the fUture of food: an expo west debrief

Expo West is pretty much the Coachella of the food industry, at least for the kinds of clients Spool works with. It’s massive. The people watching is excellent. And there is an endless supply of things to eat and drink, though not everything is something you’ll want to eat regularly… or ever again.

But as is the case every year, Expo West also feels a little like stepping into the future of food. This year’s version just happened to unfold at the pace of a New York rush-hour slow walk, which tested everyone’s patience more than a little.

Jimmy and I spent a few long and robust days working the floor together. In addition to reaching punchy-level delirium at least once or twice, we took copious notes. (Jimmy also took copious tote bags, but I digress.)

We’re excited to share much of what we saw, heard, tried, and occasionally asked seconds for. When you first arrive at Expo, you wait in line. Nothing quite prepares you for the onslaught of people or the sheer square footage you’re about to cover.

You walk the floor, taste dozens of products, talk to founders, and somewhere between the mushroom coffee samples and the tenth snack of the morning you start noticing patterns. This year we walked the show together, comparing notes as we went. Jimmy focused on the things that jumped out in real time. Catherine kept asking the question that always matters most.

What does this actually mean?

Protein has officially escaped the gym. Jimmy noticed this almost immediately.

Protein was everywhere. Not just shakes and bars, but foods that historically had nothing to do with sports nutrition. Rice. Noodles. Candy. Ice cream. Soda.

One booth had protein candy with a gram of protein per square. Hormbles Chormbles was offering mini chocolate assortments reminiscent of classic candy collections, but with zero added sugar and packed with protein. Ice cream brands were boasting 30 grams of protein..Wilde Protein Chips come in flavors like chicken and waffles and are crafted from chicken breast, egg whites, and bone broth.

At one point we both started asking the same question: do we actually need this much protein? Whether the answer is yes or no almost doesn’t matter. The market has clearly decided that protein equals value, and brands are racing to build it into everyday foods.

At the same time, not every brand is chasing that wave.

One of the more interesting conversations we had was with the team at King Arthur Baking Company. They recently launched an app to support home bakers and introduced biscuits in a bag. Instead of leaning into the protein arms race, they’re expanding on what they already know how to do extremely well: delicious home baking with normal and G.F. flour. They know their lane, and they’re staying within it while expanding it. Bravo.

There’s a lesson there, right? In a market obsessed with novelty, some of the strongest brands are deepening their authority. 

Dairy is having a moment again. For a while, the industry conversation centered almost entirely on plant-based alternatives. Walking the floor this year, that narrative felt different. Jimmy spent time talking with several dairy producers who said demand for lactose-free milk continues to climb as consumers ditch plant-based milk. Consumers are still looking for nutrition, but they’re also looking for foods that feel familiar and are minimally processed.

Some of the innovation was genuinely interesting. Lifeway, for example, is fortifying kefir with creatine and positioning it as an alternative to muscle milk. Kefir already delivers protein and probiotics, and it’s naturally lactose-free. Adding creatine pushes it further into the performance nutrition space. Not bad for a food that’s been around for about 3,600 years.

Milk hasn’t historically been a hotbed of innovation. But the category seems to be finding new ways to meet the current nutrition moment.

Pickles have entered their main character era. This was one of those trends you couldn’t miss even if you tried. Pickle juice shots. Pickle-flavored cotton candy. Snacking pickles in squeeze pouches. Pickle chips. Pickle everything. The more unexpected the format, the better.

Part of this is clearly driven by internet culture. But it also reflects something deeper about flavor right now. Consumers are gravitating toward bold, punchy profiles that stand out in a crowded snack landscape.

One of the most joyful parts of Expo West is seeing how brands reinterpret foods people grew up with. Nostalgia continues to drive discovery and reintroduce age-old brands like Clearly Canadian while allowing newer brands like Goodles to show up in fun 90s-inspired ways.

Goodles built a full 90s-inspired booth around mac and cheese. BEAR is reinventing fruit roll-ups with simpler ingredients. Clearly Canadian continues its comeback story.

Even some of the protein candy we saw intentionally echoed the shapes and formats of childhood treats.

The formula is simple but powerful: take something people already love, then rebuild it with ingredients that fit today’s wellness expectations.

Brands are starting to behave more like publishers. One shift we found especially interesting had nothing to do with ingredients. It had to do with storytelling.

Goodles created a full zine. Other brands were producing editorial-style content, collaborations, and merchandise alongside their products.

The shelf is crowded. Culture is what differentiates brands, and it’s fun to see how they’ve shown up with an understanding of that assignment.

Sometimes what’s not in the product is the headline.

