Fibre-Maxxing: Why a TikTok trend is highlighting a national nutrition gap
Every year, Healthylife’s Health Advisory Board combines Woolworths Group transactional data, along with market share, ABS data and public health statistics to produce The Living Healthy Report.
At its core, the report bridges Healthylife’s purpose of helping everyone live their healthy life with the Woolworths Group commitment to creating better experiences together for a better tomorrow.
The 2026 Report provides a vital ‘pulse check’ on Australian shopping habits, highlighting a significant commercial and health opportunity for our Trade Partners: The National Nutrition Gap in Fibre.
Understanding the ‘Fibre-Maxxing’ trend
What started as a viral social media trend is fast becoming a sustained shift in customer behaviour. Today’s shoppers are looking to maximise their daily intake – a movement known as “fibre-maxxing.”
Driven by growing awareness of gut health, weight management, and satiety as “nature’s appetite controller,” fibre has successfully transitioned from a traditional digestive aid to a high-demand premium ingredient. In the minds of consumers, fibre is officially the new protein.
;)
Bridging the gap between trend and basket
Despite the online buzz, The Living Healthy Report 2026 reveals a stark disconnect between customers’ confidence in their ability to look after their health and include healthy habits and what ends up in their baskets.
- The decline: Volume data shows that average daily purchases of the Grains and Cereals Food Group for at-home consumption across all retail outlets have been gradually reducing and on average Australian’s are not purchasing enough of any of the five core food groups.
- The gap: Australians are simply not buying enough fibre-rich core foods (fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, cereals and grains), creating a major opportunity for market intervention and product innovation.
The value proposition: Health meets affordability
In the current economic climate, helping customers close this nutrition gap is also a powerful way to help them save. The 2026 Report highlights a compelling cost-per-serve advantage for buying foods from the five core Food Groups over discretionary alternatives:
| Food group category | Average cost per serve |
|---|---|
| Grains & cereals | $0.31 |
| Vegetables & legumes | $0.74 |
| Discretionary foods | $0.90 |
;)
We can deliver a dual win for the family budget and the household’s health by encouraging customers to swap pricey, discretionary foods for higher-fibre grains. Simple switches like choosing wholegrain bread or wraps, wholemeal crumpets, or high-fibre breakfast cereals can double as perfect after-school snacks.
Translating the trend: Category insights & innovation
This shift in consumer focus opens clear avenues for product development and marketing across both food and non-food categories:
Food categories & staple innovation
- Functional additions: Expect to see fibre front-and-centre on packaging. Ingredients acting as prebiotics, such as green banana powder, are rapidly gaining traction to boost the functional value of everyday staples like breads, snack bars, and cereals.
- Shining a light on wholefoods: There is immediate potential in driving customer awareness toward foods naturally rich in fibre. Suppliers can lean into promoting the innate benefits of dried and canned legumes, wholemeal pasta, popcorn, frozen peas, nut spreads, and avocados.
Non-food & health categories
- Format innovation: Fibre-rich supplements are on the rise. The growth is heavily focussed on new delivery formats that offer better taste and digestive tolerability than traditional, gritty powders.
Empowering customers at the shelf edge
To help bridge this gap, Woolworths Group continues to invest in digital health tools like Food Tracker by Healthylife.
Integrated directly into the customer experience, Food Tracker takes the guesswork out of grocery shopping by automatically analysing a customer’s basket against the Australian Dietary Guidelines. It shows customers the exact types and amounts of foods they have purchased and that are needed for optimal wellbeing, making it easier than ever to build healthy habits.
Alongside this tool, customer resources like our article ‘Are you eating enough fibre?’ help educate shoppers on their intake, making it easier than ever to build healthy habits and drive demand back into core grocery categories.
The main takeaway
As fibre continues to dominate social media and consumer health priorities, it’s predicted it will increasingly command product ranges and supermarket shelf space. As a nation, the report shows we are over confident in our ability to look after our health and we need to support customers to close the gap on perception and reality. We invite our partners to collaborate with us on this journey – innovating responsibly to make healthy options affordable, accessible, and top-of-mind for every Australian shopper.
Ready to unlock these category insights?
Download the full Healthylife Living Healthy Report 2026 here to explore the data and discover new ways to align your product pipeline with changing customer health needs.
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