Part of Accenture Strategy

THE
FUTURE
OF FOOD:
NEW REALITIES
FOR THE
INDUSTRY
 DIGITAL PLATFORMS.
URBAN AGRICULTURE.
FOOD-AS-A-SERVICE.
VERTICAL FARMING.
DNA-BASED DIETS.
LAB-GROWN MEAT.
FOOD RETAILING AND PRODUCTION ARE
CHANGING AROUND THE GLOBE. FROM
HOW FOOD IS DESIGNED AND WHERE
IT’S GROWN, TO HOW IT’S CONSUMED
AND WHO IS CONSUMING IT, THE FOOD
INDUSTRY WILL SOON LOOK NOTHING
LIKE ITS FORMER SELF. THE OUTLOOK
PRESENTED HERE POINTS TO MORE
CHANGE IN THE FOOD INDUSTRY IN THE
NEXT 10 YEARS THAN IN THE LAST 50.

2 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

Underlying these rapid changes are macro forces that influence
the way the world produces, distributes, buys, sells, and consumes
food. Global population growth, expected to exceed 20 percent,
and the shift from rural to urban life will increase demands for
future food-stocks and shorter, more efficient supply chains.

In addition, wealth inequality continues to widen, creating

disparities in access to healthy food amongst socioeconomic
and income groups. Consumers will continue to seek ways to
improve their diets to manage health and wellness, to counteract
escalating obesity and non-communicable diseases.

Food production will continue to be vulnerable to the impacts

of rising global temperatures, with water stress and drought
becoming more common.

Advances in technology and open access to capital will fuel an

explosion of business model innovation. New competitors will
redefine consumers’ expectations, offer uniquely different value
propositions, and rapidly disrupt global competitive landscapes.

All is not bleak; on the contrary, this is an exciting time for

consumers and those responsible for bringing food to us.
The rise of technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), as well
as new scientific discoveries and innovation, offer solutions to
the food scarcity challenge. The promise of new levels of food
manufacturing efficiencies to counter declining production
forecasts provide hope for the future of food production. In
addition, tremendous investment in new retail commercial
models will improve the ways consumers can personalize
what and how we eat food.
THE OUTLOOK
PRESENTED
HERE POINTS TO
MORE CHANGE
IN THE FOOD
INDUSTRY IN THE
NEXT 10 YEARS
THAN IN THE
LAST 50.

3 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

GLOBAL FORCES AFFECTING
THE FUTURE OF FOOD
6 in 7 people to consume

>3000
calories per day
by 20301

Today, more than 50%

of the world’s population
lives in urban areas
expected to rise to

66% by 20505

The global population is

forecasted to grow from
7.3 BILLION IN 2015
TO
9.7 BILLION
IN 2050 3

Adoption rates of new

consumer technologies <1% of the US population
are farmers4
is faster than ever2

4 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

 No-till farming could
increase maize yield by

20%
and irrigating the same
no-till fields could
increase yields by
Agriculture generates
67%6
20%
of the globe’s
greenhouse
gas emissions7

15 of the 16
hottest years on record
have happened within
the 21st century8

AMOUNT OF FOOD THAT

33%
GOES WASTED: 9

1/3
of American children
80%
of antibiotics in the US
are considered obese10 used for farm animals11

GLOBAL FORCES AFFECTING

THE FUTURE OF FOOD
5 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry
THREE MAIN AREAS
OF CHANGE ARE
WORTHY OF FURTHER
DISCUSSION. WE CALL
THESE NEW REALITIES.
FIRST,
the battle for the food marketplace continues,
with consumers as the ultimate winners.
New models bring a level of convenience
consumers have not yet seen.

SECOND,
changes in consumer desires are coming fast,
and require nimble companies and commercial
models to support innovation. Consumer
desires reign supreme—and the food
industry is changing itself to meet them.

THIRD,
the food production system is likely to look
very different in the future, lessening waste
and expanding our food base.

