SupplySide Global 2025: Cargill ActiveIntel research reveals future of active nutrition
05 Nov 2025 | Cargill
Active nutrition is entering a new era defined by diverse consumers, expanded use, and heightened expectations. For Cargill, its new ActiveIntel research captures this evolution, pinpointing the consumer segments, behaviors, and unmet needs that will shape the next wave of active nutrition applications. Bret Barhoover, marketing manager for specialized nutrition, discusses this new research and its potential impact on the future of health and nutrition.
This is Elizabeth Green reporting for for Food Ingredients First and Nutrition Insight.
I'm here at the Carlgill stand in Las Vegas at Supply Side Global.
I'm here today with Brett Barhoover, who is the health and nutrition marketing person at Cargill.
So Brett, what are you bringing to Supply Side Global 2025 and why is it important to showcase the company's offerings here in North America?
Yes, we're bringing, first of all, we're bringing a lot of big insights from Cargill.
So behind me you'll see Active Intel is our active nutrition ANU study that we completed that really gave us some nice insight into the categories, segments, need states, and what we've tried to bring here today is , really, what kind of ingredients and what products need to be worked on by customers in order to deliver on those insights.
So you'll see us with a stroopwaffle, for example, a protein puff, we have a hydration beverage, and we have a apricore immunity chew.
And so all those things are really showcasing some of the ingredients that we think are important for customers in this category.
Nice.
OK.
How does Cargill see the growth of active nutrition in the US market progressing, particularly in segments such as bars, beverages, and powders?
And what in your opinion, are the trends that are driving this?
Yeah, first of all, explosive growth.
We're seeing, we're seeing a lot of blurring of lines across categories in terms of your traditional bars and your traditional ready to drink, and what's driving those growth, no surprise, is things like protein, high fiber, better for you snacking.
You know, weight management is really key.
GLP1 obviously is on everyone's minds.
And so bringing all those types of ingredients in that space, to deliver on, kind of those trends, that's really, folks who are able to do that in a successful way are gonna win.
Bars, beverages, and powders are growing like crazy, 67, 8%.
They're really driving the growth and.
You know, it has a lot to do with consumers' needs being met and customers delivering on those.
Absolutely.
OK, fantastic.
What role do you see for functional ingredients in the active nutrition category today and how are these evolving to meet consumer needs?
Absolutely.
So functional needs are, you know, you'll see a lot of like protein plus, for example, protein plus fiber, protein plus.
Cognitive, protein plus weight management.
So protein is always, that's the one thing you'll see probably in any category, anywhere you see.
Consumers can't get enough of it, but if you you really win with those functional sort of things that I just mentioned, if you show up with those specifically that help with weight management, help with satiety, help with hydration, any kind of functional things that consumers feel like they can get additional protein.
That's really going to be the winner.
Definitely.
OK, super interesting.
Now we've touched a lot on protein and weight management, but how do you think the demand for plant-based and allergen-free options are influencing the formulation of active nutrition products, and do you think these trends are sustainable?
We've seen plant-based and still very, very big and growing.
We started to see it stem.
A little bit in terms of the explosive growth we had a few years ago, we still have some great products in our portfolio that are plant protein based with purist, so plant is still a big part of our portfolio and it's still something we see consumers still wanting and needing.
Absolutely.
Fantastic.
OK, thank you.
Based on your active Intel research, what are Carl Gill's most promising growth opportunities for active nutrition brands?
In the years ahead.
Yeah.
You know, there's the one thing we learned from Active Intel is we don't want to have a one size fits all.
We, if it was segment-based, there's things like perfection pursuers, that's a segment that is all around optimal performance, all the way to determined dabblers who are more your older age group who are trying to balance exercise and diet and trying to eat better, but not gonna trade that off for things that taste great.
So what we're seeing is being very like customized in your product development.
Now, what I would say is the one prevailing thing across is reduced sugar.
That's one thing in our portfolio that we're really proud of with, you know, products like Eversweet and Clearflow.
That particular product delivers across any segment in terms of their needs with reduced sugar, but it really just depends on the segment, and we have a lot of things in our portfolio like fibers and proteins and.
Like I said, reduced sugar that deliver on those particular segments.
Fantastic.
Finally then, Brett, how do you foresee the competition between traditional and new formats such as beverages and protein bars evolving in this market?
Traditional and you know, you're always going to have your base products, your General Mills of the world, your Kellogg's, your everyday better for you snacking, but there's those more pure play niche players that are kind of coming into the category.
That's where we're seeing those category blurring going on.
And, you know, each of those segments are looking for something very specific, but there's definitely increased competition, and the better you're at at recognizing how to win with those consumers or are looking more more specialized functional ingredients, you know, that's gonna be the the the way those particular customers stand out.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much, Brett.
It was great to speak to you.
Thank you for the time.
