Protein bar demand summary?
- Joe Wicks sparked scrutiny of protein bars and ingredient quality
- Market leaders saw declines while selective consumer demand continued rising
- Some brands suffered losses despite earlier growth and mainstream category expansion
- Simpler real‑food formulations gained momentum with strong year‑on‑year growth
- Category evolution shows consumers choosing credibility transparency and higher ingredient quality
It’s been three months since Joe Wicks launched a scathing attack on protein bars.
In his Channel 4 documentary, Joe Wicks: Licensed to Kill, the fitness guru teamed up with doctor and TV presenter Chris van Tulleken, to ‘expose’ the dubious ingredient decks of many leading brands, highlighting the inclusion of chemicals, sweeteners, gums, emulsifiers and – as Wicks sees it – little else.
Tulleken and Wicks even went so far as to concoct the ‘unhealthiest ultra-processed’ protein bar they could, complete with 96 legal ingredients to ‘highlight how laughable the whole industry is’ and branding it ‘Killer’ for good measure.
Industry commentators were quick to point out the show’s shortfalls.
As Food Navigator said at the time: “[Wicks] has so far only highlighted a list of ingredients that have been used in thousands of products on supermarket shelves for decades. These ingredients, repeatedly proven safe by trusted science, are not inherently dangerous and aren’t consumed in the exaggerated amounts he purports.”
“Turning nutrition into a horror story isn’t the answer,” Tim Spector also wrote in an Independent op-ed. The show “feeds the same kind of fear and confusion that’s already rife in food culture. People don’t just need more fear; they need a better understanding and practical help.”
But did its messaging still hit a nerve with consumers? Did Wicks’ anti-UPF rhetoric drive interest in ‘cleaner’ alternatives, for example? Or have classic protein bars remained resilient within the performance nutrition category despite this latest celebrity crusade?
Market leading declines
It’s clear that, even prior to the show being aired, some leading protein bars highlighted by Wicks faced challenges.
Though some brands mentioned in the documentary achieved strong growth in 2025, including Glanbia-owned Optimum Nutrition which saw volume sales climb 11.7% and Huel by 31.1%, according to The Grocer’s Top Products 2025, market leader Grenade struggled, with a 15.9% fall in unit sales in the same period. Fulfil and PhD, also named by Wicks, both suffered significant losses too.
Grenade has put the decline down to a “normalisation of demand” after a strong growth spurt in 2023 in particular, when the release of its Oreo-branded protein bars saw revenues rise 56.5% to £92.3m (€106.6m).
But for Kieran Fisher, founder and MD at KBF Enterprises – which grew volumes 3.1% - there’s also a differentiation being newly drawn by shoppers, which may explain a divergence in fortunes both pre and post documentary.
Though Wicks claims didn’t “damage the category” as a whole, it did “accelerate a necessary distinction,” says Fisher. “Protein bars are now mainstream food products, so scrutiny is inevitable. The issue is treating all bars as if they’re the same, when the reality is that formulation quality varies hugely.”
Warrior’s own RAW bars are made from “real food, not white powders and artificial sweeteners,” he points out. And “consumers are embracing that”.
According to IRI total market data, Warrior RAW bars grew value by +78% and units by +99% year-on-year in the latest quarter, “which clearly shows that bars positioned around simpler ingredients and clear functionality are gaining share. The data demonstrates that consumers aren’t abandoning protein bars, they’re becoming more selective.”
Cleaning up the category
Greater tendency among consumers to scrutinise protein bars is also driving new entrants into the market, many with a clear focus on ingredient provenance and simplicity.
PRIMA, for example, launched in 2025 and has been billed ‘the first to market ancestral protein bar’. “We founded PRIMA in response to what we saw as a growing disconnect between how many protein bars are marketed and what’s actually inside them,” says co-founder Dominick DeLegge. “A large portion of the protein bar category still relies on highly processed ingredients and long, technical ingredient lists which consumers are realising means more processing and therefore less nutrition.”
Each PRIMA contains 16g of grass-fed animal-based protein, including 100% grass-fed beef tallow, collagen, and whey, sweetened only by organic raw honey. Each bar is also made with no seed oils, no artificial sweeteners, is GMO-free and gluten free. The bars retain the flavour profiles that have shaped protein bar innovation in recent years though, with a range that includes mocha, salted caramel and Cookie Dough.
“This isn’t about being ‘cleaner’ for the sake of a marketing claim, it’s about being real food that’s nourishing and is not a candy bar wrapped and marketed like real food,” insists DeLegge. “We believe eating a protein bar should be simple, transparent, and nourishing, while still delivering on performance and macros.”
For Fisher, this reorientation of the protein bar category is less about one fitness influencer and a divisive TV show, and more a signal of the inevitable maturation of the category. “It’s no longer just about just taste and emulating confectionary,” he says. “It’s about credibility, ingredient quality and whether a product fits naturally into an everyday routine.
“The fact that we’re seeing strong growth in bars that are built closer to food than confectionery tells you this isn’t a decline - it’s an evolution.”
