5 Fresh Trends From IFT FIRST

As Food Technology reporters navigated a busy IFT FIRST Food Expo floor in July, five key ingredient trends stood out as innovation front-runners for food product developers and manufacturers looking to leverage new solutions and satisfy a new era of consumer demand.

1) Ingredient Innovation Is Embracing Holistic Health

Food and ingredient companies are seeing a major shift in how consumers think about health. It’s not just about calories or carbs anymore: It’s about feeling better, sleeping better, managing stress, and building long-term physical and mental resilience. The innovation pipeline is shifting too, with more products geared toward boosting good-for-you health outcomes like mental well-being, immune support, and metabolic balance.

On the Expo floor, ingredients like adaptogens and botanicals that support the gut-brain axis weren’t fringe—they were front and center, with players like ADM and Kerry highlighting their role in personalized wellness.KSM-66 Ashwagandha displayed trending food applications of its adaptogenic herb, supported by results from more than 70 clinical studies showing that it reduces stress and anxiety, enhances quality of sleep, and improves focus and cognition. In the Startup Pavilion, A+ Berry’s antioxidant-rich Aronia berry juice and powder formats underscored the increasing use of sustainable superfruit that supports immune health and reduces inflammation.

In some cases, added health halo benefits can be delivered by improving existing functional ingredients. Layn Natural Ingredients showcased the company’s second-generation beta-glucan ingredient, which has a unique helical structure that enables better communication with immune cells in the body, stimulates the growth of beneficial gut bacteria like Bacillus brevis, and promotes the production of microbiome-friendly metabolites.

Notably, some ingredient suppliers are going a step beyond, reframing processed food and ingredients as purposeful and beneficial, not something to fear. Ajinomoto’s “Know MSG” campaign, introduced to combat the myth of “Chinese Restaurant Syndrome” and “No MSG” messaging, is promoting the umami seasoning’s functionality to reduce sodium in foods while boosting flavor.

2) Reformulation, Risk, and Resilience Are Now Intertwined

Reformulation has evolved beyond just a health play to become a strategy for managing risk, supply volatility, and reputational pressure. Ingredient decisions now touch everything from shelf stability to social credibility. Several IFT FIRST sessions showcased how brands like Kraft Heinz and General Mills are removing artificial colors—not because they have to, but because it aligns with where consumer sentiment and government-led policies like Make America Healthy Again are heading. Other companies shared that their reformulated SKUs are outperforming originals, proof that smarter formulation can drive both loyalty and growth.

Natural color solutions were top of mind for many on the Expo floor. Among the innovations were California Natural Color’s proprietary crystal delivery format for its natural colors, many of which are derived from fruit and vegetable anthocyanins, which provide shelf-stable, clean label color that doesn’t require refrigeration for up to five years. Oterra showcased its full range of natural colors from decades-long breeding programs established around the world and designed to reduce supply chain risk while growing crops that deliver more potent colors on fewer acres.

Salt and sugar reduction is increasingly being achieved through stealth—layering flavor, adjusting texture, or using functional replacements that meet taste expectations. Sweegen has innovated “sweet protein,” a sugar substitute that not only amplifies taste but delivers added protein to foods and beverages, and CJ BIO’sclean label umami solutions not only reduce sodium but enhance flavor and mask off-notes.

To reduce risk, supply chain strategies are now built into product design as food companies increasingly choose ingredients with domestic sourcing options, more easily sourced substitutes, or compounds less prone to regulation or price swings, IFT FIRST Expo suppliers noted. Prinova, Alianza, and Richardson International have created clean label cocoa enhancers and substitutes to address food manufacturers’ challenges in sourcing the popular ingredient, particularly as costs to procure it continue to rise. Bell Flavors and Fragrances demonstrated how utilization of two key ingredients undergoing substantial supply chain challenges—eggs and cocoa—can be reduced in a cake application through partial replacement with flavors.

3) GLP-1s Are Reshaping the Innovation Pipeline—Ready or Not

There’s no ignoring the GLP-1 wave. Whether consumers are using drugs like Ozempic or just adjusting behaviors based on the conversation, food companies are rethinking formats, portion sizes, and nutritional density. As one IFT FIRST keynote presenter observed, one driver for product innovation is that food cravings may change for those taking GLP-1 drugs, which is driving food and ingredient companies to advance multifunctional solutions. For example, consumers may no longer crave sweets and snacks but instead crave foods with better-for-you benefits like improved brain health with aging. These weight loss aids are also accelerating demand for protein—and smarter delivery.

