New product development teams are facing growing pressure from multiple directions, driven by fast-paced consumer trends and an ever-shifting regulatory environment.
And while the pressure is on to turnaround the ‘next big thing’, there is only so much room for new SKUs. Therefore, ensuring your new launch really is ‘the hottest ticket in town’ has never been more vital.
At the same time, U-turns, amendments and varied rules across geographies, combined with political unrest are further layering on complexity.
To help manufacturers navigate these turbulent times, last week saw Food Manufacture and TraceGains team up to deliver a roundtable for a select group of industry stakeholders. The session brought together experts to cover topics such as key trends and new regulation, as well as providing delegates with a space to share their own experiences and frustrations.
One theme that came up repeatedly across almost every topic was the importance of connected trusted data across the supply chain – a subject that TraceGains has been championing for many years.
Whether the discussion was around reformulation, supplier onboarding, allergen management, sustainability claims or responding to consumer trends, most attendees said access to accurate supplier and product data was becoming ever critical.
Here are the key takeaways from the day...
NPD for the modern consumer
Kicking off the roundtable, Navigating Modern NPD: Trends, Complexity & Data, Nia Salisbury, category director from Levercliff, took delegates through some of the key asks of today’s consumers when it comes to innovation.
In her introduction, she called out data as a key starting point for innovation: “A true piece of innovation has an objective; it needs to offer a solution. This is where data comes in, in really understanding your consumer.”
However, as Salisbury pointed out, while data is vital in understanding what’s next, sometimes the most useful insights can be found in less obvious places.
“Consumers don’t often know what they want, but they are very good at telling you want they don’t want,” she explained, indicating the usefulness of critical reviews and complaints as a way to generate new ideas.
Identify what consumers don’t like, what are those tensions, what niggles do they have with day-to-day products they use?
Nia Salisbury, category director, Levercliff
Levercliff’s Consumer Trackers are based on identifying these tensions and “asking the right questions” and Salisbury’s session focused on the results of its recent polling.
Unsurprisingly, health is a major focus, with Levercliff data showing 45% of consumers are keen for manufacturers to focus NPD on healthier products – an uptick of three percentage points since 2025.
This is also reflected in what consumers are looking for when shopping, particularly among younger consumers.
These shoppers (18-34) also more engaged with function, specifically citing high protein, low fat and low calorie as favourable qualities. Vitamins, immunity and energy boosting were also flagged by Salisbury as key emerging areas of interest among Gen Z and Millennials.
When it comes to older consumers (55+), natural, less processed products are proving to be most attractive; with lower or no sugar food and drink very popular.
While health is championing new product development, indulgence continues to be important. For half of consumers this equates to ‘rich tasting’, with ‘novelty’ over indexing with a younger audience.
Indulgence is increasingly being regarded as a ‘me time’ reward, with 39% indulging to reward themselves and 30% doing so solo. This potentially indicates an opportunity for single portioned indulgence snacks which could, at the same time, resonate with the move towards smaller portions driven by GLP-1.
In general, shoppers are rewarding themselves with higher quality items, mostly seeking out ‘a better taste’.
Moreover, natural, less processed credentials are being increasingly linked to premium products, jumping up several percentage points since last year.
Convenience remains a key priority for consumers too, with shoppers still drawn to categories traditionally associated with this attribute, such as chilled ready meals and breakfast cereals.
This desire for convenience alongside cost-conscious consumers has also driven purchases for air fryers, with 66% of consumers owning one vs 90% with microwaves. Smaller households are also driving demand for space-saving appliances, while reducing cooking confidence among consumers has also propelled easy meal prep. As a consequence, we’re now seeing more new products with instructions for air fryers.
Levercliff data shows that 80% of users are now using their air fryer multiple times a week.
But it’s not just appliances that are changing, AI is also increasingly being used to help consumers choose products with 44% tapping into the likes of ChatGPT for recipe ideas, and 21% and 20% using it for product and brand recommendations, respectively.
Incidentally, ‘the brand’ is losing its historical link to ‘higher quality’, having dropped 8% since 2025 as a quality cue, according to Levercliff. This suggests that those operating in non-private label markets could be doing more to push premium attributes.
Meanwhile, 30% of consumers associate own label with higher quality, driven by retail-own ranges such as Taste the Difference and Finest etc.
Moving closer to the EU
Alongside fast-changing trends, the roundtable also offered delegates an expert overview of key regulatory events such as SPS, led by Ed Allen, head of regulatory affairs at Ashbury.
While divergence between GB and the EU has been slowly progressing since December 2020, the UK Government is now looking to realign to EU law, based on this list of legislation.
The aim is to ease trade between the two trade blocs as the growing regulatory burden has become more evident.
