Future Food Movement

Trust. Transparency. Perseverance. Three words food leaders will be living by in 2026. ➡️ Diets are shifting from chasing protein or fibre to balance and variety ➡️ Heritage and resourcefulness are becoming modern signs of resilience ➡️ Food is being designed to support mood and wellbeing, not just taste All findings from Mintel's latest global outlook (released yesterday - linked in the comments). The report says that Perseverance will define 2026. Words like empathy, consistency and resilience spring to mind. Science is pointing in the same direction. The new EAT-Lancet Commission links justice with planetary health, linking diet, equity and environment as one system. The Planetary Health Check shows seven of nine boundaries now breached, with food the biggest driver. Doughnut 3.0 turns those insights into indicators that connect social and environmental impact. The direction of travel remains the same: the future of food will be defined by how well business models align with both human and planetary health. For food companies, that means: ➡️ Making transparency part of the system, from supply data to nutrition goals ➡️ Seeing perseverance as a competitive advantage; stay with long-term change ➡️ Using science as strategy; bring planetary metrics into product decisions ➡️ Closing the trust gap; link consumer insight with evidence, not baseless claims Food sits at the centre of the change we need. The companies that can link people, planet, science and business with honesty and clarity will set the standard.

In food, trust isn’t inherited – it’s earned, daily. Short-term decisions might deliver quick wins, but long-term thinking builds legacies. The businesses shaping the future of food are those who are: ⏩ embedding values into everyday choices ⏩ making multi-year commitments to suppliers, farmers and customers ⏩ balancing commercial realities with long-term credibility You don’t need to be a family-run business to take the long view. You just need the courage to act for the next generation, not the next quarter. 🔭 👉 Find out how Future Food Movement can help your business act for a future-fit food system - linked in comments 💡 You hear from Mary-Ann Kilby here - dive deeper into how Warburtons are building trust built for the next generation – linked in comments

Something is happening quietly in food retail Appetite is showing signs of change. GLP-1s are causing small effects for now, but the direction looks clear. From what we are seeing, this disruption is might move in three stages. I spoke at Waitrose about this a few weeks ago (pic below) 1. Contraction People eat less often and buy less. Portions get smaller, baskets shrink and volume-led categories start to feel it. Snack and impulse sales are softening, with sweet snacks down 6.1% and salty down 1.2% in the UK. In the US, households with a GLP-1 user cut grocery spend by around 5 to 6% within six months, with the sharpest drops in discretionary food. These are longer-term consumer shifts, but they are likely being accelerated. 2. Rebalancing Value begins to move from volume to nutrition. Protein, fibre and satiety become part of how people define worth. Greggs has introduced smaller bakes and higher-protein options. Danone has launched Oikos Fusion in the US. Retailers are placing more focus on protein, wholefood and functional hydration ranges. We will see what the post-Christmas shelves look like in UK retailers... 👀 3. Consolidation Brands built on real nutrition and trust hold share. Wholefood-led challenger brands such as Pack’d and Field Doctor are already seeing growth as people look for simpler, nutrient-dense options. It points to a market gradually moving towards a more wholefood-based diet with fewer ingredients, smaller portions and higher value per bite.} It is early, but the signals are consistent. If appetite becomes something managed rather than assumed, it will change how we think about growth, innovation and value across the food system. We have been exploring what this means for retailers and suppliers in the UK and are developing work to map how ready businesses are for this disruption. Happy to share what we are seeing. Drop me a message

I’ve been involved with Future Food Movement for a year, and what I value most, is farmer voices at the table. Future Food Movement brings farmers, NGOs, retailers, manufacturers and innovators together - creating the trust, candour and collaboration needed for real food system change. Today the movement relaunches with new capabilities in strategy, advisory and advocacy, giving food leaders more tools than ever to deliver real change. Tagging three people who keep me going.Will Oliver Kate Cawley Emma Victor-Smith

Great to be part of this movement! If you are serious about food system transformation, check out Future Food Movement and get involved. #Agriculture #BetterFood #Trust #Communication

🌱 Transforming the food system, together 🌱 There are so many passionate people in our food industry – retailers, manufacturers, nutritionists, farmers and NGOs – working in collaboration (just look at the roster of food businesses below) to improve our individual health as well as the health of our planet. Tesco is proud to be going on this journey with the Future Food Movement as they relaunch and broaden their offering to help make tangible, lasting change. I personally took part in their Healthy and Sustainable Diets Accelerator last year and came away feeling reenergised and better equipped to help make a real difference. If you too care deeply about food, health and nature for current and future generations, now is an ideal time to get involved… https://lnkd.in/eginchY8 Huge congrats to the FFM team for bringing us all together and continuing to foster genuinely open and honest conversations across industry. Kate Cawley Louis Bedwell Carly Davies Emma Victor-Smith