Walking the floor at Natural Products Expo West each year is always energizing. There are thousands of finished
products to look at, including beverages, snacks, supplements, and functional foods.
But when you work in the ingredient world, you tend to look at the show a little differently. At Monterey Bay
Herb Co., we spend our days sourcing and supplying herbs, botanicals, spices, and functional ingredients. So
instead of focusing on brands and packaging, we often find ourselves asking a different question:
What ingredients keep showing up everywhere?
A few stood out this year.
Fiber may be the quiet ingredient of the year.
Between gut health, metabolic health, satiety, and blood sugar support, fiber is showing up across foods,
beverages, and supplements. For years, protein dominated the conversation, and this year fiber feels just as
central to product innovation.
Hydration has moved far beyond sports nutrition.
Electrolytes were everywhere on the show floor. What’s interesting is how hydration is now positioned around
daily wellness, travel, cognitive performance, and recovery. It’s quickly becoming a foundational wellness category.
Women’s health is finally getting the attention it deserves.
Products focused on perimenopause, menopause, hormonal balance, mood, and skin health were far more visible this year.
It feels less like a trend and more like the industry finally addressing a long-overlooked need.
Botanicals are having a real moment.
I met a surprising number of newer companies building products around herbs while drawing from
Ayurvedic traditions,
Traditional Chinese Medicine, and western
herbalism,
and translating those ingredients into modern formats like functional
beverages and wellness rituals. From our perspective at Monterey Bay Herb Co., this is particularly exciting. Herbs and
botanicals
have been used for centuries, but we’re now seeing them show up in entirely new product formats and categories.
The intersection of traditional plant knowledge and modern product innovation is one of the most interesting things happening
in the natural products industry right now.
Expo West always offers a great snapshot of where the industry is heading. And this year’s message was clear: ingredients,
especially botanicals, are driving the next wave of innovation. We’re curious what others noticed walking the floor this week.
