Healthy foods
For many of the recent decades, large food and beverage companies have low-risk and consistent-stable success. However, the rise of GLP-1 drugs, coupled with a growing displacement to values-based markets, has disturbed this long-term stability and faith in traditional brands and products.
According to BCG, “the overall increase in food and beverage market decreased to 2.1% in 2024 (on average 5% over the past three years), below 2.9% of inflation ((CPG companies need a new recipe as consumers are looking for healthier choices).
The food and beverage companies that will succeed are not those clinging to Legacy Playbooks. They are exaggerations that double consumer development and utilizing AI’s power and mechanical learning to decode real demand guides. By investing in smarter data strategies, these companies do not only react to trends, they provide them. This means to place more relevant, strategic products on the shelves faster and quickly adjusting the ever -changing consumer behavior tides. In a market-defined market, from GLP-1 to the market driven by value, flexibility and insight will separate leaders from the delayed.
How did we get here
The reference to the 2025 trends of Datassential mentions the cost as the third decisive factor leading consumer food markets. Product quality (56%) and great taste (52%) came to the top (Datassential’s 2025 Food Report). When cost is the important point of sale for large CPGs, these data indicate that consumers prioritize established products that can provide functionality and taste. Even with over 30% of each generation (Gen-Z, Millennials, Gen-X and Boomers) by choosing to buy more brand brand products as prices are rising this year, according to recent Prosper Insights & Analytics Research, large CPGs have almost the same fort in the market.
Prosper – As a result of price increases, do one of the following
The appointment of Robert F. Kennedy, younger as head of the US Department of Health and Human Services has aggravated this turmoil, as his declared policies include banning Red paint no. 40 and the overall skepticism of highly processed foods. Some of the proposed bans of ingredients, if adopted, will affect large food and beverage companies much more than newly established businesses. This can largely be attributed to the investment of their supply chain, mainly to CAPEX procedures for existing compositions, as well as their focus on expanding the driving margin through long -term markets.
Ironically, just as the market requires more innovation, many of the big companies have closed their innovation departments and stopped investing in new brands. In March, General Mills announced The fact that it closed the G-Works Innovation, responsible for the incubation and development of new brands and the cessation of investments in Venture Investments and AB INBEV’s ZX Ventures “intimidated by internal initiatives of buildings and exploratory companies”. Even bands that have not been removed from building and launching new products often see failures of over 70% after spending three to five years in growth with tens of millions of dollars invested in their efforts. This shows that they do not monitor their consumer requirements when the requirements are at their highest.
In the meantime, the multiplication of omnichannel in all industries means that CPG companies no longer compete with each other. They compete against everyone, from the Tiktok store to foreign brands sinking into their customers’ algorithms. (2024 Incisiv State of the Indurinal Innovation in Retail Report;
“The status quo -based product development does not serve today’s grocery shopping,” says Chaz Flexman, CEO and co -founder of Starday Foods. “With the evolution of the science of data and the rich factors of buyers and buyers that retailers have, there are smarter ways to understand the gap in the shelves and products that will meet specific requirements as they emerge – and not long enough.”
Where do we go from here?
The days of the general products that serve every consumer have long since passed – now we know that health is personal and what we put in our body is directly affecting this. The rise of low Fodmap diet, the ever -present nature of the protein in seemingly each category or the huge percentage of children diagnosed with top 9 allergies.
When consumers try to discover products or solutions to respond to their eating habits, more often than they do not convert to the internet into Tiktok, Instagram or Reddit in the hope of discovering products or recipes that can help provide what they need. Today, genetic AI can act as a leverage, as if it can develop 10,000 employees in all consumer knowledge – reading, labeling and trying to understand the intention behind the content created by the user (UGC) throughout the wide range of channels where this demand is expressed.
Starday FoodsThe Food Innovation Company, based on AI, which identifies the unfulfilled needs of consumers and the corresponding product opportunities, proves this in action. With plenty of consumer data and utilizing mechanical learning, Starday can accelerate the growth cycles that have taken historical years.
A primary example is Starday’s protein protein, all day long, which solves multiple problems. Starday data are intersecting the tendencies of desires for both the most vagan protein options and cleaner. In addition, people want ease and nutrition, but they also want variety and excitement. These ideas have led Starday to make a chickpeas -based overlap all day – because it is a pure, vegan alternative that is delivered in an easy form to weave in the life of a consumer, as well as one that feels a novel and adds a variety to a diet, and does not require huge effort. All day long, she is now on the top for shopping sales and the category speed in the Sprouts nationally.
The future of AI + CPG product development
CPG companies should now embrace the fact that the use of traditional methodologies for product development and development will not give them the scale or information about what they need to understand the needs of consumers. The software allows for a powerful and new data -based frame to help CPGs succeed. And yet, the AI software itself cannot be the only answer.
“Organic growth is more difficult than ever – R&D circles are long and expensive, while consumer behavior is evolving faster than most CPG groups can keep up,” Flexman said. “At Starday, we believe that consumer mentality must come first, making data-based decisions, we can help to start a new era of innovation CPG-by developing the products that consumers really need.