6 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

NEW REALITY #1:
A CHANGING
MARKETPLACE
BATTLEGROUND
The battle for the food marketplace is not new.
What is new is the pace and number of disruptors.
Consumers are more rapidly adopting the plethora
of new platforms, brands, and retail models
available to them, from subscription services
to brand cafés. These new models are being
introduced and expanded at such a rapid
pace that in just a few years we expect
the market to look nothing like it does today.

Let’s look at how we got to where we are. Traditional food

retailers reigned supreme for many years. They still hold their
own: the top 10 established US grocery retailers claim 50
percent of the US market. With large, loyal customer bases
and high transactional frequency, they enjoy a strong cash
flow and a foundation from which to innovate. However,
digital retailers and platform businesses are testing their
competitive strength, wooing consumers with low prices and
speedy access to desired goods. Like mega-grocers displaced
smaller chains by leveraging scale, these same businesses
are now threatened by digital platforms that are purpose
build for innovation, speed, and customer experience design.
They are designed to disrupt along all parts of the experience
with unique offerings that solve for friction in the consumer’s
journey. In other words they are improving on things we
“love” in our food experiences and fixing the elements
we “hate”.

7 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

To food retailers, pressure from competitors is par for the
course—new formats, private labels, and upstart brands, have I LOVE
FINDING NEW
challenged food retailers and producers for decades. And, INGREDIENTS AND
TRYING NEW
unlike more easily disrupted single-category retail models CULINARY
like books and shoes, that succumbed in prior e-commerce TECHNIQUES
epochs, multi-category food retailers have been protected
somewhat from true disruption by strong local consumer
food tastes, complex supply chain requirements, and strong
supplier relationships. IN THE FUTURE….

But, several emerging trends, along with the advent of digital

technologies, change that scenario.

Before we examine the future, let’s examine the shakeup I MEET WEEKLY
currently underway. with my “Cook Club” via
livestream. We share recipes
and new techniques
Direct-to-consumer (D2C) models. In a world where
consumers want what they want, when they want it, with
speed, Big Brands are moving to cut out the middleman.
Bypassing chain retailers, one major CPG manufacturer
launched a subscription service for its detergent. Additionally,
I PROPOSE A
consumers can now buy another CPG manufacturer’s “CONDIMENTS CLASS.”
My grocer finds a local chef to
products, from cereal to sandwiches, at the company’s lead the lesson

downtown cafe.12

Concierge convenience. The bounty of new community-

sourced and prepared meal solutions pose a huge challenge
to traditional models. Consumers can easily bypass retailer
WE TOUR A LOCAL FARM
doors and instead have food delivered directly to their pantry with the chef and pick fresh
tomatoes to make ketchup
or refrigerator whenever they choose.

WE GO TO OUR GROCER’S
“TEST KITCHEN”
for the lesson. I take it home,
along with additional ingredients,
to make a great dinner

8 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

New channel and formats. Four out of five shoppers visit
three or more channels to fulfill their food and household I HATE
PLANNING
shopping needs.13 These include entirely new businesses AND
based on providing services with food. They differentiate PREPARING
MEALS
themselves based on new digital capabilities that help
consumers connect with their new sets of needs. This
situation stands in stark contrast to even just several years
ago, when supermarkets were necessary one-stop shops.
IN THE FUTURE….
Deep pockets for innovation. New entrants, traditional
grocers, venture capital, established CPG brands, and private RX

equity funds all have big war chests. In total, consumer

goods companies are the third largest sector (by market cap)
globally—behind only Technology and Financial Services,
MY PRIMARY CARE
giving them a wide, deep base from which to experiment.14 PHYSICIAN
prescribes a diet and loads it
With these resources, they can fund innovation and place into my personal diet app
bets on many new retail and product alternatives for years
before they run low.

