but when you dig deeper, these trends encompass everything from cardiovascular health to beauty to muscle building. Framed in a root cause context, longevity becomes about defying ageing at a cellular level.
In the market, this could translate into consumers shopping for supplements that target different health needstates, for example skin, heart, muscles, cognition, but with one shared aim: improving cellular health. It feels intricately personal and tailored to the individual, but the magic is that it’s actually a universal approach.
Why does this resonate? Because if you can fix health from the root cause, everything else follows. Cellular health products do command a premium, but for brands this isn’t a drawback. The supplement industry thrives on categories that consumers believe are worth paying for, and root cause health fits that perfectly.
A parallel universe
The parallel universe trend is all about GLP-1, and we all know how that’s exploded onto the market and into the general population’s awareness. Rather than recap what you know, let’s look back at what we wrote about it this time last year. It’s fascinating to see how quickly it’s evolved and how, even just 12 months ago, we were explaining what GLP-1 was:
“Glucagon-like Peptide 1 (GLP-1) is now all the rage thanks to Ozempic. GLP-1 agonists are medicines used to treat type 2 diabetes by mimicking how the hormone GLP-1 acts when your stomach releases it after you eat food.
GLP-1 agonists essentially help you make more insulin; reduce the amount of sugar made by your liver and slow down the rate of digestion, thereby giving your body longer to absorb nutrients from food.
Ozempic is the new wonder GLP-1 receptor agonist (in an injectable form) approved for use in type 2 diabetes. But that isn’t what is being used for.
One of the things Ozempic has done is put GLP-1 agonists in the news. No one knew what a GLP-1 agonist was before Ozempic, particularly its association with rapid weight loss.
And the nutrition market has responded to the interest surrounding Ozempic. Nestle is one of them.
Now we find ourselves going down the rabbit hole that is websites offering companion products for people on GLP-1 medications who struggle to lose weight and want to shop for supplements that will complement the GLP-1 medicines they take.
Nestle has launched GLP-1 Nutrition which pulls together all of its supplements that can support a person on a GLP-1 medicine to lose weight.
GLP-1 companion products say to the consumer, “Let us help you shop loads of products if you’re a GLP-1 user”.
It’s a whole new consumer subset and it’s a parallel universe.
We think the products that will win in this parallel universe are protein; protein waters, shakes and shots. Why shots? Because the people on GLP-1 medicines shopping for protein already feel full due to the medicine, so the gold-standard protein shake might not be as attractive for this type of consumer.
This is a gigantic trend that is still very relevant to the existing products in the market; it’s just a parallel universe in the type of consumer being targeted.
Will a traditional brand today win in this space, or does this parallel universe open the door for a whole new type of brand dedicated to the prescriptive weight loss consumer?"
What’s next?
2025 has shown that trends evolve, overlap, and often surprise. Longevity, GLP-1, performance, recovery redefined, health hacks, and originality highlight a shift toward proactive, personalised, and purpose-driven innovation.
As we move into 2026, understanding these evolutions will be key to understanding where things are going next.
And what are our 2026 trends, we hear you ask? Join our upcoming 2026 trends webinar with Nick Morgan to find out. Wednesday 22nd October, 3pm BST. Sign up here.
