Optimizing for Oblivion

From peptides to colostrum snacks....

So many people reached out to me post EXPO asking for my thoughts, and for that you’d had to go back to a post I made a few years ago, titled “What’s in a trend?.” After half a decade of expos, working with the biggest food companies in the world and supporting each new wave of CPG founders, I’ve learned that I’d be doing you a disservice if I were to default to mediaslop unpacking “trends” that’s inherently a recap of what one saw at a convention center.

Two years ago we told you to look out for “fitness fizz” or protein sodas as they would become the next big wave in drinks akin to prebiotics, not to mention the proteinfication of everything, we also warned you beef tallow would become the “it ingredient” and one of our most popular essays was about real dairy making a comeback, highly recommend you read “Pendulum Swung Back”—all of which we saw manifested at this year’s Expo. Needless to say, if you’ve been following along, you don’t really have to go to expos, you’re already in the know.

More importantly, here’s what I’m actually paying attention to in 2026 and why.