During Bridge2Food\u2019s EcoSystem Webinar examining defining food trends for 2025 and their implications for innovation in 2026, Spate\u2019s report \u201cThe Fiber Opportunity: Is Fiber the New Protein?\u201d unpacked how fiber consumption is evolving across food, beverage and dietary supplements.<\/p>\n
The company\u2019s analysis draws on its proprietary Popularity Index, which leverages Google Search, TikTok and Instagram data to uncover early consumer demand indicators before they are fully reflected in retail sales.<\/p>\n
Fiber demand scaling up<\/p>\n
According to Spate, the fiber category is no longer exhibiting the characteristics of a short-lived wellness trend. Instead, the data shows that fiber is a high-volume social media search term posting solid year-over-year growth. As noted in Spate\u2019s report, across Google, TikTok and Instagram, fiber is now reaching a very large scale with tens of millions of monthly searches and mentions. <\/p>\n
\u201cGoogle Search is consistently leading interest,\u201d Alyssa Williams Atkinson, food, beverage and wellness category insights manager at Spate, told NutraIngredients. \u201cThis search-led momentum signals sustained, intent-driven demand rather than short-term social hype.\u201d<\/p>\n
Spate\u2019s analysis also suggests that consumer engagement with fiber supplements is evolving from a general wellness add-on to addressing more specific dietary or gut-focused concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cImportantly, fiber demand is increasingly organized around specific digestive and gut-related need states rather than broad wellness exploration,\u201d Williams Atkinson said, noting that this \u201cmirrors early protein adoption patterns, when protein shifted from a single nutrient to a multifunctional, everyday platform ingredient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Regarding industry stakeholders\u2019 interests, she added, this shift means brands and manufacturers should consider making a long-term investment in fiber \u201canchored in education, functional benefits and daily use cases, rather than positioned as an emerging or experimental nutrient.\u201d<\/p>\n
Drinks drive fiber format innovation<\/p>\n
Among the categories Spate tracked, fiber-forward beverages are showing the fastest acceleration, driven by low-effort, ritualized behaviors like \u2018loaded water\u2019, \u2018internal shower\u2019 and chia water. These searches reflect how consumer attitudes toward fiber are gravitating toward ritualistic behaviors and simplified routines.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsumers want fiber in formats that are easy to integrate into daily routines and require minimal preparation,\u201d Williams Atkinson said, and while much of the current engagement is still focused on homemade solutions, Spate sees clear room for commercial innovation.<\/p>\n
For example, RTD drinks and mix-in products offer an opportunity for brands to translate \u201cinformal social rituals into scalable, repeatable products that reduce friction while maintaining functional credibility.\u201d<\/p>\n
Filling in the fiber supplement education gap<\/p>\n
Spate\u2019s data also highlights that demand for fiber supplements is currently driven largely by search rather than social engagement.<\/p>\n
Consumers are actively comparing products and brands with \u201cbest fiber supplement\u201d as a popular search term, and this activity indicates \u201cthat education and storytelling have not kept pace with intent,\u201d Williams Atkinson said. Rather than indicating weak interest, she noted the disconnect points to an opportunity for clearer communication.<\/p>\n
\u201cSpate interprets this gap as unmet demand rather than lack of interest: Consumers already want fiber supplements but are not seeing enough clear, benefit-driven guidance on social platforms,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
Looking ahead to 2026, brands that close this gap through clearer education focused on outcomes, formats and use cases surfaced in search can better convert existing demand into trust, repeat usage and long-term loyalty, she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"During Bridge2Food\u2019s EcoSystem Webinar examining defining food trends for 2025 and their implications for innovation in 2026, Spate\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292338,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[78],"tags":[29345,2593,2368,11340,39628,18,7520,6452,7977,5247,57663,10952,135,5249,41032,19,17,7980,508,145776,43067,33688,4612,5248,18381,12160],"class_list":{"0":"post-292337","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health","8":"tag-carbohydrate","9":"tag-concept","10":"tag-diet","11":"tag-dietary","12":"tag-eat","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-energy","15":"tag-fibre","16":"tag-fresh","17":"tag-fruits","18":"tag-grain","19":"tag-green","20":"tag-health","21":"tag-healthy","22":"tag-high","23":"tag-ie","24":"tag-ireland","25":"tag-natural","26":"tag-nutrition","27":"tag-raw","28":"tag-rich","29":"tag-seeds","30":"tag-top","31":"tag-vegetables","32":"tag-vegetarian","33":"tag-view"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/115922495351396512","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292337","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292337"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292337\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}