At the IFT First show in Chicago earlier this month, several FoodTech trends were on display. Yet, the most future-forward of them were curiously sparse in the exhibition hall itself. Many of the products or ingredients on offer were commodities or “me too products" with little true differentiation to be seen.
The Startup Pavilion, which included around 100 exhibitors, was the go-to showcase for leading-edge innovation. From our Ladder 17 booth we observed several trending technologies, products, and startups. The innovation on display ranged from two lactoferrin exhibitors to a firm offering an aqua-farmed complete protein ingredient, Plantible, to a precision fermentation-derived egg alternative, Onego Bio, to fermented fungi protein from The Protein Brewery, to postbiotic cultured protein from Superbrewed Food, and mycelium-based proteins from Canada’s Maia Farms.
Tech wasn’t just used to produce new food products and ingredients, however. SaaS-based tech startups, from Genesis food-labeling competitor ENTR to AI-enabled NPD software provider A.K.A. Foods, demonstrated how tech is also being applied to the business processes used to build and scale new tech-enabled foods.
Key trends that I observed:
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- Protein, protein, protein: From sunflower, to biomass fermented, to algae, novel protein ingredients were at every turn. Numerous incumbent food and ingredient players were seen to be meeting with innovative startups to discuss R&D and commercialization collaboration opportunities.
- Emerging functional ingredients: Many exhibitors and attendees were focused on functional ingredients, and several of the usual suspects were to easily found. A couple of new, differentiated options were cortisol-reducing, peptide-derived ingredient PeptiSleep from Nuritas, and human lactoferrin ingredient Effera, from Helaina (their Founder and CEO was a recent guest on FoodTech Stories). It will be interesting to see how these new ingredients break through with customers and consumers alike.
- Natural colors: Pending bans on six synthetic food dyes in the U.S. have sent some food makers scrambling for alternatives. A few established players were touting their natural colors, and a handful of startups were exhibiting, like Ful Foods, the makers of a spirulina-based blue coloring (a co-founder will be featured in an upcoming FoodTech Stories episode).
- GLP-1 impacts (sort of): GLP-1 anti-obesity drugs were the topic of a panel session at the event, but only a few companies, including NURA, were messaging ingredients or foods specifically for consumers taking a GLP-1 medication. Given the 10 million+ Americans currently taking a GLP-1 who are dealing with the physical effects, I anticipated much more emphasis on this emerging opportunity area.
- AI for product discovery (sort of): AI is so ubiquitous in business conversations these days, I expected to see it everywhere. AI was rarely featured in core positioning or messaging, even for the startups exhibiting. As addressed in our 2025 Understanding the FoodTech Food Consumer Report, grappling with the application of AI in food product discovery is a vital opportunity for food makers and other ecosystem players.
I’m hoping that next year’s show takes a more forward-looking view, going deeper into future trends, both those driven by technological advances and those shaped by shifting consumer preferences.