Inside THAIFEX – Anuga Asia 2026: A discovery of flavors, trends and innovations shaping F&B
BANGKOK, Thailand — One minute you’re looking at barrels of preserved chilis; the next, you’re tasting the fiery srirachas crafted from them. Before your palate can even recover, you’re sipping coffee-flavored chicken breast smoothie, and then crunching on functional snacks packed with mala spices.
This kind of sensory overload is all in a day's work at the recently concluded THAIFEX – Anuga Asia 2026 in Bangkok. Sprawling across 140,00sqm, the event’s biggest and most diverse edition yet has transformed the IMPACT Muang Thong Thani convention area into a massive global tasting menu, drawing 3,590 exhibitors from 56 countries.
The event's massive footprint makes sense when you realize it’s actually nine specialized trade shows—for Drinks, Fine Food, Seafood, Frozen, Meat, Food Technology, Sweets and Confectionery, Fruits and Vegetables, and Rice—seamlessly rolled into one.
Here, international food buyers and suppliers don't just browse; they diversify and discover the latest trends in food and beverage, never-before-seen innovations, and most importantly, unique flavors ready to take on new markets.
These encounters spark the partnerships and business deals that shape the industry's future in Asia and beyond.
New-to-market immersion
This year, THAIFEX – Anuga Asia once again received a record-breaking 94,685 unique trade visitors from 148 countries and regions. Even with this massive turnout, there’s always something new and exciting for everyone to see, taste and experience.
Just like the addition of Hall 4 to the 2026 THAIFEX. Designed around the buyer journey, Hall 4 enabled visitors to move from trend discovery and market intelligence to product evaluation and supplier engagement in one standalone venue.
It also introduced new sections, like Taste the Future, a curated tasting experience using new-to-market products seen at THAIFEX.
On Day 1, we immediately immersed ourselves here, trying out a tasting menu themed “Seeds and Beginnings.” It featured ingredients at their starting point, seeds, grains and even algae, transformed into four flavorful bites.
For starters, we downed a cup of brown rice milk sweetened with nipa palm vanilla, followed by a bite of rice crackers served with cream cheese, and then a spoonful of quinoa noodles with mentaiko sauce. We ended with fun DIY toast paired with various spreads made from hazelnut, pistachio, sesame and almond.
Some of these products were in fact showcased at the New to Market Street, also a first for THAIFEX 2026. Here, Food Futurist Tony Hunter gave a special tour, showing and explaining his favorite innovations such as water-frying food equipment and plant-based seasoning made from
Other THAIFEX staples at Hall 4 included the Future Food Experience+ with 60 speakers, Startup Showcase, Trend Zone by Innova Market Insights, the tasteInnovation Show and the Alternative Protein Taste and Flavor Challenge.
Around the world with flavors
With the addition of a new hall, THAIFEX – Anuga Asia 2026 was able to welcome new countries and new country groups, which organizers weren’t able to, according to Koelnmesse General Manager Wendy Lim.
As a result, the number of organized country and provincial group participation rose from 50 to 60, with groups from which included expanded countries/regions from South America, the Middle East, Central Asia and Eastern Europe, such as Argentina, Belgium, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and Uzbekistan.
As a result, the number of official international pavilions rose from 50 to 60 with expanded presence from South America, the Middle East, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Australia, and exhibitors such as Brazil, Belgium, Lithuania, Chile, Saudi Arabia, Slovakia and Uzbekistan, among others.
We stopped over some of these new exhibitors at Hall 4, including Saudi Arabia, which presented their most prized food product, the dates.
Mazan Alquraish, head of Exports Empowerment and Qualification Department, National Centre for Palms and Dates, said “Our debut experience at THAIFEX – Anuga Asia has been extremely positive. We have secured successful leads into the Asia market with close to 35 concrete meetings and at least 14 signed contracts that have a minimum combined value of $980,000.”
Nearby is the pavilion of Lithuania, which brought over a mix of innovative food products like the ready-to-drink OMG Bubble Tea and freeze-dried Star Candies for astronauts, and legacy food brands. One such is Svyturys, one of Lithuania’s oldest breweries, which makes one of the most-awarded beers in the world, Ekstra.
Another proud country group exhibitor was Food South Australia at Fine Food Hall, where we embarked on a discovery of high-quality and natural produce from the region. We tasted organic honey from Pure Origins, extra virgin cold-pressed avocado oil from Cherry Creek, rolling oats from 150-year-old company Blue Lake Milling, 100% natural fruit juices from another heritage brand, Bickford’s.
“Food South Australia represents many manufacturers and a lot of the businesses in our stake are smaller, SMEs generally, and a lot of family businesses, so that means that they care very much. It’s their legacy, it’s their generations of family recipes that are used to create these products,” shared Food South Australia CEO Tori Dixon-Whittle.
Getting to know the latest trends
THAIFEX – Anuga Asia also serves as platform to unveil the top 10 F&B trends that are shaping the industry, care of research firm Innova Market Insights.
The demand spans all formats: globally, 28% of shoppers prioritize protein claims in meat alternatives, while three in five Asian consumers are actively boosting their daily protein intake.
We met with Thailand-based companies who are ahead of this trend, such as Balance Corp. and MUST Nutrition.
“The snack category has been giving people two bad choices for decades: junk food that's craveable but makes you regret it, or healthy food that's boring, joyless and tastes like compromise. Nobody was building the third option. That's what Balance Corp does,” expressed the company’s founder, Oat.
Hence, they created Munchhh, which Oat described as “a better-for-you baked protein snack with 5g protein and 1g to 3g fiber” in three bold Asian-inspired flavors, Mala, Spicy Cheese and Sriracha.
Meanwhile, MUST Nutrition is known for its chicken breast smoothies. This whole-food protein contains 60g of chicken breast per bottle, with zero sugar, prebiotic fiber and lactose-free yoghurt. It is clean, smooth and made to fuel recovery on the go.
Other top trends driving consumers habits include food that are functional and free-form, organic, sustainably produced or packaged, halal-certified, and clean among others.
Ultimately, THAIFEX – Anuga Asia has once again proved that the future of food goes far beyond simply satisfying everyday cravings. It is an ecosystem where bold flavors and healthy functional innovations thrive together.
Preparations are already underway for next year’s THAIFEX – Anuga Asia, taking place from May 25 to 29, 2027, as well as the inaugural standalone edition of PLX Asia September 8 and 9, 2027.
Editor’s Note: This #BrandSpace story is created with THAIFEX. It is produced by the Advertising Content Team that is independent from our Editorial Newsroom.
