It may only be the first full week of October, but the new year will be here before we know it and Whole Foods Market is ready – this week unveiling its annual Food and Beverage Trend forecast for 2026.
“This year’s trends highlight how curiosity, creativity and conscious choices are shaping the way people eat and shop. We’re inspired by the innovation we’re seeing across the food landscape and can’t wait to watch these ideas come to life in our aisles and beyond,” said Sonya Gafsi Oblisk, chief merchandising and marketing officer at Whole Foods Market, in the report.
The trend list was developed by the retail chain’s Trends Council, a cohort of over 50 team members ranging from foragers to culinary experts. Here’s a taste of what Whole Foods thinks will steer purchasing behavior in 2026:
Tallow Takeover: Do call it a comeback. With the anti-seed oil movement gaining further traction, beef tallow is being rediscovered by consumers “who value ancestral ingredients” and are seeking oil alternatives.
Items like Jesse & Ben’sTallow & Sea Salt House Cut Fries, Epic Provisions Beef Tallow and South Chicago Packing Wagyu Beef Tallow Cooking Spray are leading the charge, per the report.
Focus on Fiber: Protein may have defined F&B in 2025 (and we don’t expect it to disappear anytime soon), but the new year will be fiber’s time to shine. Consumers continue to prioritize gut health, holistic digestive wellness and finding ways to feel fuller longer (especially amid the “Ozempic Era”).
As fiber’s prominence extends beyond the “modern soda” set, it is making its way into soft-baked bars (Olyra), pasta (Three Farm Daughters) and kids pouches (Happy Family Organics).
Freezer Fine Dining: Home Cooking is rebounding to pandemic-level highs, but convenience is still king. A wave of new frozen meals, appetizers and sides – from Flour + Water’s Cacio e Pepe Pizza to Laoban’s Crab Rangoon – offer the perfect trifecta of high-quality ingredients, globally-inspired flavors and time-saving hacks.
Instant Reimagined: “Just add water” is getting a glow-up. Seeking to shed the instant food category’s boring reputation, emerging brands are introducing products like single-serve premium pour-over lattes and trendy meals-in-a-cup. Additionally, traditional products like instant rice are upgrading their sourcing standards. Category titans include Maya Kaimal, Patagonia Provisions and Seeds of Change.
Year of the Female Farmer: Whole Foods is seeking to celebrate changemakers in the agricultural space, highlighting the increase of women in agriculture. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UN) declared 2026 as the year of the woman farmer.
Brands are taking part, with Lotus Foods providing premium wages to the women on the farms they source from and True Moringa allotting women tree crop farmers in Ghana a plot of land and providing training and access to irrigation, childcare and health insurance.
What Else? Whole Foods’ trend council also highlighted mindful sweets (see Harken Sweets’ date-sweetened candy bars and Hu’s chocolate bites), vinegar’s premium, small-batch “modern renaissance” and dopamine-inducing packaging that signal “an extension of little luxuries.”