Even startups in this industry belie the struggling new venture

stereotype. Grocery and meal delivery companies raised $781 MY GROCER’S AI BOT
million globally midway through 2017. And, in 2016, one of the builds a recommended menu
for the month, week, day,
biggest meal delivery players in the global market secured a meal, and snack

$1.25 billion investment from a major e-commerce company.15

Beyond these are micro-investments in thousands of small
businesses experimenting with capital-light business models—
in 2016, crowdfunding platforms raised more money for these
startups than the venture capital community—which makes I APPROVE AND ORDER
dinner as “Ingredients” so i can
the new competitive landscape significantly wider. cook, and breakfast as “Prepped”
to save time

WHEN I ARRIVE HOME,

the ingredients are waiting in my
fridge, along with my favorite
bottle of wine

9 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

As challenges grow, retailers will team with nontraditional
partners. For instance, local farmers’ markets are joining I LOVE
EATING
forces with grocery outlets to offer locally grown meal kits SUSTAINABLY
with minimal packaging. Consumers can pick them up at the WITHOUT
SACRIFICING
market or the grocery partner’s store—or have them delivered A FULL MENU
to their home. A major consumer electronics company also
offers traditional grocers an opportunity to partner, with its
new refrigerator.16 Wi-Fi enabled and camera-equipped, it
provides an updated view of what’s missing from the family IN THE FUTURE….
fridge. It can then connect to the local grocery store to place
an order automatically to replenish necessary items.

Many grocery stores have focused on improving the

experience of food retailing, adding grocerants (a dining
MY HEALTH PROVIDER
area/restaurant within the store) to their footprints to serve recommends recipes that can
be made with seasonal produce
consumers’ needs for prepared food and dining out. A from near my home

Houston market draws the neighborhood crowd in with an

acclaimed culinary school featuring beer and wine classes,
as well as hard-to-find gourmet foods and a full-service
kitchen.17 Expect to see grocers and restaurants blur even
more, as more micro food halls crop up. These multi-faceted MY FOOD PURVEYOR
HOSTS FARMER
marketplaces punch up the experience by combining grocery WORKSHOPS
for my community to swap seeds
shopping with restaurants and communal dining spaces. and share growing techniques

As micro food halls and grocerants change where we eat, tech

companies may also change how and what we eat. As we look
to the future, we expect tech companies to have more of an
impact on the industry, challenging norms. For example, a LOCAL FARMERS
sell their produce from within
major consumer high-tech company patented a system that my local grocer’s store
uses Radio-Frequency Identification (RFID) to help track the
calories in restaurant orders. Apps now offer food-logging
and personalized recommendations to wearable devices.
As startups find their sweet spot in the food space, they will
continue to change the way consumers view and interact
MICROGREENS
with their food. ARE GROWN
in the store that I can pick,
bag and make for dinner

10 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

SO WHAT DOES THE
FUTURE HOLD?
I HATE
GOING TO
THE STORE
TO SHOP
FOR FOOD
The future of the food marketplace will offer
limitless options and painless convenience.
This future caters to consumer desires, and is fueled by
technology that vastly expands choices in every direction
but operates in the background. For example, personal IN THE FUTURE….

assistant services will more often recommend and make

dining choices for us.

AI bots will work together, sharing vast quantities

of data to optimize inventory, maximize delivery MY IN-HOME
SENSORS & APPS
efficiency, handle customer interactions, drive created a grocery list to restock
recommendations, and more. my fridge and pantry

The consumer experience, as a result, becomes

increasingly seamless and painless.

With millions of dollars invested and hundreds of

startup companies all racing to solve for things MY DIGITAL AGENT
shopped for the best prices on
we love and hate in the customer journey today, those items and purchased them
at my preferred retailers
the future marketplace will feel very different.
We expect a complex set of interconnected
platforms to emerge allowing for:
Diet and health services. Connecting our eating habits to
our medical well-being through doctor-prescribed diets and MY PERSONAL
CONCIERGE SERVICE
physical health routines. Technology will help us choose delivered the groceries right to
my fridge (and walked my dog)
“healthy for me” options—and make them easily available. while I was at work

NEXT WEEK I NEED

to save money, so I will pick
up my groceries from the
autonomous, self-driving locker
van in the parking lot at work

11 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

Community and social platforms. Consumers will be better
able to connect in physical and virtual communities around
their common food priorities. Whether it’s local and organic,
or gluten-free and paleo, technology will provide consumers
new options to commune with their “tribe” and personalize
their food identity.

“Mise en place” as a service. Consumers will have access

to products at different stages of preparation, from raw
ingredients, to chopped and diced, to hot and ready to eat.

