March 23, 2026 – For global consumers, texture is innate to the consumption experience, and many say that interesting or enjoyable textures are something they look for when they consume food and beverages. Beyond simple enjoyment, textures are also significant in creating indulgence, such as smooth and crunchy textures, and contributing to other elements like flavor intensity or novelty in mouthfeel. As a result, texturizing ingredient trends are vital to the global food and beverage market, even impacting clean label elements. Innova’s “Trends in Texturizing Ingredients- Global” report provides a global market overview of texture ingredients, guiding manufacturers in their next steps for innovation, ingredient use, and product development.
What is the Relationship Between Texture and Ingredient Trends?
Texture ingredients are a main category in the global food and beverage market, and 36% of new food and beverage products launched from 2024 to 2025 contained at least one defined texture ingredient. Innova’s global market overview of texture ingredients demonstrates that their use has also increased in most regions over the last five years, with North America demonstrating the highest overall penetration of texturizers. For brands, beverages, confectionery, and sauces are categories where there is growing opportunity, due to beverage diversification and the presence of more complex texture blends in processed food categories.
Why are Starches Important Texturizing Ingredients?
In food processing, starches play a significant role as thickeners, food stabilizers, and functional enhancers in the global food and beverage market. Native or natural starches are carbohydrates that can be found in many staple foods like corn, rice, wheat, and potatoes. In contrast, modified starches are those that have undergone extra processing to improve their functionality, whether this is chemical, physical, or enzymatic modifications. In the past, the movement towards natural ingredients drove native starch ingredient trends, but currently, modified starches are on the rise, though many of the top ingredients fall into the artificial category. This suggests to manufacturers that there is a demand for more complex functionalities, with many brands still prioritizing eating experience over clean label elements.
What is Driving Demand for Plant-Derived Gums?
Naturalness is an important selling point of plant-derived gums, such as tree, seed, and root gums, yet sustainability concerns and the threat of climate change are obstacles that the market faces. Despite this, the growth of new product development in gums is largely in line with other texturizing ingredients over the last five years, highlighting solid demand.
Texturizing ingredient trends show that guar gum, gum Arabic, and locust bean gum dominate the market, but tara gum is on the rise, signaling an opportunity for brands as a replacement or addition to more established ingredients. In terms of category use, dairy leads the way, as 1 in 3 launches in plant gums can be attributed to ice cream, desserts, and other dairy products. However, gums are also gaining ground in new product launches as beverage stabilizers and in sports nutrition products.
What are the Key Seaweed Extract Ingredients?
When it comes to seaweed extracts, agar, alginates, and root gums are core ingredients. Carrageenans, root gums made from red seaweeds, are the leading seaweed-derived texturizers seen throughout global new product development, but alginates are demonstrating fast growth. Regional biases play a role in the global market, such as Asia’s preference for agar, but carregeenans are dominant across all regions.
Dairy accounts for 48% of launches with seaweed-derived texturizers. However, texturizing ingredient trends show how specialty tea and coffee products are increasingly looking to seaweed derivatives. This offers new opportunities for brands, as Korean-style honey teas and instant milky coffees are driving expansion in the global market.
How are Pectin and Citrus Fiber Faring in the Global Ingredients Market?
According to Innova’s ingredient trends research, fruit-derived texturizers demonstrate strong growth in the global food and beverage market, and this includes pectin, a polysaccharide derived from plant materials. Pectin is primarily used as the texturizing ingredient in fruit-based products and is key to the jelly-like texture of jams, marmalades, and fruit-based confectionery gums.
Citrus fiber, with natural pectin content, also has texturizing functionality. However, it demonstrates more versatility, due to its benefits like boosting fiber and reducing calories or sugar. This highlights important applications across both savory and fruit-based products and opportunities for expansion. For example, citrus fiber is experiencing growth in processed savory categories, such as poultry, fish, and cheese, alongside sweet foods like confectionery and ice cream.
Where do Cellulosic Ingredients Fall in the Broader Texturizing Ingredients Market?
Texturizing ingredient trends indicate that growth in cellulosic ingredients has picked up in the past twelve months, demonstrating alignment with the wider texturizers category. Standard cellulose gums (carboxymethyl cellulose) lead the way for cellulosic ingredients in new product development across all regions, appearing in over 60% of launches. The European market drives demand for methyl cellulose, due to strong activity in the sports nutrition and meat substitute categories. Bakery and dairy are currently leading targets for cellulosic texturizers, but ingredient trends show that growth in new product development is coming from a wide range of subcategories like salad kits, deli meats, and processed cheese.
What does New Product Development Look Like for Fermentation-Driven Gums?
Texturizing ingredient trends indicate that new product development with fermentation-derived gums continues to rise, with xanthan gum accounting for 90% of products featuring fermentation-based gums. However, gellan gum is experiencing faster growth, with Asia, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa being the most important users. Regarding applications, bakery and sauce are the most important categories for fermentation-driven texture ingredients, but usage is diverse overall. Growth for fermentation-derived gums also reflects a rising demand for both health and indulgence and varies widely. These include categories like high-protein sports bars and vegetable snacks to more indulgent options like specialty coffees and flavored alcoholic beverages.
Is Gelatin Able to Overcome the Stigma Associated with it?
Gelatin has faced obstacles, due to its reliance on animal-derived ingredients, but in recent new product development, it has been experiencing growth. Its very nature eliminates its incorporation into vegetarian or vegan food sources and has led to its replacement in many food and beverage products. Even so, these ingredients have expanded in the market and overcome many of these challenges, likely due to competitive pricing or natural benefits.
Europe represents 30% of all global food and beverage launches with gelatin, under-indexing its use in formulations compared to the rest of the world. In contrast, Latin America demonstrates more openness to the ingredient. Additionally, confectionery and sweet categories are key to development and continue to demonstrate growth. Sports nutrition products like gels and bars also represent other growing subcategories for gelatin use, as it can add to protein levels and texture.
What’s Next for Global Texturizing Ingredients Trends?
The growing demand for indulgent textures has never been higher, according to Innova’s global market overview, and brands have the opportunity to leverage more complex and adventurous textures, utilizing texturizing ingredients to enhance mouthfeel. The backlash with ultra processed foods is also presenting the industry with new challenges, so trusted texture ingredients with clean label credentials will succeed. Finally, texture ingredients will also be vital in helping formulators balance healthier recipes, while maintaining taste experiences.
This article is based on Innova’s Trends in Texturizing Ingredients- Global report. This report is available to purchase or with an Innova Reports subscription. Reach out to learn more.