Walk the aisles of this year's Summer Fancy Food Show at New York's Javits Center and you'd be forgiven for thinking the entire beverage industry had collectively decided that "beauty" and "drink" belong in the same sentence. Among the 2,400 exhibitors and roughly 1,000 new products on display, one ingredient kept showing up in booth after booth, pitch after pitch: collagen. The Specialty Food Association even crowned "SenseMaxxing" — a celebration of vibrant, sensory-forward food and drink — as its trend of the year, and collagen-spiked beverages were squarely part of that story.
This isn't a fluke or a single-show sugar high. Collagen drinks have quietly become one of the most closely watched categories in functional beverages, and the momentum shows no sign of slowing.
What Showed Up at the Show
The range of products on the floor made clear that collagen has moved well past the powder-in-a-shaker-bottle phase. Pretty Tasty Tea introduced a collagen iced tea in flavors like lemon, peach, and raspberry, marketed as a way to help consumers "glow from the inside out." Rather than relying on whey, brands are increasingly turning to collagen because it can be blended into drinks without altering their appearance the way whey protein sometimes does.
Beauty-and-function mashups were everywhere. Skinergy's entry combined blackberry, collagen, caffeine, and peptides in a single can — a clear signal that beauty claims are pushing further into the functional beverage space. Even snack categories got the treatment: one exhibitor, CarneMore, launched what may be the first jerky line to use collagen specifically to boost its protein content.
Industry trend-watchers framed this as part of a broader shift. According to a recap from Prepared Foods, functional drinks remained highly visible at the show, but brands are moving past broad, vague wellness claims toward products built around specific, named benefits — collagen, antioxidants, adaptogens, and other naturally functional ingredients. In other words, "good for you" isn't enough anymore. Shoppers want to know good for what, exactly — and skin, joints, and hair are the answers collagen brands are racing to own.
That positioning isn't limited to the Fancy Food Show. At Expo West earlier in the year, the same beauty-from-within thread was visible across the show floor, with collagen, hyaluronic acid, and other skin-supporting ingredients showing up in everyday food and beverage formats — from collagen protein bars to collagen protein lattes targeting skin, hair, nails, and joints.
Why Now?
A few forces are converging to push collagen into the beverage mainstream.
The protein boom has a beauty offshoot. Protein is arguably the dominant macro-trend in food and drink right now, and collagen rides that wave while adding a differentiator whey and pea protein can't match: a direct tie to skin and joint health. As one Fancy Food Show recap put it, protein has expanded into unexpected corners of the grocery store — ice cream, teas, popcorn, pasta, and pancake mixes — and collagen is one of the vehicles carrying it there.
"Beauty from within" has become a genuine category, not a gimmick. For years, ingestible beauty products were a novelty aisle. Now they're merging with mainstream hydration and energy drinks. Forbes' coverage of the show noted that the functional beverage scene was exploding, alongside continued growth in the protein sector.
Formats keep multiplying. Ready-to-drink shots, sparkling waters, iced teas, lattes, and even jerky are all now collagen delivery vehicles, which lowers the barrier for trying the ingredient in whatever format a consumer already likes.
Related: 10 Trends We Spotted at the Summer Fancy Food Show 2026
The Market Numbers
The category's growth is showing up in market research, even if the exact figures vary depending on how narrowly a firm defines "collagen drinks" versus the broader "collagen-infused beverages" category. One estimate puts the collagen drinks market at roughly $393 million in 2025, growing to about $621 million by 2030 — a compound annual growth rate near 9.6%. A separate analysis of the wider collagen-infused beverage category estimates the market was worth $1.66 billion in 2025 and projects it will climb to $2.95 billion by 2034, at a CAGR of roughly 8.8%.
Within the category, marine collagen is emerging as the premium play. One report projects marine-based drinks will grow at a CAGR of about 10.36% between 2026 and 2031, even as animal-based (largely bovine) collagen continues to hold the largest overall share. The appeal is partly practical: marine collagen's smaller peptide structure means it reaches peak plasma concentration in the body within one to two hours — roughly 1.5 times faster than bovine collagen — which lets brands market it as a faster-acting, premium option. That science-backed speed claim is exactly the kind of specific, defensible benefit today's functional beverage brands are chasing.
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The Skepticism Brands Can't Ignore
For all the buzz, collagen drinks are also a case study in a category trying to out-market its own science gap. Multiple market analyses flag the same core tension: consumers like the idea of drinking their way to better skin, but the clinical picture is murkier than the marketing suggests.
Regulators have been especially cautious. The European Food Safety Authority has consistently declined to approve health claims tied to collagen, citing insufficient scientific evidence — a stance that creates real friction for brands trying to make skin-and-joint promises on pack. In the U.S., the situation cuts the other way: because collagen drinks are typically sold as dietary supplements, the FDA doesn't require companies to prove safety or effectiveness before they hit shelves, which opens the door to inconsistent, hard-to-verify claims across the category.
Consumers have noticed. Industry research has found that roughly 40% of consumers express skepticism about the health benefits of functional foods and beverages generally, and collagen faces its own specific version of that doubt. Analysts point to reports on the limited bioavailability of certain collagen peptides, which have fueled debate and slowed adoption among more science-literate shoppers. Variability doesn't help the brands' case either — outcomes differ so much by individual absorption, dosage, and product formulation that results are inconsistent, and the placebo effect further complicates any brand's ability to prove its product actually works.
There's also a quieter access issue: bovine and marine sources still dominate the category, and an estimated 20% of consumers who want plant-based alternatives are currently left without an equivalent option, since true vegan collagen substitutes don't yet match the efficacy claims of animal-derived versions.
What It Means for the Category Going Forward
None of this skepticism seems to be slowing new product launches — if anything, it's shaping how brands compete. The winning formula emerging from shows like Fancy Food and Expo West isn't "add collagen and call it a day." It's stacking collagen with other credible, specific ingredients (antioxidants, adaptogens, electrolytes, caffeine) and leaning into flavor and format innovation to stand out on a crowded shelf.
Expect three things to define the next wave of collagen beverages: sharper, narrower claims instead of vague "wellness" language; a continued shift toward marine collagen for its speed-of-absorption story; and growing investment in the clinical validation and transparent labeling that skeptical, science-conscious consumers are increasingly demanding before they'll pay a premium for a can that promises to make them glow.
Collagen drinks may have started as a niche wellness curiosity, but between the Fancy Food Show floor and the market research reports, one thing is clear — this ingredient has fully arrived as a mainstream player in functional beverages. The brands that last will be the ones that can back up the glow with the data.
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