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Ready for 2026? The Key Trends in the World of Food

RE-NUT AG | December 17, 2025

The food industry is entering 2026 with consumers calling for more natural ingredients, innovative hybrid products, and a new wave of plant-based options that stand on their own merits. These trends are reshaping product development and consumer expectations alike. This blog post explores how naturalness and clean labels, hybrid food formats, and standalone plant-based products are converging – and how one innovative approach to almond ingredients exemplifies these shifts.

The Quest for Naturalness and Clean Labels

Today’s consumers scrutinize ingredient lists more than ever, seeking out foods that feel wholesome, simple, and “real.” In fact, nearly 1 in 2 consumers globally report buying more fresh, unprocessed foods in the past year, and about 30% are actively cutting back on processed foods. Shoppers increasingly avoid artificial preservatives, sweeteners, and additives, favoring products with recognizable, minimal, and natural components. This clean-label movement is evident on store shelves: roughly 30% of new food and beverage launches worldwide now carry a clean-label claim, such as “no additives” or “all natural,” a share that has climbed steadily in recent years. Transparency is key – almost 3 in 4 consumers say they’ll reconsider a purchase if the ingredients list looks questionable, and 58% want clear information about ingredient sources.

It’s not just about avoiding “bad” ingredients; it’s also about embracing good ones. Brands are highlighting raw, minimally processed ingredients and even flaunting how few ingredients are in a product. Interestingly, plant-based ingredients play a starring role in this clean-label era. Research shows that many shoppers perceive plant-based products as especially natural and wholesome – sometimes even more so than products explicitly labeled “all-natural” . This perception, coupled with rising health and sustainability awareness, means consumers welcome novel ingredients if they’re derived from nature: over 1 in 3 consumers are willing to try new or unusual ingredients if it makes a product more natural.

Food companies are responding by reformulating recipes to use whole food ingredients and fewer additives. For example, some snack brands now proudly market chips made from just vegetables and salt, or ice creams made from only milk, fruit, and sugar. Clean label is no longer a niche; it’s the new normal, from baby foods to beverages. This shift creates an opportunity for ingredients that can deliver functionality in a natural way. A case in point is an innovative almond processing method by RE-NUT® that epitomizes the clean-label ethos. Rather than using emulsifiers or gums to thicken almond milk, RE-NUT uses more of the almond itself. How? By processing almonds whole, with their shells, they create a creamy almond milk that retains the almond’s natural fibers – meaning the product can be literally just almonds and water, with no added stabilizers . This in-shell processing turns what would have been waste (the almond shells and skins) into nutritious value. The resulting almond milk and almond flour are true clean-label products: they have a single main ingredient (whole almonds) and deliver extra fiber and nutrients without any artificial fortifiers. In other words, embracing nature’s own ingredients and minimizing waste isn’t just good for storytelling – it also produces the kind of simple, honest label consumers seek out. And as we’ll see, it delivers sustainability benefits that matter for the next trend.

Blurring Boundaries with Hybrid Foods

As demand for plant-based options grows, not everyone is ready to give up traditional animal-based foods entirely. Enter hybrid products – foods that blend plant-based and conventional ingredients to offer the “best of both worlds.” These hybrid formats are emerging as a savvy compromise for flexitarian consumers and a new innovation frontier for brands. Hybrid dairy, for instance, holds “considerable appeal” as a category. Imagine a yogurt made with both dairy milk and almond milk, or a burger patty blending beef with mushrooms and lentils.

Why the interest? Flexitarians – those who aren’t fully vegetarian but want to cut down on animal products – represent a huge segment. Many people happily consume both plant-based milk and cow’s milk, for example. Rather than an all-or-nothing approach, these consumers appreciate foods that help them gradually shift toward more plants without sacrificing familiar flavors or traditions. Hybrid products can tick that box. They also offer tangible benefits: blending meat or dairy with plant ingredients typically lowers the product’s environmental footprint and can improve its nutrition profile.

