Are we entering an era of “Sensory-led brands”?

Here at TBN we’ve attended both the Winter and Summer Fancy Food shows for about 16 years now. The Winter West Coast show less so in previous years but going out to the USA and seeing these shows in the flesh teaches you one thing quickly – the show isn’t necessarily just about new products: it’s about potentially setting new agendas for food and drink.

In past years we’ve written extensively about these things, and we may well be among the first to have seen Pop Chips, the emergence of Charcuterie Boards, ingredients like Hot Honey/Black Garlic, Wellbeing and the endless benefits of mushrooms etc.

The 2026 show was no exception. It was about ‘new permissions’ and what I mean is that brands are increasingly coming up with new combinations that buyers are seemingly comfortable listing. There are new visual codes that consumers are instantly understanding, and the rate of consumer adoption/acceptance is for me becoming much quicker.

The Winter FancyFaire in San Diego didn’t just showcase innovation, it made a clear assertion that we’re moving from a world of claims to a world of sensations.

The Specialty Food Association of America aptly named their food trend of 2026 ‘SenseMaxxing’ a shift toward sensory eating where taste, texture and aroma are now key selling components.

Here are 5 thoughts about how the promised new agenda might come to fruition in the next 12 months:

 

1) First Bite Theatrics

For a decade if not longer, many challenger brands have been built on a virtuous platform: free-from, clean dec, sustainable, ethical, ‘some’ profits to charity etc.

Those things still exist and matter, but they’ve stopped being differentiators because everyone else in the category is doing the same.

Possibly a winning strategy moving forward is to clearly communicate a ‘memorable sensory moment’ that can be captured in one sentence and ‘felt’ from the very first bite

The ‘Sofi’ winners at this year’s show did some of these things really well:

 

Red Jacket Orchard / Joe’s NY Style Lemonade

A lemonade that claims a “New York style” descriptor as a taste expectation, not just a heritage story from a farm that’s been around since 1958

Top Seeds / Bake At Home Crackers

A bake-at-home seed cracker that makes the format and the cooking involvement the hero, not just ingredients

 

UMYUM / Soft Cheese

A soft cheese that leads with za’atar + spice not simply as an ingredient of flavour varietal, but as an everyday staple for the fridge

 

2) Packaging that’s ‘Instantly Interesting’

An interesting observation from the awards was that the Outstanding Packaging award sits alongside Product of the Year. For the first time I felt that the industry is admitting that what we see in retail really matters – packaging is (and always has been) a major decision driver.

Angel Oak Smokehouse took the top packaging award not because the packaging is just “pretty” but because it does 3 things well:

• Communicates premium fast
• Frames the product as value
• Reduces perceived risk (“this is going to taste great – I know how to use it”).

 

3) The rise of Ambient Premium

Another quiet theme was the elevation of ambient formats. With typical US panache they were calling it “Shelf-Stable Chic” and I think this will be a key consideration for 2026. The idea is not just about convenience, it’s about permission to premium’ise everyday products like honey, condiments, crackers and tinned seafood.

The winners list reinforces that ambient doesn’t mean “compromise” it increasingly means considered, giftable, collectible. An interesting lens for me on this is in the UK we’ve got Fortnum’s, high end garden centres and small artisan markets where this kind of stuff is sold week in, week out. I wonder why it’s taken the US so long to work out that up-market ambient is a really smart idea!

For brands, this is huge especially in the US as ambient grocery categories give you better distribution but only if your brand builds a ‘reason to believe’ when the rational differences are small.

 

4) “Global” is no longer a claim

The term “global flavours” has been around for years, but 2026 feels different: global isn’t a trend – it’s table stakes. The SFA trend language points to bolder, more promiscuous mixing of flavour references, and trade coverage from the show also highlights global flavour cues and functional/healthier formulations as repeated innovation territories.

What changes for brand owners is the creative standard. Simply adding a global ingredient isn’t enough.

The new winners tend to compose global references in a way that feels intentional and repeatable – something you can build a range system around, not just a one-off SKU.

 

5) What “top brands” really means in 2026

When people ask “what are the top brands coming out of the show?”, they usually mean “who’s about to make it big?”

But from a brand strategy perspective, “top” often means something else: which brands can and will be copied.

• Red Jacket Orchards lemonade is copyable because it sells a specific taste promise (New York) with a strong cultural shorthand
• Top Seedz is copyable because it reframes a familiar category through format theatre (bake-at-home).
• UMYUM is copyable because it’s seeking to normalises the spice adventure in an everyday product like spreadable cheese

These are the brands that act a bit like category influencers, not just product makers.

So, what should brands do with this?

If you’re building (or rebuilding) a food brand in 2026, Winter FancyFaire is basically giving three clear clues as to what to do:

1. NPD wise – Design for sensation, not just the story
   Your origin or founders story is ok. But your crunch, melt, fizz, heat, snap, pop, is what people will remember
2. Treat packaging as performance
   Not only “distinctive assets” in isolation but a conversion system: think about navigation, appetite appeal, usage confidence, premium cues and range logic
3. Build a world range, not just a hero SKU
   The most investable brands are those with a clear logic for extension (formats, flavours, behaviours, occasions) because buyers aren’t just betting on one product anymore; they’re betting on a system or an entire range

And for me the real post-show takeaway was that the brands that make people ‘feel’ something quickly are good but those brands that can then scale that feeling are going to be the winners in the end.

Words by James Acton