What The Future

Food

Obesity drugs, private-label foods and shifting social patterns are disrupting America’s food landscape. What the Future lays out how food makers to packaging companies to appliance makers can thrive in these changes.

17 October 2024

Foresight

Multiple shifts are converging to reshape America’s food industry in the coming decade, and companies and brands across the food chain need to get ahead of the changes. As GLP-1 drugs gain traction for obesity treatments, food companies will need to adjust to people’s changing tastes and food preferences. With a growing global population, food manufacturers to farmers need to meet rising demand for protein, including meat alternatives. Grocers are seeking new ways to differentiate beyond price with private-label brands. Institutions and policymakers are flexing new influence to making our food systems healthier. And bars and restaurants are evolving with consumers as they change how, when and where they gather and celebrate moments big and small away from home.

Our What the Future: Food issue serves up exclusive consumer polling and expert analysis from leaders and change-makers from Diageo, Cargill, TreeHouse Foods, Morningstar and the New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy explaining these trends and tensions and their implications for the future.

This must-read issue offers insights from our exclusive consumer poll, as well as brand insights from Ipsos experts. What the Future: Food is for grocery retailers, restaurateurs, institutional food service providers, pharmaceutical companies, policymakers shaping nutrition and sustainability guidelines, packaging suppliers responding to clean label demands, farmers and agricultural companies, appliance makers catering to new cooking and eating habits, and brands and agencies tracking where food trends go viral.

For full results, please refer to the annotated questionnaire or the Ipsos What the Future: Food Survey data tables

Letter from the Editor

How obesity drugs, politics and climate change are shaping the future of food

Matt Carmichael, What the Future editor, head of the Ipsos Trends & Foresight Lab

Shifts

Shifts: Personalized nutrition, food politics and regenerative architecture

Trevor Sudano Principal, Ipsos Strategy3

Interviews & Features

How institutions and policy can lead to healthier, more sustainable food Kate MacKenzie, executive director of New York City Mayor’s Office of Food Policy
How food companies can meet diners’ needs everywhere Brand insights from Ipsos’ Anne Hunter
Why diverse approaches and collaboration are vital for future protein needs Florian Schattenmann, chief technology officer, Cargill
How social listening can inform better research and development Brand insights from Ipsos’ Joe Lonek
Why GLP-1 drugs’ impact on food will be more evolution than revolution Erin Lash, director, consumer equity research, Morningstar Research
How brands can get more context about the impact of weight-loss drugs Brand insights from Ipsos’ Alexandra Stiver
How private-label brands are redefining value for food consumers and retailers Amit Philip, chief strategy and growth officer, TreeHouse Foods
How brands can innovate better the first time as competition heats up Brand insights from Ipsos’ Alyson Heffernan
Which social shifts are changing how we’ll eat, drink and celebrate Efrain Rosario, global head of futures and shopper planning for Diageo
More Americans are ‘sober-curious.’ Marketers should understand why. Brand insights from Ipsos’ Sam Agarwal
Future Jobs to Be Done Brand insights from Ipsos’ Matt Palmer