WGSN | TheFuture of Food& Drink 2030Feeding a ballooning global population,combining new �avour sensations withhealth and wellness, engineering foodsto combat climate change, anddeveloping next-gen food and drinkexperiences are some of the challengesfor 2030. We examine the keyopportunities for the food and drinkindustry and show where you can play towin

Jennifer Creevy, Claire Lancaster &Andrea Bell | 06.01.207 minutes

Tony LuongTony Luong

Executive summaryAs we live through the coronavirus pandemic and emerge into atransformed world, it is hard to imagine what 2030 will look like.

Despite moving into unchartered territory and new obstacles emerging, thereare many opportunities for the food and drink industry. Here we examine thechallenges and opportunities around �ve major areas and forecast the trendsyou can action today and build on tomorrow. The areas are:

Wellness: food will be prioritised as a key source of health and wellness,with advances for millennials, Gen Z and the ageing population

People : the population boom will lead to an explosion of new food anddrink ideas to feed the globe and cater to the different generations

Planet: environmental concerns will be on another level and solutions suchas engineered foods and new proteins will dominate

Places: the growth in megacities will see the emergence of miniecosystems to ensure each city is self-su�cient

Experiences: immersive experiences, molecular gastronomy and AIadvances will ensure the food and drink industry is as innovative as ever

The Future of Food & Drink 2030 has been put together by the global WGSNInsight and Food & Drink teams using our proprietary forecast methodology. Solar Foods’ Solein is a tasteless, powdered protein that is "100-times more climate-friendly" than other

food, according to the brand

Solar FoodsSolar Foods

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AnalysisThe food and drink industry is facing some of its toughest challenges. Thecoronavirus pandemic and threat of further pandemics is just the tip of theiceberg.

While the pandemic takes centre stage now, it has not lessened any of theproblems we knew were there already and will grow deeper into 2030.

Challenges around health in areas of obesity and mental health continue togrow; environmental concerns are at near breaking point for our planet; and itis di�cult to envisage how we will be able to feed our ballooning globalpopulation.

The food and drink industry is nothing if not resilient though and in the faceof extreme obstacles will always rise to the situation. The industry is integralto solving many of the global challenges we face and by 2030 we will be ableto see many of the fruits of its labour.

As we move into what we are calling Wellness 3.0, the next generation ofnutraceuticals, probiotics, sugar reduction and personalised diets will operatein the health space. Soil-friendly agriculture and transparency tech are someof the innovations that will emerge to solve the sustainability problems of ourplanet. Food innovations from farm-free proteins to insects will feed agrowing global population.

Meanwhile, mini eco-systems are set to ensure cities are self-su�cient and theidea of locally grown will evolve to mean local farms or labs. And as food ispleasure, technology will rise to the challenge and deliver immersiveexperiences, advances in AI and molecular gastronomy to delight and inspirefood tastes.

Here we look at the areas of Wellness; People; Planet; Places; and Experiencesand forecast the innovations that will dominate in 2030. We highlight the earlyadopter companies and examine the areas where you can take action now todrive future growth. 

At Tokyo’s Tree by Naked restaurant, an eight course meal described as a ‘gastronomic opera’ isdelivered with a multi-sensory show

Tree by NakedTree by Naked

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Wellness 3.0Challenges around obesity rates and an ageing population will dominate into2030, but Wellness 3.0 will rise up to tackle some of the food industry’stoughest battles.

Around the world, the shift away from seasonal, mainly plant-based and �bre-rich food and towards diets that are high in starch, sugar, fats and salt has ledto soaring global obesity rates. Worldwide, obesity has nearly tripled since1975, and almost 800 million people are considered obese today. In 2030,food and drink brands will come under increased pressure to provide healthier,less processed and more sustainable food and drink. At the same time, theywill need to meet the needs of an ageing Western population and emergingmental health concerns.

Challenges: the prioritisation of food as a key source of health and wellnesswill be even more prevalent in 2030 as rates of obesity soar, the Western worldages and households headed by health-conscious Gen Z and Millennialsmake the idea of food as medicine mainstream.

Opportunities: brands will need to create new products that meet consumers’evolving wellness expectations, from cutting down on sugars and bad fat tooffering solutions that provide holistic, mind-body wellness and products thatbalance taste and nutrition. Scienti�c advancements, from clean label sugarsand healthier animal-free fats, to medical-grade probiotics that tackle stress,anxiety and disease, will allow food and drink brands to frame themselves askey players in the quest for health and wellness.

