Food tech is shifting fast: some technologies and business models are accelerating while others are retreating. Here are five trends showing growth or strong potential, and five areas that are declining or being rethought.
Food tech trends rising
AI in R&D
AI is moving from a supporting tool to a connective intelligence across R&D data sets, tying ingredients, consumer insight, formulations, sensory results and scientific literature to improve decisions throughout the innovation process. Ewa Granosik of Bright Green Partners says competitive advantage in the next two to three years will come from how firms structure knowledge and integrate AI into decision-making. Platforms used by companies such as NotCo, IFT and Turing Labs are already advancing in this direction, and majors like Nestlé are embedding machine learning and predictive analytics into R&D workflows.
Plant-based meat
Sales of plant-based meat and seafood substitutes grew by 8.1% between 2024 and 2025, according to Euromonitor International. Higher conventional meat prices, the removal of weaker products and a broader health positioning are factors behind the recovery. Brands including This, Beyond Meat and Moving Mountains are moving away from pure meat mimicry toward whole-food approaches, emphasising fibre, protein, taste and value.
Clean-label reformulation
Clean label has become a “technology mandate” as companies reformulate portfolios at pace, for example shifting from artificial to natural colours in the US. This trend creates opportunities in sweetening systems, natural colours, texture, preservatives, flavour masking and processing technologies that simplify labels without sacrificing taste, appearance, shelf life or cost.
Demand for nutrient density
Demand for nutrient-dense products rich in protein and fibre continues to grow, a trend accelerated by the popularity of GLP-1s. Manufacturers are developing beverages and foods combining protein, fibre, hydration and gut-health benefits. Bright Green Partners expects “nutrient density” to increasingly influence mainstream formulation beyond sports nutrition and weight-management niches.
Precision-bred crops (potential to grow)
The EU has introduced a two-tier regulatory system for gene-edited crops developed by new genomic techniques (NGTs). NGT-1 crops — those with limited changes that could have occurred via conventional breeding and containing no genetic material outside the conventional gene pool — will be regulated like conventional plants; more complex NGT-2s will remain under existing GMO rules. The framework does not apply until July 2028, but Bright Green Partners says the next two to three years could see precision breeding move much closer to mainstream food and ingredient supply chains because it offers a faster route to economically valuable traits such as pest resilience and improved composition.
Food tech trends declining
Mass-market cultivated meat
Investment in cultivated meat fell sharply: companies raised $73.9m (€66m) from investors in 2025, compared with $144m (€128.7m) in 2024, says The Good Food Institute. Despite technical and regulatory progress, production efficiency, scale, profitability and consumer acceptance remain significant challenges, and regulation continues to be a bottleneck. “Cultivated meat is not disappearing, but expectations are shifting from rapid mass-market disruption toward narrower applications and commercialisation strategies with clearer near-term economics,” Granosik says.
Vertical farming at commodity scale
Several high-profile vertical-farming companies have failed, including Infarm, Agricool and Jones Food Company. The economics of using costly indoor infrastructure to compete with conventional agriculture remain challenging: recent research highlights energy use, labour and capital expenditure as major constraints. Vertical farming persists where higher costs can be justified (leafy greens and other high‑value produce), but “the vision of vertical farms replacing conventional production of commodity crops is fading,” Granosik says.
Dedicated alt-protein facilities
Dedicated alternative-protein manufacturing facilities are being de-emphasised as some become underutilised or uneconomic. Scale-ups increasingly rely on third‑party industrial capacity, contract manufacturing, shared infrastructure and repurposed assets rather than committing to bespoke plants. Bright Green Partners notes that dedicated facilities still make sense where utilisation and demand are proven, so the shift is in the default scale-up model rather than in manufacturing investment per se.
Insect-protein megafarms
Industrial-scale insect farms face steep headwinds. Ventures such as Ÿnsect, ENORM and the UK restaurant Yum Bug have closed, consumers remain resistant, and high capital requirements, unit economics, energy intensity and uncertain end-market demand make large-scale expansion difficult. “The industrial megafarm model looks increasingly difficult to justify,” Granosik says.
Vague sustainability claims
Vague sustainability claims are in retreat, in part because of the EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition directive (EmpCo), which prevents companies from making unsupported claims. Thijs Geijer of ING Bank says, “It might appear that companies are more inclined to greenhush, but that could very well be reaction to new regulation.” Bright Green Partners adds that sustainability itself is not declining; what is declining is companies’ freedom to use sustainability as a vague, unquantified marketing claim. Food tech propositions will need specific or measurable consumer or supply-chain value to comply.
