Taste. Trust. Investment. AI. GLP-1. Ultra-processed foods.
These were some of the biggest themes dominating discussion at Future Food-Tech London, where food and beverage leaders, investors, scientists and entrepreneurs gathered to debate what comes next for the industry.
While emerging technologies remained firmly in the spotlight, speakers repeatedly returned to a simple reality: innovation only matters if consumers embrace it. Again and again, conversations turned to the factors that ultimately drive success or failure in the market, whether that’s flavour, trust, affordability, convenience or consumer understanding.
The event also highlighted some of the biggest questions facing food and drink today. How will GLP-1 drugs reshape product development? Can brands rebuild trust in new technologies? Is the industry doing enough to tackle health challenges? And where will the capital come from to scale the next generation of food innovation?
Here are six of the most important takeaways from two days of debate, discussion and industry insight.
1. Taste and human desire beat technology
The basics of food and drink are at risk of being forgotten, experts across the Future Food-Tech London event warned.
Food and drink is more than fuel and more than technology. The thing that makes consumers buy and buy again is feeling, emotion, taste and pleasure.
“Flavour is key and I think that driver needs to come from people with experience within gastronomy,” said Rasmus Munk, chef and co-owner of 50 Best restaurant, Alchemist.
Food must be considered as something beyond fuel, despite the market’s drive to deliver next-gen healthy foods and beverages.
“Tech fails however good it is if people don’t want it on their plates,” said Jess Spiring, Rethink Global managing director, food and Europe.
This was echoed by Dr Megan Rossi, gut health scientist, dietitian and founder of Bio&Me and Smart Strains. “If the taste isn’t there, if it tastes like cardboard, it literally will not sell past January,” she said.
2. GLP-1 drugs are forcing a food-industry rethink of portions, protein and taste
GLP-1s remain a pinch point and opportunity across food and drink, with experts citing how rapidly the drug has already reshaped the markets and continues to do so.
To maintain and grow market share in a GLP-1 world, food and drink makers should focus on building the next generation of healthy foods, support healthier baskets and help shape consumer choice.
“It’s more about how we can make smaller volume, concentrated with nutrition, and bring the needs to the consumer whether they’re on GLP-1, whether they’re working out, etcetera,” said Rania Abou Samra, chief R&D and innovation officer at Lesaffre.
Tate & Lyle VP for growth and innovation, Helen Bass said: “When you’re on GLP-1, studies say about 30% reduction in calories. But when you look at basket changes and value, it’s about 5% or 6%. It doesn’t really correlate.”
She added: “85% of GLP-1 users self report taste dulling, what they call diminished taste perception. So therefore, it is really important to them that they actually do have some enjoyment.”
3. Funding mismatch: capital exists but isn’t reaching scale-up stage
Funding gaps are broadening in the food-tech space due to VC timelines and investor confusion.
Throughout the event, experts cited infrastructure as a prominent problem when it comes to bridging the scale-up gap.
But also venture. “Venture should fund the learning and commercial risk. It should not fund the steel insofar as it’s just a really expensive source,” said Imran Afzal, CEO at the National Alternative Protein Innovation Centre.
On the other hand, “venture should fund the learning and commercial risk. It should not fund the steel insofar as it’s just a really expensive source,” said Ali Morrow, partner at Clay Capital.
4. Ultra-processed food reformulation hits a philosophical wall
Tension rose at points when ultra-processed foods (UPF) were discussed.
For example, some regulatory economists argued the reformulation of ultra-processed foods was a dead end, despite industry and retail giants still actively reformulating such products to make them healthier.
“There is no such a thing as a healthy ultra-processed food. So, forget about the type of reformulation that we have seen,” said Franco Sassi, professor and director at the Centre for Health Economics and Policy Innovation, Imperial College London.
“The solution is simplicity. Going back to simpler types of food and formulation,” he added.
5. Trust, not science, is the bottleneck for health and longevity claims
Though the focus of the sector is to develop key technologies to bolster the future of food and its supply, experts at Future Food-Tech argued a focus on the mechanics of food alone was not enough to drive consumer traction.
“The biggest challenge facing food and drink tech is trust, not science,” said Rethink Global’s global audience and content editor Nicholas Robinson.
“Approval doesn’t equal trust, launch doesn’t equal belief, and innovation doesn’t equal adoption,” he added.
“Trying to educate the consumer to a particular way of thinking I think is very difficult. What I believe in is trying to explain what we’re trying to do,” Win Win CEO Mark Golder said.
6. AI’s role in food is split between R&D acceleration and unresolved security/trust risk
Like in other industries, consumer trust in AI within food and drink remains shaky.
However, experts across the two day even cited optimism for its use, such as in R&D, personalisation and in helping consumers better understand their nutritional needs.
“AI is definitely accelerating especially the R&D scale up up to sort of production scale... But it isn’t a magic bullet that solves everything, at least in this sector,” said Tom Whitehead, head of machine learning at Intellegens.
Some experts at the event also believed up to 25% of consumers’ food choices might very soon be driven by AI agents.