Delivery and concierge services. Products come to

consumers where and when they need them, with an array
of value-added options—delivery curbside, to work, to front
door, or inside their pantries and refrigerators.

With a plethora of new models, the food

marketplace is truly changed already. Expect
the pace and number of changes to grow as
companies experiment to find their place in the
ecosystem and satisfy consumer demands.

AS STARTUPS FIND
THEIR SWEET SPOT
IN THE FOOD SPACE,
THEY WILL
CONTINUE TO
CHANGE THE WAY
CONSUMERS VIEW
AND INTERACT
WITH THEIR FOOD

12 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

WHAT IF YOUR CHOSEN FOOD
PURVEYOR ASKED YOU EVERY DAY:
WHAT DO YOU WANT FOR DINNER?
AND HOW DO YOU WANT IT?
HOW MUCH
work do I want to do?

DRIVE THRU IN HOME CHEF

DO THE
HOT BAR
WORK,
PLEASE HEAT AND EAT PICK UP PREPARED DELIVERY

FRESH MEAL KITS

LET’S
BOTH
CHIP IN
PREPARED INGREDIENTS

I WANT TO TRADITIONAL HOME GROCERY

GET MY CLICK & COLLECT
IN-STORE SHOPPING DELIVERY
HANDS
DIRTY
WHERE do I
want to get
my groceries?

I’LL COME LET’S MEET IN COME TO

TO YOU THE MIDDLE MY HOME

13 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

FUTURE OF FOOD:
CALL TO ACTION
INNOVATE Retail’s value proposition is transitioning from location convenience and
product curation to service-centric value. New business models will be
WITH NEW SERVICE essential to customer acquisition and retention that deliver competitive
AND BUSINESS
MODEL differentiation, customer lifetime value, and shareholder profits that
traditional models will be challenged to produce.

PIVOT With margin pressure mounting on commoditized categories, digital

(and physical) transformation will be essential to the food marketplace.
TO DIGITAL
Grocers need to create platforms that enable multi-sided networks,
PLATFORMS
supplier collaboration, and integrated services to capture revenue
outside traditional categories of goods. These platforms will need
to prototype and deliver new technology, business processes, and
ultimately customer experiences fast; in weeks, not months.

ELIMINATE Successful companies will start every strategic discussion with the
customer journey and work backwards to design the required changes.
ALL FORMS OF
CUSTOMER PAIN They will create differentiated experiences by tirelessly removing
customer pain in both physical and digital environments with a
combination of services and new in-store experiences.

CREATE The definition of convenience is no longer location based. Convenience

now demands an ecosystem of products, technologies, and services that
AN ECOSYSTEM
enable easy interactions. Partners will add, accelerate, and support new
AND EMBRACE
PARTNERS customer-facing and back-office capabilities – learning how to identify and
stand these relationships up quickly will be a highly valuable competency.

MODERNIZE To free up cash to invest, fend off unwelcomed acquisitions, and improve
asset leverage, traditional grocers need to modernize operations
E2E OPERATIONS from Supply Chain, to Field Ops, to IT. This is no easy task while also
reinventing customer value propositions and business model innovation.
Regardless, efforts will include automation, spend optimization, inventory
rationalization, and entire new technology and supplier delivery models.

14 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

NEW REALITY #2:

THE CHANGING
CONSUMER
Myriad factors have shaped an evolving, changed
consumer. From education rates and urbanization,
to increased health consciousness and consumer
technologies, consumers are more empowered
than ever to vote with their pocketbooks.
An overall shift by consumers toward health through food,
transparency, and 24/7 social access pushes food to the
forefront our cultural awareness. In the age of an increasingly
social consumer, trust is a competitive lynchpin in the battle
for food dollars.

