IFT 2026 highlighted one clear trend – the future of food and beverage innovation is being driven by ingredients that combine functionality, simplicity, and exceptional consumer experiences. We were excited to meet with our customers, brand owners, and formulation partners to discuss the next generation of functional foods and beverages.
RFI offers a comprehensive portfolio of food and beverage solutions including:
- Liquid Botanical Extracts for beverages, wellness shots, syrups, concentrates and functional foods
- Powdered Botanical Extracts for drink mixes, bars, gummies, and nutritional products
- Fruit and Vegetable Ingredients that add authentic flavor, color, and nutritional value
- Superfood Ingredients that help brands capitalize on consumer demand for nutrient-dense formulations
- Mushroom Ingredients to support cognitive health, immunity, energy, and wellness positioning
- Tea, Coffee, and Cacao Extracts for energy, antioxidant, and premium beverage formulations.
- Organic Ingredient Blends to meet clean-label consumer demand
Beyond its ingredient portfolio, RFI provides formulation expertise and technical support that helps customers overcome common product challenges. One of the trends throughout IFT FIRST was the increasing demand for ingredient solutions that work across multiple product formats verse for a single application. RFI’s ingredients meet this growing demand by providing solutions for virtually every food and beverage category including:
- Functional beverages and RTDs
- Wellness and immunity shots
- Hydration beverages
- Botanical waters and sparkling beverages
- Sports nutrition products
- Functional coffees and teas
- Nutrition bars and protein products
- Dairy and dairy alternatives
- Frozen desserts, confection, and baked goods.
RFI’s Newest Technology Platform – NSR™
In addition, manufacturers are looking for novel ingredients and are focusing on how these ingredients perform once they are consumed. RFI’s new technology – NSR™ addresses these challenges by providing a patented, clean-label sustained-release platform that helps protect sensitive active ingredients from gastric degradation while delivering nutrients gradually over time.
Many high-value actives can be susceptible to degradation during manufacturing, storage or after exposure to harsh acidic condition of the stomach. When these ingredients break down prematurely, their ability to deliver the intended health benefit may be reduced. NSR™ is designed to preserve an ingredients integrity until release and supports a more consistent ingredient performance to help maximize the value of formulations.
NSR™ allows for product versatility, and the technology can be applied to a broad range of ingredients commonly used in functional foods, beverages, and dietary supplements. The technology helps protect sensitive compounds during gastric transit including vitamins and minerals, botanical extracts, adaptogens, probiotics, amino acids, cognitive health ingredients and polyphenol-rich plant extracts.
RFI’s does not just source ingredients – our From Field to Formula® philosophy reflects a vertically integrated approach that combines premium ingredients, proprietary technology, formulation expertise, and commercialization support to help brands succeed.