Coca-Cola's CEO said the company is eyeing a big healthy food trend — and it's not protein

• Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey said customers might see fiber creep into the company's drinks this year.
• Coca-Cola already sells Diet Coke with fiber in Japan, a drink aimed to "address specific dietary needs."
• Other F&B CEOs have predicted that fiber would be a hot trend in 2026.

Coca-Cola's CEO said the drinks company is looking at one viral health trend this year.

Speaking with CNBC at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, CEO James Quincey said fiber might be the next big thing for Coca-Cola.

"So you've got a lot of focus on refreshment and a lot of focus on protein, and people are definitely seeing more protein," Quincey said. "We might see fiber creep in this year."

He said fiber can be put into anything because it's soluble in beverages. He gave the example of the Diet Coke Fiber+ drink from Coca-Cola, which has been available in Japan since 2017.

The drink is advertised as sugar- and calorie-free, with five grams of dietary fiber per bottle.

The drink was part of a "fast-growing segment where ingredients are added to beverages to address specific dietary needs," Quincey said in 2017.

However, he said on Tuesday's Squawk Box that Diet Coke Fiber+ was still a "niche" drink, because "people don't buy drinks to have their fiber."

Quincey's comments echo those of other food and beverage executives who have predicted the rise of fiber this year.

McDonald's CEO, Chris Kempczinski, took to Instagram last week to predict his top three food trends for 2026, and the first item on the list was fiber. He said fiber was "going to be big" this year.

PepsiCo CEO Ramon Laguarta predicted in an October earnings call that "fiber will be the next protein."

The term "fibermaxxing" was a viral health trend on social media in 2025, with dieticians saying that it helps aid gut health, lower cholesterol, and reduce the risk of colon cancer.

And cabbage, a fiber-rich vegetable, is having its moment on social media, with Pinterest predicting that the vegetable would trend highest on social media in the US in 2026.

Pinterest released its annual trends report in December, which showed that the search term "cabbage dumplings" rose 110% from September 2024 to August 2025, compared to the same period the year before.