The first wave of GLP-1 innovation focused on what consumers would stop eating. The next wave is about what they’ll still choose to eat, and why.
As GLP-1 therapies become part of everyday life for a growing share of the population, food manufacturers are facing a more nuanced challenge. According to a recent Hartman Group white paper, 12.4% of US consumers are now using GLP-1 medications, up from 5.8% in 2024, representing 31m current users out of 137m eligible adults.1
This is no longer a niche behavior to design around; it’s a structural shift in how a meaningful portion of consumers approach eating. Consumers are eating smaller portions, but their expectations haven’t diminished.
Every bite is expected to deliver more: more nutrition, more satisfaction, more flavor, and a more enjoyable eating experience. For product developers, success today depends on creating foods that remain desirable while meeting evolving nutritional needs.
In other words, the industry is moving from a volume-based food economy to a value-and-density economy. Manufacturers are no longer just being asked to formulate with less; they’re being asked to optimize every bite, maximizing the nutritional, functional, and sensory value of every serving.
Meeting this challenge requires more than a single ingredient: it calls for complementary technologies working together across multiple formulation levers.
Through its integrated group, which includes HIFOOD, Frulact, CSM Ingredients, and Italcanditi, Nexture has built a comprehensive portfolio of ready-to-roll GLP-1 smart ingredients spanning sugar reduction for lower calorie intake, fiber enrichment for satiety and digestive health, and protein enrichment to support muscle mass preservation, across categories from bakery and bread to snack bars, yogurt, plant-based alternatives, ready meals, sauces, and beverages.
Nexture’s portfolio includes both multi-benefit systems that deliver several functions at once, such as HIFOOD’s Meltec®, Frulact’s high-fiber preparations, Italcanditi’s candied fruit (fiber-rich, low-calorie and no added sugar) and CSM Ingredients’ Protein Universal Mix for high-protein, high-fiber bread. It also includes specialized solutions including Hi-Car 469 for fiber enrichment; Micro Protein, Proteios, Hi-Protein Pea VIII and a vast range of protein cream fillings for protein enrichment, and the SlimBAKE for fat reduction in laminated bakery products.
Two solutions in particular illustrate how the group’s multi-benefit approach is reshaping formulation for the GLP-1 consumer: HIFOOD’s Meltec and Frulact’s Benefit platform.
Redesigning the bite, not just reducing sugar
Rather than asking formulators to choose between better nutrition and consumer enjoyment, HIFOOD’s Meltec bridges both. Its patented fiber-based system enables up to 50% sugar reduction and contributes to fiber content while also enhancing texture and body across multiple applications.
This dual function is what sets Meltec apart. In reduced-sugar formulations, structure and mouthfeel are often the first casualties – a trade-off that matters even more for the GLP-1 consumer, who is eating less overall and expects each smaller portion to deliver a fully satisfying sensory experience.
With its peculiar viscous, syrup-like consistency, Meltec is designed to close that gap, improving structure, creaminess, and mouthfeel across applications from bakery and snack bars to sauces and beverages, acting as a genuine enabler of nutrient density rather than a compromise.
Nutrient density in plant-based alternatives
If Meltec addresses the sensory side of the equation, Frulact’s Benefit platform addresses nutrient density from the ingredient base up offering a family of concentrated liquid solutions in different variants.
Oat remains the platform’s flagship raw material, serving as an excellent source of both protein and fiber. Benefit offers a wide range of oat ingredients for a wide range of applications, including plant-based dairy, beverages, ice cream, baked goods, and breakfast cereals, as well as allowing for different sugar contents and profiles.
Benefit, furthermore, has evolved beyond its oat-based origins into a genuinely multi-source platform of concentrated plant-based solutions. Alongside oat, the portfolio now spans additional cereals including rice, spelt, and rye, as well as pseudocereals, legumes, seeds, and nuts, giving manufacturers exceptional flexibility to tailor nutritional profiles, sensory characteristics, and functionality to different applications.
With their mild flavor, neutral profile and satisfying creaminess, Benefit extracts, concentrated bases, and syrups are designed for easy formulation into high-protein, high-fiber and / or reduced sugar foods and beverages.
Making every bite count, layer by layer
Meltec and Benefit are part of a wider portfolio of GLP-1 smart solutions by Nexture, designed around the same principle: helping manufacturers deliver more with every bite, spoonful, or sip. Together, these technologies illustrate how to converge nutrient density with eating satisfaction.
For manufacturers navigating the next phase of GLP-1 innovation, the opportunity isn’t just to formulate with less. It’s to draw on a full toolkit of complementary technologies that make every bite count and to find, within that toolkit, the right combination for their specific application and consumer.
References
- FoodNavigator. GLP‑1s are quietly rewriting the grocery list.