center aisles in similar fashion to the specialty health food stores of the early 2000s.
With the wellness landscape changing so
rapidly, it can be difficult to keep up with
the latest innovations and what consumers
are looking for in grocery. To help retailers
keep tabs on the brilliant – and occasionally
bizarre – entrants hitting the wellness category, Grocery Headquarters staff rounded up
some of the hottest and most prevalent trends
to keep an eye on in the months ahead.
1 PROTEIN Be it worried parents trying to fuel their children’s brains or active
Millennials scrambling for convenient
ways to get a boost, today’s consumers have
become protein addicts. Manufacturers have
picked up on this demand, and are sneaking
protein into unexpected items such as pasta,
cookies and even water. Innovations in the
category have moved far past spooning protein powder into a smoothie; shoppers can
now expect to find protein-enhanced products in almost every aisle of the store. Plant
protein has been blowing up this year, with
vegetarian and environmentally conscious
attitudes on the rise. Alternative protein
sources, such as cricket protein, are surprisingly starting to sneak their way onto
the scene, slowly introducing consumers to
this unconventional food source with unexpected innovations such as paleo cricket
protein granola. Retailers have picked up on
the protein boom and have used it to their
advantage. As consumers move away from
non-functional sugary sweets, a number of
retailers have started replacing the chocolate
bars and other candies usually found in the
checkout lanes with protein bars and other
quick protein pick-me-ups.
