IFT Outlines Top 5 Food Industry Trends for 2026

production-line-in-the-food-factory — *Image courtesy of Getty Images / IP Galanternik D U*

The Science and Policy Initiatives (SPI) team at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) has revealed its top five food trends that will impact the food and policy landscape and redefine innovation, safety, sustainability and consumer trust in the coming year.

The trends include:

AI moves from pilot to practice
Scaling sustainable solutions through investment and partnerships
Digital tools accelerate and expand food safety adoption
Regulatory pressure reshapes innovation pipelines
Transparency becomes imperative for consumer trust

Brendan Niemira, IFT chief science and technology officer, offers more detail in his blog.

“Our food system is under pressure like never before,” Niemire says. “Climate change, resource scarcity, geopolitical disruptions, and rising consumer demands are creating unprecedented challenges. In 2026, those challenges will only intensify. But with those challenges comes opportunity for the food science community to turn uncertainty into innovation, complexity into clarity, and challenges into solutions with next year shaping up to be a landmark year for food innovation.”

Niemira leads IFT’s SPI team, which also includes Anna Rosales, vice president of science and policy; Blake Harris, managing director of IFT’s Global Food Traceability Center; Sara Bratager, senior food safety and traceability scientist; Celine Terfloth, food systems analyst; Amanda Ferguson, director of scientific journals; and Andrew Kiefer, manager of scientific journals.

The SPI team shares scientific insight from and on behalf of the IFT community with various governing bodies and has weighed in on critical food topics in recent months, including ultra-processed foods, artificial food dyes, food traceability and safety. The team has also created a series of educational resources that provide consensus scientific perspective and research around critical food topics.