Changes are also coming as interest around alternative protein and novel foods increases. However, regulatory approval processes remain unclear and continue to evolve; with divergence on legislation affecting Precision Breeding and GMOs which could subsequently impact multi-market suitability.
CODEX has also proposed a global standard for precautionary allergen labelling (PAL), which the Food Standards Agency will be supporting in July 2026. The Netherlands have already enacted new legislation making PAL mandatory.
In his talk, Allen noted that sustainable agricultural processes will consequently increase risk of cross-contamination earlier in the supply chain. He also pointed to challenges arising in the face of a lack of global harmony, with different major allergens across different countries and varied defined reference doses.
He suggested next steps for businesses should be to identify products containing high risk agricultural ingredients, conduct risk assessments for identified supply chain risks, review analytical testing plans to include testing regimes for high-risk ingredients, and review supplier questionnaires for robust mitigation plans.
One of TraceGains key initiatives is to bring industry together at events like this, to help drive change.
Bal Chand, European marketing manager, TraceGains
Allen also flagged the upcoming EmpCo rules. The EU’s Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive applies from 27 September 2026 and will enforce stringent bands around generic, unverified green claims.
The directive aims to give consumers better information at the point of sale on the durability and reparability of goods and the consumer’s legal guarantee rights. It will also strengthen consumer protection rules against greenwashing and early obsolescence practices.
It amends two existing consumer law directives: the Consumer Rights Directive and the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.
Businesses will need to review the green claims used across their organisation to consumer communications, including any public facing reports. They should also engage with their procurement, regulatory and scientific affairs, and sustainability teams; and collaborate with suppliers to ensure data availability and transparency.
Allen noted that a data-driven process will need to be built to determine the compliance of green claims; and due diligence dossiers maintained, including records and communications for audit and/or enforcement challenges.
Challenges raised by roundtable
Among the challenges raised by delegates during the open discussion, many noted that innovation is being hampered not just by regulation, but also by risk aversion, approval processes, and cost pressures.
Development teams are often very good at identifying innovative ingredients but getting new suppliers approved can be difficult and slow. As food innovation expert Lucy Wager, who chaired the session, explained: this can lead to businesses reverting to the suppliers they already know.
“That might mean you miss new innovative ingredients that can solve a problem for you,” she elaborated.
There’s a pressure to not use new suppliers because you haven’t always got time to set them up and that can really stifle innovation.
Lucy Wager, food innovation and product development consultant
While we also talk about the challenges of managing vast swathes of data, one delegate noted that sometimes for smaller suppliers there is a lack of data to back up ‘gut instinct’ or emerging trends.
Many agreed, explaining that retailers and customers often want extensive historical data before they take risks – and even after all that, they can sometimes still decide to play it safe and default to ‘proven’ products.
Cost too was identified as big pressure on firms and a main barrier to innovation and responsible sourcing.
Even when businesses understand the benefits of higher quality or more sustainable ingredients, commercial teams and customers will often focus on price. This can result in some decisions being far too short-term.
Concerns were also brought up around new talent, with delegates expressing fears over the axing of food A-level and the potential for the GCSE to be impacted following new proposals.
The table agreed that technology not only has the power to transform the way in which they work but also give the sector a new lease of life.
“They [new entrants] get most frustrated about admin and the spec and all the ingredient stuff we have to do...That is exactly the stuff that AI has built to help with.”
Yet many businesses still rely on manual processes such as Excel and SharePoint, creating inefficiencies, additional workload; and arguably coming across as an outdated, dull prospect for new generations.
Investment in modern technology is often difficult to secure because the pressure on teams isn’t always recognised; especially across departments which seemingly appear to be ‘coping fine without’.
Overall, the roundtable agreed a drastic modernisation of NPD is needed to keep pace with the modern world, whether that’s compliance, innovation or simply to future-proof the sector.
Board members need to pay attention to the calls of their NPD teams and start pushing their processes into the modern world or risk becoming irrelevant.
Commenting on the day, Bal Chand, European marketing manager at TraceGains, who co-hosted the session, said: “It was fantastic to bring together NPD, technical, regulatory and innovation leaders for such an open discussion.
“While the topics ranged from changing consumer trends and reformulation to regulatory change and supply chain transparency, the same underlying theme continued to emerge. The industry doesn’t lack ideas, expertise or ambition. What many teams are struggling with is the ability to respond quickly enough.
“We’re asking teams to move faster, manage more complexity and deliver more innovation than ever before, yet many are still working with processes designed for a different era. The industry’s biggest challenge isn’t a lack of ideas or expertise; it’s the operational friction that prevents talented people from focusing on innovation.
“If we want to accelerate product development, improve agility and make food and beverage an even more attractive industry for future talent, we need to make it easier for people to do their best work.”
