New TraceGains roundtable findings reveal F&B teams face growing innovation pressure as complexity outpaces processes

TraceGains, the leading provider of compliance, quality, and innovation solutions for the food and beverage (F&B) industry, has released new insights from a series of executive roundtable discussions, revealing that product development teams across Europe are under mounting pressure to deliver innovation faster while managing increasingly complex sourcing, compliance and cross-functional workflows.

The findings emerged from four peer-led roundtable sessions, held during the recent Food Matters Live 2026 event. The discussion was facilitated by Amy Wilkinson, founder of Fearless Foodies and a food industry leadership specialist with more than 20 years’ experience spanning NPD, marketing, commercial, consumer insight and retailer-facing roles in food, FMCG and grocery retail. Conducted under Chatham House Rules, the discussions brought together senior leaders from new product development (NPD), technical, packaging and operations functions to explore the operational realities shaping food and beverage innovation today.

“Despite differences in company size, category and organizational structure, participants consistently highlighted the same underlying challenge,” said Amy. “Innovation itself is not the problem. Rather, the greatest obstacles arise between teams, systems and processes as products move from concept through sourcing, development, compliance and launch.

“Across every session, participants demonstrated a remarkable level of clarity about the challenges they face. These are experienced professionals who know exactly where friction exists and what better looks like,” she said. “The opportunity now is to create the alignment, visibility and ways of working that allow teams to move faster without increasing risk.”

Key themes across Europe

Bal Chand, Commercial GTM & Marketing Leader with TraceGains, said that consistent messages revealed in the roundtables identified six key recurring themes affecting food and beverage organizations across Europe.

Cross-functional misalignment is creating costly delays: “Participants repeatedly pointed to project handoffs as the point where initiatives slow down or require rework,” he said. “Teams often work from different versions of information, resulting in late-stage corrections, approval bottlenecks and avoidable delays. Packaging and artwork development were frequently cited as significant pressure points.”

Data exists, but trust in it remains a challenge: “While businesses have access to growing volumes of supplier, ingredient, specification and compliance data, participants reported that information is often fragmented across systems and functions. This lack of visibility leads to duplicated work, manual verification and slower decision-making,” he said.

Speed-to-market expectations continue to accelerate: “Retailers, consumers and trend cycles are compressing development timelines. Participants noted that organizations are increasingly expected to react within weeks rather than months, creating pressure throughout the product development process,” said Bal. “Many also highlighted the need for earlier validation of sourcing, compliance and commercial viability to avoid costly surprises later in development.”

AI is growing, but data foundations matter: “Interest in artificial intelligence was strong across all sessions, with many businesses actively exploring AI-powered solutions,” he said. “However, participants consistently stressed that AI can only deliver value when built on accurate, connected and trusted data. Without that foundation, organizations risk amplifying existing inefficiencies rather than eliminating them.”

Investment decisions and operational realities are often disconnected: “Many attendees described challenges in securing support for process improvement and digital transformation initiatives,” said Bal. “Participants noted that the complexity of modern NPD, supplier management and compliance processes is not always fully visible at leadership level, making it harder to prioritize investment in enabling technologies. One participant with significant experience in a different sector observed that the F&B industry is decades behind in terms of tech adoption.”

Leaner teams are managing more complexity than ever before. “New regulations, sustainability requirements, packaging mandates and supply chain demands continue to expand the scope of NPD and technical roles,” he said. “At the same time, organizations are being asked to do more with fewer resources, increasing reliance on manual coordination and institutional knowledge.”

For ingredient sourcing and procurement professionals, one of the clearest messages was the growing importance of connected supplier and ingredient data. Participants highlighted supplier onboarding, specification management and ingredient information visibility as critical factors influencing innovation speed, compliance readiness and launch readiness.

“Many described situations where commercial viability, sourcing constraints or compliance requirements became apparent only late in the development process, creating unnecessary delays and rework,” added Amy. “These findings suggest that organizations able to connect supplier, formulation, specification and compliance workflows are increasingly positioned to make faster, more informed decisions while reducing operational risk.”

While the roundtable discussions highlighted significant challenges, they also revealed optimism about the industry's ability to adapt. Participants agreed that the technologies and approaches needed to address many of these issues already exist; the priority now is creating stronger connections between teams, processes and data so that decisions can be made earlier, collaboration becomes easier and innovation can move forward with greater confidence.

“The conversations reinforced what we hear every day from food and beverage manufacturers around the world,” said Bal. “Innovation teams aren’t struggling because they lack ideas or expertise. They are navigating unprecedented complexity across sourcing, compliance, packaging and product development. By creating a connected foundation for supplier and product data, organizations can reduce friction, improve visibility and empower teams to innovate at the speed the market now demands.”

The full report on the roundtable findings, Winning the Shelf: Managing NPD Complexity from Source to Shelf, explores the operational realities facing today’s food and beverage manufacturers and provides insight into the systems, processes and leadership approaches that can help organizations thrive in an increasingly complex innovation environment. Download your free copy now, at tracegains.com/resource/what-food-beverage-leaders-say-winning-the-shelf/

Bron: TraceGains - partner FoodPro Network