From gut health and GLP-1 buzz to sensory snacks, solo meals, and the return of real meat, we crunched 2026’s trend reports to see what we will all be eating next.
KEY POINTS
- Trend reports point to fiber becoming one of 2026’s biggest dietary fixations, driven by gut-health and GLP-1 interest.
- Consumers are shifting back toward authentic, less-processed red meat as plant-based meat plateaus.
- A wave of sensory maximalism is pushing brands to create foods with heightened texture, aroma, and multi-sensory appeal.
- The rise of the “me-me-me” economy is fueling growth in solo dining and highly personalized, single-serve meals.
- Cabbage is poised for a cultural glow-up, emerging as a versatile standout in home kitchens and menus.
Oh hooray, it’s the time of year when food journalists and industry oracles issue our predictions of what, how, and where people will be eating in the year ahead. On occasion, we’ll nail it (my 2025 list accurately cited a diner resurgence, a Francophilic boom, and a growing thirst for nonalcoholic beer), but even more frequently, we come up with fodder for mockery by future generations (still waiting on national tip abolition and the “Year of the Banana“).
So I don’t have to bear the brunt of the blame — and because I trust the experts — I pore over trend reports issued by major agencies, restaurant purveyors with a bird’s-eye view of the national restaurant scene, social media platforms, grocery store chains, food brands, flavor labs, and any other credible entity with a track record for smart, data-driven insight, and look for any consensus or especially compelling cases.
This is a far cry from Food & Wine’s first trend prediction feature in 1979 — which featured a full-page image of a dramatically lit crone scrying into a crystal ball that contained a golden apple. It led with a bit of speculative fiction about an “old-fashioned breakfast of microwave-grilled slices of ham analog, scrambled egg substitute, and banana analog chunks swimming in hydrogenated vegetable-oil-based ‘cream'” on New Year’s Day 2000 while recovering from a hangover induced by Champagne made from a powder — but that doesn’t mean it’s foolproof. If there’s anything we’ve learned as a society over the past decade, it’s that there are limits to what humanity can control and predict, so we might as well take new trends as they come, however unpredictable. (For my own dignity, I won’t be citing the report that predicted the rise of “nacho lattes” and “colapotle” because it made me sit under my desk and wonder if I was living inside an AI hallucination.)
Make yourself a fiber-packed single-serve bowl of oatmeal with a side of cabbage and offal dumplings, pour a yuzu-spiked Blue Hawaiian, and get ready to maxxxxx your mouth for the flavors and sensations of 2026.
Fiber to the maxx
2025 was the year that seemingly everyone you encountered was consuming their entire body’s weight in protein grams each day, and Innova Market Insights 2026 reports that in their findings, “Protein trends have endured over the past several years and show no sign of slowing down.” In 2026 a new food fixation will enter the villa, and its name is fiber.
As the 2026 Datassential Trends report explains, “Gut health and GLP-1s are trending, and with that, manufacturers and retailers are focusing on fiber (which can naturally increase the GLP-1 hormone in the body) and calling it out on food/beverage packaging.” The report also notes that “fibermaxxing,” which is described as “a TikTok trend where consumers try to fit as much fiber as possible into a recipe or dish,” is on the rise.
That’s backed up by Whole Foods’ The Next Big Things 2026 trend forecast, which foresees that, “Brands are getting on board with more fiber-forward callouts on packaging, and increasingly, we’re seeing products with added fiber hitting the shelves, like pastas, breads, crackers, and bars. Roots like cassava and chicory are regulars on ingredient panels of prebiotic beverages, and konjac is a fibrous favorite in plant-based, ready-to-eat meals.”
Whole Foods also calls out oats as “the star of up-and-coming products, which tout the ingredient for being rich in prebiotic fiber and easy on the gut.” Might this mean that Top Chef star Richard Blais finally gets proven right for his avowal that, “Porridge is going to be big in 2017. Oatmeal, congee, farrotto, polenta, cream of huitlacoche — all with mix-and-match toppings”?
Red meat is back on the menu
Along with every other publication on earth, Food & Wine has been hyping the rise of plant-based meats for the better part of a decade. Consumers, it seems, are bucking all that and turning back to “anti-fake meat,” as the Tastewise 2026 Trend Forecast calls it. “The growth of protein is not just about quantity. It’s about quality and authenticity,” according to the report, which explains that, “Consumers are turning away from ‘fakeness’ in ultra-processed substitutes, seeking foods that feel simple, transparent, and true to their origins.”
The group’s reporting found that interest in “authenticity” is up 31% year-over-year in consumer conversations and 18% on menus. “The cultural momentum is strongest in meat,” which Tastewise explained was due to diners’ skepticism about the highly processed nature of many vegan alternatives. Datassential’s numbers back that up, noting that “plant-based meat’s menu growth has plateaued.”
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The Innova report explains that the plant-based market hasn’t entirely withered on the vine, though — it’s just “transitioning from imitating animal proteins to providing its own nutrition benefits, especially the benefits from natural plant-based proteins.” Nearly two-thirds of their global survey respondents say that plant-based products should be able to stand on their own merits, rather than acting as a Temu dupe of other foods.
Back to the barn: Restaurant supplier Baldor’s 2026 Trend Report clocks a 28% year-over-year increase in lamb sales, and growing demand for dry-aged beef and heritage pork. “Among trending cuts are hanger steaks and flank steaks, with 19% year-over-year growth for beef patties,” said the company’s vice president of business development, Mark Pastore. “Every menu has a smashburger now.” He predicts demand for higher quality, whole-muscle beef, along with “slower grinds” that chefs will harness to create burgers that are distinctive to their restaurants. (Datassential also calls out “smashed” as a continuing trend.)
Mintel’s 2026 Global Trends Predictions report cites Force of Nature’s “Ancestral” blend of grass-fed beef, which includes organ meat in the mix, as a less expensive and more affordable way to incorporate the “nourishment” of offal into a modern diet and a harbinger of readymade consumer offerings to come. Ongoing tariffs may mean that the bulk of this beef and lamb will be produced domestically.
My gut: Stop calling it “organ meat,” and folks beyond the tallow bros will flock to it.