Protein has had a pretty good run. For years, food companies have found ways to add more of it to just about everything. Protein bars and shakes were obvious, but then came high-protein cereal, pasta, pancakes, chips, coffee, ice cream and plenty of other products that weren’t exactly known for their protein content.
Walk through a supermarket today and it’s hard to miss. But while the industry has been busy counting grams of protein, another nutrient has quietly started gaining ground: fiber. And there are some pretty good indications that this is more than another social media nutrition craze.
Instacart’s 2026 Protein & Fiber Report found searches containing the word “fiber” increased 26.4 percent year over year, more than twice the 12.7 percent increase for searches containing “protein.” For retailers, the interesting part isn’t simply that fiber searches are growing. It’s that they’re growing twice as fast as protein searches, albeit from a smaller base. Consumers aren’t just reading about fiber or hearing about it on social media; they’re beginning to actively shop for it.
There’s nothing particularly new about fiber. We’ve been told to eat more fruits, vegetables and whole grains for as long as most of us can remember. What’s changing is the way consumers are thinking and talking about it.
An International Food Information Council survey earlier this year found seven in 10 Americans believe fiber and/or whole grains are good for their health. At the same time, nearly one-third said they consume fewer than 20 grams of fiber per day. That’s a sizable gap between what consumers know they should be doing and what they’re actually doing, and it’s also a pretty big opportunity for food manufacturers and retailers.
Gut health has helped move the conversation forward. An August IFIC survey found nearly two-thirds of Americans consider their gut health a priority, while social media has predictably given the push toward eating more fiber a name: “fibermaxxing.” Retailers don’t need to build a strategy around a social media hashtag, but they shouldn’t ignore the shopping behavior behind it either. I’m not convinced we’ll still be using the term “fibermaxxing” a few years from now, but I’m increasingly convinced we’ll still be talking about fiber.
Food manufacturers certainly appear to be taking it seriously. PepsiCo introduced Smartfood FiberPop with six grams of fiber per serving and SunChips Fiber made with black beans and whole grains. Pepsi Prebiotic Cola, which rolled out nationally this year, contains three grams of prebiotic fiber per can.
This week, Kraft Heinz also identified protein and fiber as priorities within its innovation strategy. That may be especially important because I don’t think the next nutrition battle is necessarily fiber versus protein. It may be fiber and protein. At this summer’s IFT FIRST food innovation show, combining the two emerged as a notable product-development trend.
Fiber Is Almost Everywhere You Look in the Store
For grocery retailers, the most interesting part of the fiber trend may be just how much of the store it touches. You don’t need to create a fiber section because it’s already everywhere. Beans, berries, avocados, vegetables, whole grains, oats, nuts and seeds are all natural sources, while CPG manufacturers are adding or emphasizing fiber in everything from snacks to beverages.
Whole Foods Market even included “Fiber Frenzy” among its top food and beverage trends for 2026. The opportunity, though, isn’t simply to stock more products with fiber written across the package. It’s to make fiber easier to shop.
Retailers have gotten very good at doing that with protein through shelf tags, displays, digital searches and filters. There’s no reason the same playbook couldn’t work for fiber. High-fiber digital filters, shelf tags, wellness displays and cross-merchandising could connect traditional fiber-rich foods with newer fiber-enhanced products. There’s also an obvious private-label opportunity for retailers that can deliver meaningful fiber without the premium price tag.
There is a potential trap here, and we’ve already seen it with protein. Once nearly every category has a high-protein version, the claim starts losing some of its ability to differentiate a product. Fiber could eventually reach the same point. Putting fiber into a cookie, snack or soda doesn’t automatically make it a better product.
That’s why category managers should be asking a slightly different question: Does adding fiber create incremental demand, or are we simply creating another package claim?
The retailers that get this right won’t just chase whatever products have “fiber” printed in the biggest letters. They’ll help shoppers solve the underlying need, whether that’s gut health, whole grains, eating more fruits and vegetables or simply finding an easy way to get more fiber into their diets.
Protein didn’t become a grocery phenomenon because consumers suddenly discovered it. The industry made protein easy to find, easy to understand and easy to fit into everyday eating.
Now it looks like fiber may be headed down the same aisle.