Meanwhile, while many brands feature unique ingredients, it was the absence of certain ingredients that also caught our attention, specifically the lack of perceived “dirty” ingredients like seed oils and artificial colors.

Cedars offered a good example of how brands are navigating this moment. Their new line of premium hummus and dips includes ingredients like chopped cherry tomatoes and feta, packaged in bowls designed to go straight from fridge to table.

One of the attributes they highlighted was the absence of seed oils. Interestingly, they also acknowledged that seed oils themselves aren’t necessarily problematic. Yet with the rise of the MAHA movement and growing consumer concern, brands are responding to how people feel about ingredients, not just what the science says.

Another emerging popcorn brand said that major retailers like Whole Foods and Sprouts wouldn’t even take a meeting until the brand cut out all seed oils.

What’s old is new. Not just with regards to nostalgia, but some of the most interesting trends were the oldest ingredients. Not everything at Expo West felt futuristic.

Some of the most compelling ideas were built around ingredients that have been around for centuries.

Rice is getting a sustainability glow-up. Lundberg Family Farms showcased upcycled rice made from broken grains that historically became animal feed.

Dates are increasingly appearing as natural sweeteners in snacks and desserts.

Eggs showed up in all kinds of formats, from wraps to chips to ready-to-eat jammy egg snacks. One standout was Chino Valley Ranchers, which is leaning into perfectly cooked jammy eggs as a convenient protein-forward snack.

Sometimes innovation looks less like invention and more like rediscovery.

Flavor trends, meanwhile, are becoming increasingly global.

One pairing I personally loved was matcha and cantaloupe. I tried very hard to confirm it as a bigger emerging trend on the floor, even going so far as to casually seed the idea in conversations to see if anyone else would jump on board for next year. The results were… inconclusive. Jimmy kept telling me to stop trying to make fetch, er, cantaloupe happen. But I’m not done yet. Just wait for Expo 2027.

The idea isn’t entirely out of nowhere. Cantaloupe has been trending in South Korea and starting to appear in unexpected pairings. 

Flavor trends often travel this way. They start in one market, appear in another, and then suddenly feel like they’re everywhere.

This one still feels early. But it’s worth watching. 

Fiber came up in a surprising number of conversations. But this version of fiber isn’t the old “eat your bran cereal” advice many of us grew up hearing. Mark my words, fiber will be the new “it” buzz next year, and much of that momentum is coming from the one and only Jeni Britton, the food and CPG lioness who transformed ice cream and is now turning her attention to this space. Britton, the founder of Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams, has launched a new company called Floura focused entirely on fiber.

The research around the microbiome has moved quickly over the past few years. What we kept hearing from founders and nutrition experts is that different types of fiber feed different microbes in the gut. Those microbes appear to influence far more than digestion. Metabolism, mood, immunity, and overall resilience are all connected.

Her point is straightforward. In a country obsessed with protein, fiber may actually be the bigger nutritional gap. About 95 percent of Americans aren’t getting enough. Floura approaches fiber through real ingredients, making it from upcycled materials like apple cores and fruit rinds. The idea isn’t to create another supplement, but to help people get closer to the range of plant fibers our bodies evolved to eat.

Fiber wasn’t as loud as some of the other trends (LOOKING AT YOU, beef tallow), but it came up often enough that it’s worth paying attention to, especially as the industry starts looking beyond protein toward a fuller conversation about metabolic and gut health.

Mushrooms continue expanding beyond beverages into snacks and supplements. Several ingredients clearly have momentum fueled by social media. Cottage cheese, tallow, collagen, pickles, and dates all seem to benefit from the internet’s ability to turn a niche idea into a full-blown trend overnight.

Know who wasn’t the belle of this year’s ball? A few past trends seem to have lost the limelight. Plant-based meat had a much smaller presence than in previous years. Impossible was not exhibiting, and the broader category felt subdued.

Keto and strict low-carb branding were also largely missing. The industry appears to be moving away from rigid diet tribes and toward broader ideas of wellness.

The bigger takeaway, if we had to sum up Expo West 2026 in one sentence, might be this: Food is becoming the new supplement aisle. Consumers don’t necessarily want another pill. They want everyday foods that deliver tangible benefits. Protein ice cream. Probiotic sodas. Collagen snacks.

At the same time, they want those foods to feel joyful, nostalgic, and culturally relevant.

In other words, the future of food sits at a very human intersection of health, culture, and comfort. There’s also a polarizing halo around much of it because of the political overlay emerging from the MAHA movement. Weird tensions, good intentions, and little oversight could make for an interesting year ahead.

And if Expo West is any indication, brands that can balance all three will have the most interesting stories to tell.