Food professionals, including bakery and snack producers, are used to challenges. Between ever-changing consumer preferences, regulatory demands, labor shortages, and other headaches, resilience is a must. That’s a good thing, because according to Peter Losee, VP of marketing with Bluegrass Ingredients, 2026 is likely going to present challenges both new and existing to companies—along with opportunities.

Jenni Spinner: What were some of the key consumer trends you spotted in bakery and snack in 2025? Feel free to talk about hot flavors, top health concerns, ingredients that had a moment—whatever comes to mind.

Peter Losee: Top trends keeping our attention are experiential eating, mental health, and authenticity. Each of these contains sub-trends. Consumers want a lot from their food choices. They seek experience all the time. The food must be unique, taste new and good, and provide a sensory (not just taste) experience. Beyond sensory, consumers are linking food to identity and state of mind. Food has become and provide an escape from the busy world we live in. For example, recently we were advised that a good portion of headphone wearers are not listening to anything! They are, in fact, disconnecting from the busy, busy world we live in. Finally, authenticity is becoming more important. Global flavors, applications, and cuisines continue to migrate around the world. Consumers expect ‘authentic’ profiles, appearance, flavors, and ingredients. The historic, generic Asian, Mexican, and American profiles no longer work!

JS: Any challenges you can think of that impacted the market? Anything from financial things like tariffs to inflation, workforce, and operational things like labor shortages, whatever comes to mind.

PL: Yes, all of what you detail is impacting food manufacturers and consumer choices. Beyond what you’ve mentioned, MAHA is having a significant impact on the food industry. Regulatory changes, ingredient restrictions, and rapidly evolving consumer demand and expectations are taking a toll on food manufacturing. Feedback we hear from food manufacturing R&D is that it is getting harder to keep up with changing demands and evolving consumer expectations. When you couple these facts with any supply chain risks, innovation and solutions come to a standstill. Food manufacturers need their head on a swivel, robust insights and forecasting capabilities and strong partner relationships to navigate the rapidly changing regulatory and consumer landscape.

JS: Now, let’s look at 2026; what of those trends and challenges do you think will continue, and what new opportunities and obstacles might we see?

PL: Comfort foods are a go-to format for the future. Comfort profiles provide nostalgic acceptance. With some minor creativity, comfort foods can be stretched to provide that experiential eating experience. Blending in international cuisine can provide consumers with a safe yet new choice. Beyond that, comfort foods meet a lot of consumer psychological needs from foods. They are recognizable formats, cross multiple occasions, are commonly shareable, and have recognizable tastes.

The current obstacles are the rapidly evolving regulatory space. For example, is the consumer ready for a white cheese slice on their fast-food burger? Are they ready for pastel-colored cereals versus vibrant colors? MAHA is one of the next big challenges for food manufacturers.

JS: What innovations might Bluegrass be introducing in the coming months to help snack and bakery producers tackle these likely challenges and/or anything else thrown at them?

PL: Bluegrass Ingredients is rapidly evolving and innovating to meet the rapidly changing environment. Designing natural color into our cheese portfolio is well underway. Researching and innovating with clean-label flow agents for our powdered ingredients is well on task for completion. Keeping our customers up to date and aware of the dynamic regulatory environment helps them stay current and prevent lost sales. In the sensory space, we’re developing solutions to improve yield, shelf life, and taste. This helps us deliver turnkey solutions to manufacturers to accelerate their speed to market and more assuredly meet consumer expectations.

JS: Any final thoughts?

PL: Short-staffed R&D team, increased demands on R&D for regulatory updates, and cost optimization are constraining innovation. We call this the Innovation Gap. Post-COVID, there was a significant brain drain from food manufacturing R&D and Innovation teams. Companies did not fully replace what was lost, and the gaps were filled with newer, less experienced scientists.

Coupled with the need for rapid solutions, ever-changing regulatory requirements, and inflation-led needs for cost optimization, food developers’ capacity to innovate has become significantly constrained. Vendor partnerships can provide food manufacturers relief and potential solutions to keep their brands fresh, innovation pipeline full, and efforts toward growth strategies active.

Related: Dairy ingredients benefits go beyond boosting taste