ADM has released its 2026 Culinary Trends Report, identifying five forces set to influence product development and consumer engagement across the food and beverage industry.
The leader in human and animal nutrition tracks how culinary trends—from emerging ingredients and inventive techniques to bold cultural mashups—evolve from raw inspiration into mainstream influence.
The new report highlights five powerful trend spaces, capturing the forces redefining how consumers eat, connect and seek meaning through food.
Together, these insights help chefs and brands alike create scalable, culturally resonant solutions for the future of food.
The report identified the following five trends:
- Third culture cuisine: global fusion gets personal, bold and boundary-breaking. Third Culture Cuisine is storytelling through flavour, rewriting what "authentic" means and giving space for new food identities to thrive
- Social approval: menus adapt to new social values, from inclusivity to affordability to responsibility. It's more than the next step in sustainability; it's the next evolution of conscious eating
- Big-impact bites: allows consumers a personalised experience in a more flexible, social and approachable way. As eating habits shift, driven by GLP-1-based medication, wellness goals, or simply a desire to explore more without the heaviness, chefs are rethinking how to make every bite count
- Maxxing your way: the cultural shift toward doing whatever you do to the fullest. It's less about excess and more about intentional intensity: doubling down on the lifestyle, wellness approach, or dietary path that feels most aligned with you
- Experiencing the experience: take a moment to truly appreciate your surroundings and redefine what it means to dine out in a world where consumers need a compelling reason to leave home.
Explore ADM's 2026 Culinary Trends Report here.