The compliance to impact transition: the future of food

Discussions at the recent future of food and beverage forum brought together leaders from across the food and beverage value chain to tackle some of the sector’s most pressing sustainability challenges – from the role of AI in accelerating decarbonisation to how legacy brands can stay relevant in a shifting market. What emerged was a picture of an industry under pressure but not short of ideas, provided it can align the right incentives across the right stakeholders.

AI and decarbonisation

There was genuine optimism around AI’s potential to drive progress on decarbonisation, alongside an important note of realism. AI is itself resource-intensive, consuming significant energy and water, so any honest assessment of its role must account for its own footprint.

Five areas of opportunity stood out. AI is expected to accelerate R&D, bringing solutions to market faster across production and supply chains. Generative AI and autonomous agents can improve the speed and quality of workflows, compounding efficiency gains over time. Real-time monitoring, particularly in agribusiness, could unlock meaningful optimisation. Digital twins and simulation technologies allow companies to model supply chains and test scenarios before committing to operational changes. And underpinning all of it: human oversight remains essential. Data quality and the integrity of AI-generated assessments cannot be assumed.

Regenerative sourcing and scope 3

Getting lower-carbon sourcing approaches from niche to mainstream is not primarily a technical problem — it is a commercial and organisational one. Products derived from regenerative sourcing still command a premium, largely because they lack the volume to compete with conventional alternatives. Premium markets offer a short-term entry point, with early revenue helping to fund the investment needed to bring costs down. Engaging downstream off takers was also identified as a lever, since these actors can create mandates that pull demand through the chain.

Internal alignment is equally challenging. Procurement, R&D and sustainability teams often operate with different priorities. Procurement, in particular, was identified as critical: it can mandate the integration of new ingredients into reformulation efforts while anchoring the sustainability agenda in commercial decisions. Framing new sourcing approaches as part of a diversified portfolio, rather than a move towards single sourcing, also helps address resilience concerns.

Science-based targets and FLAG

The existence of FLAG guidance was broadly welcomed as a shared language for discussing land-use emissions and setting targets. But it surfaced real anxieties too. The degree of interpretive flexibility built into the guidance creates uncertainty: companies worry about whether their interpretations will hold up to scrutiny down the line.

Supply chain traceability emerged as a related concern. Without reliable data flowing up the chain, even well-intentioned targets are difficult to validate.

Engaging suppliers: is enough being done?

The short answer was: not yet. On-the-ground presence, cultural understanding and genuine two-way dialogue with farmers were identified as foundational. The “cost-plus” model came up repeatedly: being transparent about production costs and ensuring suppliers genuinely benefit from the relationship, rather than absorbing all the risk while buyers capture the value.

Greater collaboration between sourcing companies, including forms of co-investment between competitors, was discussed as a way to build the market infrastructure that makes sustainability viable at scale. Long-term contracts with shared KPIs and aligned incentives were seen as another important mechanism. Farmers in volatile sectors such as cocoa and coffee need stable relationships that can withstand shocks and the expectation that they should absorb commercial risk alone is not a sustainable model.

Regenerative agriculture at farm level

One of the clearest reframings to emerge was that regenerative agriculture should not be thought of as a premium niche, but as a broader transition towards more sustainable farming across the board. That requires the active involvement of finance providers, inputs suppliers, buyers, retailers, governments, cooperatives and farmers themselves.

Data governance was a recurring concern. Farmers are increasingly asked to generate data through new practices, but many are anxious about who controls it and how it might be used. Assurances around data security and farmer ownership are a condition of trust, not an afterthought. Risk mitigation matters equally: the transition to regenerative practices can create real short-term vulnerability and if those risks are not shared across the value chain, the system will not work.

Sustainability communications and the ECGT Directive

New legislation creates cost and complexity, and the conference acknowledged that reviewing claims, updating packaging and ensuring compliance is a meaningful operational burden. But the right response is not simply to stop making sustainability claims.

Several companies expressed confidence in the substance of their work and their ability to defend the claims they want to make. The challenge is communicating those claims in ways that satisfy regulators without losing the consumer. Legislation that raises the bar on credibility may ultimately benefit those who have genuinely done the work, even if it creates friction in the short term.

Legacy brands and challenger mindsets

Challenger brands are setting the direction of travel and legacy brands know it. Challengers win through clarity of purpose, speed of execution and cultural relevance, particularly with Gen Z audiences. They are built around genuine consumer pain points and can test and iterate in ways that larger organisations struggle to match.

The implication for legacy brands is uncomfortable but clear: risk aversion is a liability. Ideas discussed included reallocating investment towards future-focused innovation, using foodservice and incubation models as vehicles for behavioural change and leading on sustainability through action rather than messaging alone. The companies that will win are those that combine a challenger mindset with legacy-brand scale and infrastructure. Neither alone is sufficient.

Taken together, the conversations across these tables pointed to an industry that understands the scale of the transition ahead and is beginning to develop the tools, relationships and frameworks to navigate it. The direction of travel is clear: systems-level thinking, genuine risk-sharing and a willingness to move beyond compliance as the primary driver of change.