Health-enhancing foods. Many consumers are trying to

change their diets, preferring healthy food. “Food with a
Function” was one of Google’s top five food related search
trends in 2016.18 And Euromonitor estimates that global sales
of healthy food products will reach $1 trillion in 2017.19 These
trends point to a continued rise in the connection between
food and our health. We expect food will become more highly
tailored to our unique heath needs and institutional health
organizations will look to food to help control disease and
modern pandemics. Health as the Holy Grail means consumers
are willing to pay more for healthier foods.20

Transparency and sustainability. More than half of consumers

(55 percent) are willing to pay more for products and
services from companies committed to positive social and
environmental justice.21 And nearly two-thirds of consumers “FOOD WITH A
agree that “large changes are needed in the way food is FUNCTION” WAS
produced and consumed.”22 Technology is catching up to ONE OF GOOGLE’S
consumer demands, allowing for more granular traceability TOP FIVE FOOD
into the food journey from source to consumption. In North RELATED SEARCH
America, more than $4 billion has already been invested in food TRENDS IN 2016
traceability technologies—and the number continues to grow

15 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

rapidly.23 Transparency may become a key non-price purchase
trigger: 9 in 10 consumers globally rate ingredient transparency as
important or very important for companies to address.24

Social consciousness. As younger generations come into their

purchasing power and start families, their preferences grow in
impact. Millennials now outnumber Baby Boomers (75.4 million
versus 74.9 million).25 Nearly 9 in 10 Millennials say they are
more likely to buy from companies that support solutions to
specific social issues.26 And overall, 73 percent of consumers
would actively switch to a brand with a social purpose.27 It is
no coincidence that the market trend toward “responsible
products” is growing, capturing 15 percent of US grocery sales
in 2013, representing 70 percent of all growth.28

Trust. One-third of US consumers rank trust as a top-three

purchase driver, for both private labels and big brands.29 6 in 10
consumers refuse to buy products and services from companies
they do not trust. With trust in a company increasingly becoming
table stakes, brands and retailers will need to look hard at their
value system and how it is communicated to the end customer.30
New, purpose-driven food companies begin with this value
system, giving them an advantage. For instance, one startup
has $183 million funding backing its inspirational mission to
“transform the global food system by inventing better ways to
make the foods we love, without compromise.”31

Tribal influencers. Nine out of 20 consumers trust a member

of their “tribe” more than a celebrity.32 With 500 million people
logging into Facebook daily33 and 175 million tweets every 24
hours,34 brands and retailers have to understand how they will
be invited to participate in the tribe and thereby influence
purchase decisions. 6 IN 10 CONSUMERS
The digital self. As AI personal assistants become more REFUSE TO BUY
prevalent, brands and retailers will be dealing more and more PRODUCTS AND
with a consumer’s digital self, versus the actual person. AI will SERVICES FROM
earn the right to make decisions for individual consumers, COMPANIES THEY
who will trust their assistants to take the decision-making DO NOT TRUST
burden off of them. The usual points of influence and
purchase levers may not apply when dealing with a bot.

16 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

 The technology effect. Rapid advances in technology will
continue to fuel consumers’ expectations that retailers provide
immediate and real-time response to their demands and needs.
Adoption rates of consumer technology increase each time new
options are introduced, which means the rate at which consumers
are adopting new technology is faster than ever before.

The shift becomes apparent when reviewing the evolution in

technology. The TV was introduced into homes in 1926. A few
decades later, in 1995, consumers were introduced to email.
Just four years later, on-demand streaming services hit the
consumer scene, followed by high-speed internet in 2000,
Facebook in 2004, the first iPhone in 2007, semi-live video
platforms with Snapchat in 2013, and the unveiling of the first
voice controlled intelligent home assistant—at the end of 2014.

CONSUMPTION SPREADS
FASTER TODAY
% of US households
100

80

60

40

20

1900 1915 1930 1945 1960 1975 1990 2005

KEY
Telephone Radio Clothes Washer Air Conditioning Computer
Electricity Refrigerator Clothes Dryer Dish Washer VCR
Auto Stove Color TV Microwave Cellphone
Internet
Source: https://hbr.org/2013/11/the-pace-of-technology-adoption-is-speeding-up

17 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

The exponential pace of adoption and rapid introduction cycles of
new consumer tech make trends hard to project, but the next 10
years will see the inventive adaptions of voice and video in food
commerce. Voice interaction with technology is fueling a dramatic
rise in voice assistants and “conversational commerce”. Voice
and video are already integrated in our daily lives; 55 percent of
smartphone users already rely on their voice assistant regularly to
handle everyday needs, and the number is growing. When we use
voice over text, we provide much more context and insight to our
needs and wants, which in turn allows retailers to not only tap into
consumers’ emotions but also allows them to understand
the emotions, creating a new bond between the parties.

