Drinks are doing the heavy lifting for new food and beverage categories in 2026

Grocery and specialty stores from South Carolina to California now run a separate refrigerated case for hemp-derived THC drinks. A decade ago those products barely existed outside dispensaries. Zappi uses that cooler in a March analysis as its clearest example of how a food and beverage category gets born: shoppers start thinking about a familiar product differently, and brands design around the new expectation.

The analysis, written by Zappi's Jennifer Phillips April, lists the categories the company expects to emerge or strengthen through 2026. Nearly every one of them promises a specific outcome. And the outcome is easiest to deliver in a can or a bottle.

That matters to the portfolio lead deciding which concepts get a co-packer slot for 2027, because September data from Morning Consult, reported by Food Dive, shows how narrow growth has been this year and which formats captured what little there was. Beverages did.

Benefit claims moved from the supplement aisle to the front of the package

Zappi's core argument is that shoppers spent decades buying food for taste, indulgence or convenience and now, in large numbers, expect it to do something for their health. The early version of that expectation was a reduced-sugar or added-vitamin claim; Zappi points to Welch's low-sugar gummies as an example of the form. The current version promises less stress, more protein or better digestion.

Zappi cites Innova Market Insights' Top 10 Trends 2026, which ranks digestive health and protein among the most influential drivers of food and beverage innovation worldwide. Functional support, in Zappi's reading, has moved from a niche preference to a default expectation, and the new product platforms are spreading across drinks, snacks and pantry staples at once.

Gut health is the sharpest case. For years it lived in capsules and probiotic supplements, according to Zappi; now yogurts, sodas and snack bars advertise digestive benefits on the front of the pack, with Simply Pop soda offered as an example. A front-of-pack claim is a formulation commitment as much as a marketing one, and if the shift Zappi describes holds, demand for prebiotic and probiotic ingredients could move from supplement volumes toward mainstream food volumes. That is a sourcing question before it is a shelf question.

A $165 billion drinks market is where the shift shows first

Zappi calls beverages the most visible expression of the wellness shift. Energy and sports drinks proved years ago that people would pay for a drink built around a performance outcome. Today, per Zappi, shoppers evaluate drinks as tools for hydration, gut health, focus, recovery or sleep, and the aisle is crowded with products making exactly those promises.

The market figure Zappi attaches to this is from Grand View Research: functional beverages were worth roughly $165 billion in 2023, with a projection above $300 billion by the early 2030s.

The most useful detail in Zappi's beverage section is small. Liquid I.V., an electrolyte mix, is marketed as daily hydration rather than sports recovery. Same product, different occasion. For a company already holding a sports or energy SKU, that repositioning is the lower-cost route Zappi's examples point to, and it does not require a new ingredient deck to test.

Morning Consult's 2026 numbers back the beverage read, with a catch

Food Dive's Sarah Zimmerman reported on Sept. 10 that Morning Consult's survey of 2,800 brands across food, tech and hospitality found just 14% saw an increase in purchase consideration in 2026. That is a five-year low. In 2025, 94% of brands reported growth, and Food Dive attributes the reversal to inflation and slower consumer spending.

Eight of the 25 brands with five straight years of growth were drinks, and not one packaged food brand made the list. Morning Consult's explanation, as relayed by Food Dive, is that these were established brands that turned existing familiarity into demand. The single fastest-growing brand in the whole set was Mr. Pibb, after Coca-Cola's relaunch pushed awareness and purchase consideration sharply higher.

On Morning Consult's numbers, familiarity did more for growth this year than novelty. Food Dive reports that Snickers, Hershey's and other high-awareness names posted the biggest jumps in food, and that carbonated soft drinks, juice, chips and frozen foods each saw growth in at least half their brands. Shoppers, in Food Dive's summary of the data, stuck to grocery staples and treats.

So the two sources agree on format and diverge on who wins. Zappi's story is about categories that did not exist; Morning Consult's growth went to names everyone already knew. For a manufacturer with a recognized brand, the combination suggests an extension into a functional benefit may carry less risk than a new label. For a startup with no awareness to convert, the same data indicates the road runs through distribution and recognition before any claim on the can gets a chance to work.

THC drinks show how fast a category forms, and how much rides on the rulebook

Zappi's THC example comes with a number: Brightfield Group data, as cited by Zappi, puts hemp-derived THC beverage sales at about $2.8 billion in 2023, with more growth expected as distribution widens. Zappi's point is that hemp-derived cannabinoids changed how people think about relaxation, social drinking and mood support, and that shift, more than any one product, opened the category.

For a retailer stocking one of those refrigerated cases, or a brand building distribution plans on Brightfield's growth curve, that shift in how people think about relaxation is the demand signal to plan around.

Protein, fiber and formulation fill the September trade calendar

The trade coverage since Zappi published tracks its list closely. SupplySide Food & Beverage Journal ran a piece on Aug. 28 framing the 3 p.m. snack as a protein opportunity, followed on Aug. 31 by a formulation report on egg-based beverages overcoming protein denaturation. On Sept. 9 it asked whether fiber's current popularity will last, and on Sept. 14 it profiled lion's mane as a food and beverage ingredient.

The denaturation piece is the one a development team should notice. A protein drink is a formulation problem before it is a marketing one, and SupplySide's framing indicates the ingredient side is still working on the basics of keeping protein stable in a beverage. That is the gap between a category Zappi says consumers now expect and a product that survives a pilot run.

SupplySide Global runs Oct. 26-30 at Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, billed as the main event for better-for-you CPG product developers. It is where the ingredient side of Zappi's list, the protein, the fiber, the probiotics, gets sourced for the next round of launches, six weeks after Food Dive put Morning Consult's 14% figure in front of the people doing the buying.