Summer Fancy Food 2026: The Industry Is Hiring, and It's Not Slowing Down

We just spent several days walking the floor at Summer Fancy Food, talking to founders, operators, and hiring teams from every corner of CPG. Two things stood out immediately: the flavors on the floor and the questions in every conversation. Here's what we saw.

The Trends Are Remaining Consistent

If you caught our recap of Expo West 2026, Summer Fancy Food will feel familiar. The same flavors and formats that dominated the West Coast show made their way east, indicating that these trends are where the category is actually headed.

What we kept tasting and hearing about:

• Dumplings: showing up in more booths, more formats, and more freezer sections than we expected.
• Matcha: still climbing, now showing up well beyond beverages.
• Protein: the north star ingredient across almost every category.
• Fiber: slowly, but surely becoming the "next protein" as brands race to add functional benefits.

Beyond ingredients, Summer Fancy Food is always a launchpad. We saw a wave of new product debuts, and the energy around them reinforced something we've said before: this show is genuinely good ground for up-and-coming brands.

The Question Everyone Asked Us

If there was an MVP question this show, it was some version of: "How's business for you right now? Are other companies hiring?"

We heard it constantly, and we know what it's really asking: should we be hiring right now too?

Our answer, without hesitation: yes.

Here's why we're saying that with confidence:

• Funding is flowing into the consumer market. We're seeing more investment activity than we have in a while, and notable acquisitions are happening across the space. Both are strong signals of a healthy, encouraged CPG environment.
• Hiring is broad, not narrow. We're placing across a wide range of verticals, industries, and roles, this isn't one category having a moment, it's the whole CPG space waking up.
• The mood is healthy and happy. Hiring managers aren't hiring out of desperation or backfilling burnout. They're building with intention, and they're excited about it.

If you're a brand asking yourself whether now is the moment to add headcount, the market is saying now is the time.

How Companies Are Actually Hiring

The how of hiring is just as interesting as the whether.

We had noticeably more conversations this show about contract versus full-time hiring than in past years and it wasn't a hard either/or. A lot of brands are thinking about this in stages:

• Fractional support is in high demand from brands that are growing fast but not ready to commit to a full-time hire in a given role yet.
• Interim hiring is picking up too, brands bringing in experienced leaders to steady a team while they search for the right permanent fit, or to hold things down during a key leave.
• Contract roles are being used more strategically, not as a stopgap, but as a real path to test fit before converting to full-time.
• Full-time hiring is still happening at pace, especially for core team roles brands know they need for the long haul.

The takeaway: companies are being smart, not slow. They want flexibility on how they build their teams, but the appetite to build is very real.

Our own data backs this up: in ForceBrands' 2026 State of the Consumer Brands Industry Report, 85% of VP and Director-level leaders say they aren't locked into full-time-only hiring, and nearly half of C-suite leaders at scaling brands increased their use of contract, fractional, and interim talent this past year, most often for specialized expertise they don't have in-house.

The Bottom Line

If Expo West told us where the flavors are headed, Summer Fancy Food reinforced that and told us where the talent is going too, and CPG hiring is trending up.

If you're building a team, expanding into a new vertical, or just trying to figure out whether fractional or full-time is the right next move, we're here to help you figure it out.