In addition, the impacts of tech advances like augmented

reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) have yet to be truly felt.
Although, AR is also being used in a dramatic, imaginative
way by one Asian grocery retailer.35 They “opened 1,000 stores
in the blink of an eye” using the technology to create virtual
stores in physical locations such as landmarks and, brilliantly,
in front of competitor supermarkets. To visit one of the stores,
users physically travel to its “location”, pull up the app on
a mobile device, and look around through its screen at
the “store shelves”.

Innovations like AR and VR are essential for younger

consumers, who just flat out expect an intuitive, on
demand, always available experience. Accenture Strategy
research shows half of all consumers like going to stores
for technology-enabled experiences.36 This generation’s
increasing use of technology creates a tune-in-or miss-out
culture among some populations. Consumers demand a BRANDS AND
live, on-demand ecosystem, relying increasingly on
RETAILERS WILL
technology to tell their stories and understand their needs.
BE DEALING MORE
AND MORE WITH
A CONSUMER’S
DIGITAL SELF,
VERSUS THE
ACTUAL PERSON

18 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

As consumer demands move in new directions, so goes the FUTURE FOOD
market. They will increasingly vote with their trips, clicks PRODUCTION
and purchase occasions. In addition, food companies will be SYSTEM
dealing not only with human consumers, but with their online
personas and AI-as-customer. And they will do this against
the backdrop of the changing food marketplace, which only
further complicates forward looking predictions, but makes
PRODUCT DESIGN
the future exciting nonetheless.

NEW REALITY #3:

A REINVENTED FOOD RAW MATERIALS

PRODUCTION SYSTEM
As the competitive landscape shifts in tandem
with changing consumer desires, the food
PRODUCTION
production system must change to meet new PLATFORM
needs. It’s already under natural economic
pressures, struggling to keep pace with
consumption needs. To battle scarcity, react
to climate changes, and meet the consumption DISTRIBUTION
needs of a growing urban population, the food PLATFORM

production system will be rethought.

That means the what, where, why and how of food production
will be completely reinvented, and even stages of the food
production system will shift. For example, product design will FULFILLMENT
PLATFORM
become more creative using new materials to create food;
vertically managed portions of the system will convert to
platform business models to improve efficiency; and distances
between stages will decrease with technologically fueled step
changes in the economics of small scale growing methods. CONSUMPTION
PLATFORM
All of these changes point to a very different food production
system that evolves quickly to deliver on new production needs.

CONSUMER
DEMAND
19 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry
Applying technology to the production efficiency challenge
will help immensely. Population and per capita income
growth (as well as biofuel use) mean world demand for staple
crop products will grow by 60 percent from 2010 to 2050.37
Already, today technology is being applied to current and
future challenges, and food producers are working with new
ecosystem partners and platforms, employing innovative
methods to better manage resources. For instance, using
digital solutions and advanced data analytics improves yields,
cuts costs and increases crop resilience. Precision agriculture
uses digital solutions to improve monitoring and optimize
inputs, boosting profitability in some cases by $55 to $110
per acre.38 Partnerships like these are essential because
productivity gains are projected to account for 80 percent
of the crop output increase required to meet an increased
demand for food.