For food industry players, hybrid formats open up creative R&D possibilities. Traditional meat or dairy brands can experiment by infusing their products with plant-based elements – without alienating their core customers. Early market signals are promising: the nascent hybrid meat and dairy market has already reached about $10 million in value and is projected to grow ~7% annually.

RE-NUT® In-Shell Almond Milk, delicious and better for you.

Plant-Based 2.0: Beyond Imitation to Innovation

Meanwhile, the plant-based sector as a whole continues to mature. After a few years of breakneck growth followed by some turbulence, plant-based foods are proving they’re not a fad but an evolving mainstay of the market. Global sales of vegan foods hit $27.8 billion in 2024 (up from $25 billion in 2023) and are projected to keep rising into 2026. Alternative milks alone command $23 billion globally and are on track to reach nearly $38 billion by 2029. And it’s not just about burger patties and milk substitutes anymore. The number of new packaged foods with a “plant-based” claim skyrocketed by 302% between 2018 and 2022, extending into every aisle of the grocery store. Today you can find plant-based cheeses that melt, egg-free mayo and scrambles, pea-protein yogurts, meatless jerkies, and even plant-based snacks and baked goods that aren’t trying to mimic an animal product at all . This next wave of plant-based products is about expanding choice, not just replacing meat or dairy. Consumers are snacking on chickpea puffs and almond flour crackers, savoring oat-milk lattes and coconut milk ice creams – sometimes without even thinking of them as “alternatives,” just tasty foods in their own right.

One major challenge for the first generation of meat and dairy analogues was perceived over-processing. Shoppers and health experts raised concerns that some alt-meats and alt-dairies were highly processed and full of unfamiliar ingredients. The industry has heard this loud and clear. Now, a new sub-category of more natural plant-based foods is emerging, focusing on simplicity and whole-food ingredients.

Essentially, plant-based 2.0 is about being proudly plant-based, not just an imitation. Companies are simplifying recipes to use shorter, cleaner ingredient lists and emphasizing the inherent nutrition of plants. RE-NUT®’s in-shell almond technology is a prime example of how plant-based innovation is aligning with this more natural, whole-food philosophy:

it uses the entire almond (skins and shell included) so that all the fiber and nutrients end up in the final products. The outcome is a plant-based milk that’s creamier and richer (thanks to the natural thickening power of almond fiber) and an almond flour that’s extra-high in fiber.

Meeting Consumer Expectations in 2026 and Beyond

As we move through 2025 and into 2026, the food landscape will continue to be defined by consumers’ evolving priorities. “Natural” and “clean label” are no longer optional – they’re baseline expectations in many product categories. Plant-based eating is broadening its appeal, not by pretending to be something it’s not, but by celebrating what it is (and making plant-based options genuinely tasty, nutritious, and accessible). And hybrid products remind us that change can be incremental and inclusive, bringing more people along on the journey to sustainable eating.

For companies big and small, the opportunity now is to innovate at the intersection of these trends. It’s about finding synergies. Can we make foods that are both indulgent and higher-fiber, or convenient and additive-free? The answer is yes – and the solutions often lie in leveraging nature’s own clever designs. Using a whole almond to make a better milk ;-), for example, or blending a bit of vegetable into a burger to please the palate and the planet. Consumers have made it clear what they want: foods that nurture their well-being, align with their values, and still delight their senses. The brands that thrive in 2025–2026 will be those that can deliver all three.

All these benefits will soon be available at an industrial scale. RE-NUT® is currently building out the Blueprint Line, our first full-scale production line for in-shell almond processing, located in North America. This state-of-the-art facility, to be operational by Q1 2027, will mark the commercial debut of in-shell almond flour.

Ready to innovate with us? Get in touch to learn more about our early partnership program, obtain sample batches for testing, or schedule a demo. Together, let’s create the next generation of confections that are not only irresistibly delicious, but also rich in goodness and rooted in sustainability. The future of nut-powered, better-for-you treats is almost here, and we’d be thrilled to have you on board.

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