CHFA 2025: What Canada’s Biggest Natural Products Show Revealed

TORONTO—Canada’s natural products scene isn’t playing catch-up anymore. At CHFA in Toronto, the same forces remaking the U.S. wellness market, functional fizz, protein everywhere, supplements as lifestyle, showed up with a Canadian accent: quieter, more credible, and built for longevity over show.Walking the aisles at CHFA 2025 in Toronto, I saw familiar themes, functional sodas, protein in everything, natural energy, supplements, women’s wellness, mirroring what’s booming stateside.

Yet, the show also highlighted distinctly Canadian approaches. Sustainability is assumed, performance is the proof. And plant-based offerings feel less like meat replicas and more like a celebration of plants.

Bubbles With a Payoff

The “better-for-you” beverage wave is alive and fizzing. With Canadian pioneer Cove Soda paving the way for a host of new entrants. Functional sodas, sparkling waters, and caffeinated refreshments stood out. Consumers’ thirst for products that go beyond hydration is clear, and brands are experimenting with formats that blend indulgence, functionality, and convenience.

This mirrors U.S. trends but with a Canadian twist: clean design, simple ingredients, and credible alternatives, rather than loud claims or lifestyle theatrics.

The Slow Burn Energy Play

Canadian consumers, like their U.S. counterparts, want alternatives to synthetic stimulants. Guayusa and yerba maté dominated the natural energy pitch at CHFA, positioned as natural sources of sustained energy without the crash. Storytelling tied to community or agriculture added authenticity, though mainstream education is still early. That gap leaves space for a Canadian champion to define the category.

Supplements Surging Ahead

Magnesium, electrolytes, collagen, trace minerals, creatine, supplements were everywhere. Some read like Athletic Greens clones, others leaned into gummies and sachets.  High margins and cultural weight around longevity keep the category hot. For Canadians, it’s less about performance, more about plugging gaps.

Protein as the Universal Add-On

Protein is the all-access pass, slipping into every format from pretzels and Mac and cheese to lattes, peanut butter cups, rice crispy treats, even bone broth cocoa. Canada is in the same “protein mania” as the U.S., with no format off limits. But the standouts weren’t those shouting protein content,they were products where protein felt integrated, an added benefit rather than the whole pitch.

Women’s Health Gets Specific

One of the most inspiring shifts was women’s health. Periods, pregnancy, perimenopause, menopause — once-taboo stages now inspire real innovation.  Period cups, reusable pads, and supplements are breaking longstanding taboos.

Seed cycling products, which rotate pumpkin, flax, sesame, and sunflower seeds through different phases of the menstrual cycle, were among the more experimental but intriguing offerings. Seed cycling remains niche, but shows how fine-grained women’s wellness is becoming.

Sustainability as Table Stakes

Sustainability was everywhere: liquid-free laundry sheets, shampoo cubes, plastic-free deodorants, compostable coffee pods. Importantly, eco-credentials were framed as part of performance, not the entire story. Canadian shoppers expect sustainability baked in. Brands delivering both will earn the edge.

Plant Proud

Plant-based foods felt refreshingly different from the meat analogues that defined earlier years. Tofu, tempeh, oat-milk ice cream, and frozen meals - the message was simple: plants don’t need to mimic meat to earn their place on the plate.

Design and the Return to Product

The design bar in Canada has never been higher. Packaging across categories felt polished, intentional, and globally competitive. Where once design was a differentiator, it is now a baseline expectation.

That raises a bigger question. For years, the industry leaned hard into design as the way to stand out,especially as products became easy to mimic. And in some cases, it worked brilliantly. Liquid Death turned the ultimate commodity,water,into a billion-dollar brand built on design.

But for most entrepreneurs, design alone isn’t enough. Just as profitability has re-emerged as a non-negotiable in business, so too has the need for genuine product differentiation. Brands need an edge in what’s inside the package as well as what’s on it: a new format, a structural innovation, a functional ingredient, or even a consumer ritual.

Design remains essential, the amplifier, the storyteller, the bridge to consumers. But its greatest power is unlocked when paired with a product that earns attention on its own merits. At CHFA, the brands that resonated most were those combining design sophistication with product originality. Together, they signal a return to fundamentals: design builds desire, but product builds staying power.

The Takeaway

CHFA 2025 underscored how closely Canadian natural products now track with U.S. trends, yet also how they diverge. Energy, protein, and supplements reflect global momentum. But in women’s health, plant-based, and the way design now demands real product differentiation, Canadian brands are sketching their own blueprint.