Add drones and robotics to the mix, and the industry can
further improve productivity as well as reduce energy
intensity. Smart agriculture solutions will likely boost yields
by 30 percent and potentially generate $2 billion in additional
revenue to companies.39

Food production can also become more efficient by reducing

waste; one-third of global food production—2.9 trillion pounds SMART
of food40—is lost in the agricultural chain. In the United States AGRICULTURE
alone, 31 to 40 percent of post-harvest food supply is lost SOLUTIONS WILL
or wasted, at a cost of $160 billion annually. Technology will LIKELY BOOST
help, but truly moving the needle and eliminating waste will YIELDS BY 30
also involve educating consumers on everything from eating PERCENT AND
“ugly fruit” to better utilizing “use by” dates. As more food POTENTIALLY
producers deploy circular, sustainable business models such GENERATE $2
as food sharing platforms and upcycling, the innovations in BILLION IN
lessening food waste will continue to improve efficiency. ADDITIONAL
REVENUE TO
COMPANIES

20 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

Another trend tells us that by 2050, global protein demand
will increase by 80 percent over today’s levels, and traditional
advancements won’t be up to the yield challenge. Instead, the
food base will change and broaden—genetically, biologically
or through an expanded set of ingredients.41 Meal replacement
innovation is burgeoning also, today, roughly 17 percent of US
consumers42 report using meal-replacement beverages
in the past year.

As stated above, the future of the food production system

will look different in the next 10-20 years.

Supply and demand will be closer together. Consumers

increasingly want local food, but current methods cannot
support the future production demands. Trends like urban
farming brings farms closer to population centers, and
experiments in “in-store farming” and local manufacturing
of products are expected to grow quickly. Today, 200
million urban farmers supply food to 700 million people,
approximately 12 percent of the world’s population,43
which will grow significantly.

Entirely new sources of food. Alternative proteins such as

peas, yeast, insects and algae offer substantial efficiency
gains over animal-based ingredients. Meat and dairy products
currently require large inputs of grain and other resources
for relatively little caloric gain. In the US, animals consume
95 percent of oats produced and 80 percent of corn.44 The
production cycle energy runs too high. For example, a single
chicken egg has an energy efficiency ratio of 39:1—meaning
39 units of energy are required to provide one unit of food
energy output.45 Researchers are looking at alternative
methods of food designs, such as using yeast bacteria to
GLOBAL PROTEIN
create products that feel, cook and taste like eggs but use
DEMAND WILL
less production cycle energy. Look for the pace of innovation
INCREASE BY 80%
in all categories to quicken, as the market gets more funding
OVER TODAY’S
and need grows.
LEVELS, BY 2050

21 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

Digitization of food. Digital trends will have a tremendous
impact on how food is produced. The “digitization” of plants
is the process of measuring, calculating, deconstructing,
and storing the optimal micro-needs of a plant in a digital
medium which are then used to replicate those conditions to
control production. For example, if we can capture the unique
DNA, water/food/light requirements, disease resistance,
and corresponding yield of a crop, we can transmit, study,
optimize, and replicate that same yield every time. We will
remove uncertainty from growing food, managing the inputs
to maximize yield. Leveraging analytics and machine learning
to harness the large amounts of data collected from remote
farming sensors will unlock opportunities to automate
functions that drive higher yields. These trends, combined
with trends in urban farming, will dramatically improve the
efficiency of growing food in small places.

Digital technology is helping the food industry reinvent the

where, why and how of food production. Food producers will
need to venture in new directions to manage the growing
needs and worsening conditions for current crops.

22 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

A BRIGHT
FUTURE
FOR FOOD
THE FUTURE OF FOOD IS FAST, FRESH,
AND REQUIRES A NEW SET OF ANSWERS
FOR A NEW SET OF QUESTIONS.
A battle for the food marketplace has begun, with
consumers as the ultimate winners. Changes in
consumer desires are coming fast, requiring nimble
companies and platforms to support innovation. And
there will be seismic changes in the food production
system. It will look very little like it does today.

The good news is—the food industry is already rising

to these challenges. We have some road to travel—and
a host of innovations to deliver along the way—but
in the end, consumers will benefit. A steady, reliable,
varied food supply is well within our reach—aided by
technologies of all sorts—within the decades to come.

23 | THE FUTURE OF FOOD: New realities for the industry

JOIN THE CONVERSATION
@AccentureStrat

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CONTACT THE AUTHORS

Steven Pinder
[email protected]

Pat Walsh
[email protected]

Michele Orndorff
[email protected]

Erica Milton
[email protected]

Jenna Trescott
[email protected]
 NOTES
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ABOUT ACCENTURE ABOUT FOOD MARKETING
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