Protein fortification and enhancement were at the forefront of this trend. At IFT FIRST, suppliers like Arla Foods Ingredients and MycoTechnology showcased protein formats that are heat-stable, neutral-tasting, and optimized for small-portion applications like snacks and ready-to-drink beverages. Leprino Nutrition exhibited specialty whey proteins aimed at supporting GLP-1–friendly food demand and enabling protein fortification across applications, and Bunge’s soy protein concentrate was designed to provide clean taste, light color, and affordability to a wider range of food products, including handheld snacks and bakery products.

Product developers are thinking more about satiety, texture, and bioavailability and are designing for people who eat less often but want more from every bite. Tate & Lyle and Ingredion both showcased multilayered treats—with each layer having a different texture. Tate & Lyle also exhibited two prototypes designed to support the evolving space of GLP-1 usage, addressing reduced food intake and nutritional gaps through fortification, taste, and eating experience, demonstrating that healthier food doesn’t have to come at the expense of flavor or satisfaction. Innovations from BENEO designed to address the issue of nutrient deficiencies linked to calorie-restricted diets, while creating products that are both tasty and have a variety of health benefits, included a “smart carbohydrate” ingredient that provides more balanced full-carbohydrate energy while also stimulating GLP-1 in the body.

4) Data Science Is Quietly Reshaping R&D as AI Transforms Discovery

It’s not flashy, but it’s powerful: data is changing how research and development (R&D) teams test, optimize, and scale. Companies that embrace structured data collection and machine learning are reducing time to market and cutting waste from their processes. Data science’s flashier sister technology, artificial intelligence (AI), is gaining traction in food R&D, especially in the early stages, helping scientists simulate, screen, and model before moving to the bench. Even so, when it comes to final-stage development or consumer fit, the human element remains essential, experts noted.

On the data science side, Startup Pavilion exhibitor Marine Biologics introduced its use of machine learning tools and green chemistry to create a liquid seaweed extract with a standardized chemical composition, ensuring that its nutritional and functional properties are consistent and available at scale. Samyang is using AI to custom formulate sugar reduction solutions for its customers, a smart solution that the company says is a rapid way to use data that factors in other must-haves such as gut health functionality, fiber, and prebiotics into one solution. And Attribute Analytics unveiled its smart platform that fuses food sensory data, sales data, and AI to help food makers generate and evaluate new concepts using real-world data to predict market success before product launch.

IFT’s new CoDeveloper tool is part of this trend as well. Debuting at IFT FIRST, the AI platform combines IFT’s 85+ years of peer-reviewed research and published content with advanced machine learning capabilities. CoDeveloper enables product developers to create formulas based on specific needs, including claims and nutritional requirements, and/or reverse engineer existing products rapidly.

5) Sustainability Is Moving Into Ingredient and Process Design

Sustainability conversations are moving upstream—into the lab, the formulation strategy, and the process line. It’s not just about what the product is made of, but how it’s made and what impact that leaves behind. In one IFT FIRST scientific session, a team introduced a method for using supercritical CO₂ to remove off-flavors from sorghum, unlocking wider use of a sustainable grain without sacrificing taste, and another session showcased research that demonstrated how upcycled lupin husk can be converted into biogas, turning food waste into renewable energy. Against the backdrop of such sessions, exhibitors showcased a range of sustainability-forward solutions.

Startup Pavilion exhibitor CarobWay introduced a prebiotic fiber using climate-friendly carob crops that can be grown in a desert climate with minimal irrigation. The Pitch! competition winner Plantible showed its plant-based Rubi Protein, produced from a fast-growing leafy green plant (Lemna) grown on aqua farms that use no arable land, requires far less water than traditional protein sources such as soy and meat, and supports planetary health by taking in CO₂.

For many ingredient makers, sustainable proteins were a major part of the sustainability trend. Brenntag Food and Nutrition advanced its hybrid protein ingredient in response to consumer interest in sustainable choices, clean label ingredients, and globally inspired comfort foods. New to its line of functional plant-based proteins, Burcon introduced climate-friendly sunflower and fava bean proteins.

Several next-gen ingredients that are addressing sustainability goals appeared on the Expo floor. Startup Pavilion exhibitor Melt&Marble uses precision fermentation to create vegan designer fats that eliminate the need for animal agriculture and don’t contribute to biodiversity loss. Another startup, Onego Bio, showed an animal-free egg protein powder made via precision fermentation. In addition, Ingredion noted that since 2022, it’s been working with a company called HowGood to measure the sustainability impact of certain ingredients. One of the lower sugar prototypes it showed at IFT FIRST had 33% less “blue water” use than a full-sugar version. Blue water use in this case relates to the amount of fresh water used to grow and process the sugar used in the product formulation.ft