Trends: Healthier Fats & Sugar Reduction, Next-Gen Neutricuticals, Probioticsgo mass, Personalised Diets

Ones to watch: Brightseed, Ganeden, Pendulum, Cubiq Foods, Stem! Sugar,Miraculex, DayTwo

 

The idea of food-as-medicine will be mainstream in 2030

Zachary ZavislakZachary Zavislak

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Healthier fats and sugar reductionReducing 'bad' fats and sugar from diets has long been a goal of health-conscious eaters, but biotech products will enable consumers to meet thesegoals readily in 2030.

While there are many alternatives today for sugary drinks, sweeteners cannotreplicate the texture needed for solid foods such as cakes. Stem! Sugar is anearly stage biotech startup creating a compound extracted from plants thathas a molecular structure similar to sugar, giving it a similar texture and theability to caramelise and crystalise in the same way. The company is aimingto enter the baking market �rst, using its product in foods such as low-sugarbiscuits/cookies. 

Meanwhile, JuiceInnov8 is looking to improve the health of juice products,promising to reduce at least 30% of sugar content from every glass of juice byenabling producers to customise the range of natural sugar reduction.California biotech Miraculex uses plant and fermentation technology derivedfrom exotic fruits and natural proteins to make food sweet without sugar ornegative health impacts.

With the goal of creating healthier fats, Spanish startup Cubiq Foods isworking on a process to make animal fat, commonly used to create processedfoods, without the animal. The company’s fats could be tailored to containmore essential fats such as Omega 3, which can protect from cardiovasculardisease.

Brands won’t be talking about reduced fat or sugar in 2030, they will beoffering it as standard.

Diets high in starch, sugar, fats and salt has led to soaring global obesity rates

Evan HeinEvan Hein

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Next-gen nutriceuticalsFunctional foods are already a key growth area and nutriceuticals will be astaple item on the grocery list by 2030. 

Nutriceuticals – nutritional pharmaceuticals – is food and drink that has beenmolecularly modi�ed or infused with speci�c micronutrients to be clinicallyproven to be more nutritious for a speci�c health outcome.

San Francisco-based biotech Brightseed uses AI to scan decades ofbiomedical research to �nd the most useful and bene�cial phytonutrientsfrom plants and links them to health targets. This allows brands to identify,isolate and insert them into their food and drink products.

In late 2020 Brightseed’s �rst product will be a micronutrient found in acommon spice (the company won’t say which) that boosts the liver and helpsthe body metabolise fat, supporting a healthy metabolism. The brand isactively researching natural plant compounds that address health concernsrelated to immunity, cognition and digestion. One of its early customers isfood giant Danone.

Such innovations will be prevalent by 2030 but smart brands are allocatingcurrent R+D budget to stay ahead of this future growth opportunity. 

Brightseed uses AI to �nd the most useful and bene�cial phytonutrients from plants and links them tospeci�c health targets

BrightseedBrightseed

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Probiotics go massThere is growing scienti�c and commercial interest around the relationshipbetween our gut microbiota and physical and mental health, and the role ofprebiotics and probiotics in improving it.

Probiotic food and drink products tailored to an individual’s microbiome tomeet speci�c health and wellness needs, a proliferation of medical-gradeprobiotics and probiotic mood foods that promise to change gut bacteria tomodify mental state will be mainstream by 2030.

Leading the space are players such as Ganeden. While probiotics todaylargely require refrigeration, GanedenBC30 is a natural probiotic ingredientthat can be added to shelf-stable foods and dietary supplements. Unlikevegetative strains of probiotic, which are more fragile, GanedenBC30 cansurvive most processing conditions and the path to the gut – openingopportunities for brands to create wide ranges of probiotic products includingsnacks, dips, spreads, baked goods, gummies, drinks and more.

Other innovators are exploring medical-grade probiotics. Pendulum’s GlucoseControl supplements are the �rst medical probiotics designed to help peoplewith Type 2 Diabetes manage healthy A1C levels and blood sugar spikes,while Renaissance Bioscience uses whole organism and gene-targetedengineering to create clean-label, immune-promoting dietary supplementproducts such as yeast beta-glucan.

Probiotics won’t just be for adults. Sugarlogix is using yeast fermentationtechnology to create prebiotic HMOs to create a more nutritious baby formulathat improves infants’ gut health from day one.

Pendulum’s Glucose Control supplements have targeted strains of probiotics and a prebiotic that helprestore the body's natural ability to metabolise �bre in order to help manage blood sugar

PendulumPendulum

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