When we talk about the future of food, the focus is often put on improving how we grow food or the types of products that should reach the consumer. However, if what we eat is changing, how we organise the “distribution” of food, from farm to fork, is also evolving fast.

The food supply chain is often ignored beyond some discussions on the impact of transportation on climate (very limited compared to the weight of agriculture), packaging and waste. And even on these two points, much attention is given to consumer choices while most of the change needs to happen upstream. Consider this figure: 40% of all food is never eaten and never leaves the farm or the factory (15% never leave the farm in the UK, and 16% in the US).

Welcome to DigitalFoodLab’s Newsletter! I’m Matthieu Vincent, co-founder of DigitalFoodLab, an innovation strategy consultancy specialising in the future of agriculture and food. Each week, I bring you a curated selection of news and my insights on the trends shaping the future of these industries. Curious to take it further? Let’s connect t¨o explore how you can join the 60+ leading companies we’ve helped navigate innovation ecosystems and turn opportunities into actionable strategies.

To separate it from the rest of the value chain, we have dedicated a whole part of our recently published report on the trends shaping the future of food to the Smart Supply Chain. Two underlying forces are driving this megatrend:

• The fight against waste to mitigate the food industry on climate change (and answer questions on the use of plastic packaging and its own impact).
• A push for more digitisation coming from the desire for more standardisation and higher quality standards from CPG companies and supply chains all around the world.

As you can see in DigitalFoodLab’s trends curve above, we have mapped five trends for 2025, one less than last year, as we have removed reusable packaging. Already facing disillusion, the category has “left” the scope of disruptive innovation due to a combined:

• Lack of sufficiently disruptive value proposition: as regulations to ban single-use plastics have been implemented, notably in Europe, large foodservice companies have developed internal solutions rather than relying on startups.
• Shifting moods on restrictions and climate goals, which is well illustrated by the recent “back to plastics” Trump executive order, which bans paper straws from government offices.

🧑‍🍳 Digital restaurant: a very mature category which comprises all the tools and services that help restaurants to digitise, from their relationship to the consumer (online bookings, online operations with players such as Flipdish) to the management of the kitchen (recipes, stocks,…) to payment services (Toast).

♻️ Food waste management with solutions to minimise the quantity of food waste throughout the food supply chain, from farm to restaurant (with connected bins such as Winnow) to grocery stores (with order management tools like Afresh).

☁️ Digital Supply Chain: after a phase of focus on traceability and transparency solutions focused on using blockchain solutions, this ecosystem is “re-emerging”. Now, the main focus is on tools that help large food companies map and understand their direct and indirect emissions and hence are linked to carbon credits.

📦 Smart Packaging: solutions that reduce waste, improve product shelf life, protect produce against diseases, and promote a clean way to create food packaging with less plastic. One key category is using biodegradable and edible sprays applied on fresh produce to increase their shelf-life (such as Apeel).

📱B2B Marketplaces, or new supply players, are startups that use digital technologies to offer an alternative ordering service for restaurants or retailers. This ecosystem is developing in parallel but with stark differences in developed economies, where the focus is on disintermediation, and in developing ones, where it is more about setting up an infrastructure and a way to supply the millions of corner shops.

For all players on the food supply chain, considering how their supply chain will shift is not optional. From climate impact to regulatory pressure and consumer expectations, upgrading the supply chains while making them more resilient is now a strategic necessity. Even more than in other categories, this is not about waiting for good solutions to be developed: it is key to experiment and to co-construct with innovators the solutions that are best suited for each company’s supply chain. Those who fail to adapt risk falling behind in an increasingly competitive and transparent food system.