The Protein Predicament

Protein demand is rising quickly across food and beverage, driven by health, wellness, weight management, healthy aging, and performance goals. Yet this momentum has created a “protein predicament”: consumers want more protein, but often struggle to understand how much they should consume and what “complete,” “high quality,” or “healthy” actually means.

Mattson explored this challenge through a multi-method investigation combining nutrition science, consumer research, market analysis, and AI-enabled innovation tools. The research revealed important tensions across high-need consumer groups, including GLP-1 users, perimenopausal and post-menopausal women, aging adults focused on healthspan, and performance-oriented consumers. Across these groups, protein is seen as positive and increasingly essential, supporting satiety, strength, weight management, and everyday energy. But consumers also express confusion and concern around ultra-processing, isolates, animal versus plant sources, complete proteins, affordability, and how to interpret protein claims in a crowded marketplace.

This session will translate these findings into practical implications for product developers, ingredient companies, and brands. It will highlight where protein innovation is over-serving consumers, where it is under-serving them, and where meaningful white space exists for products that are nutritionally relevant, consumer-resonant, technically plausible, sensory-credible, and commercially viable.