The food and beverage industry, also famously known as one of the most significant marketplaces of the twenty-first century, has indeed come into its own in the previous few decades. The last ten years have been particularly notable for the food and beverage advanced analytics companies, as they underwent a slew of changes resulting from shifting customer needs and tremendous innovation. The fast growth in the number of issues facing the food and beverage sector is noteworthy. Although displaying a respectable, excessive development rate, this consumer-driven, multibillion-dollar business vertical industry is beset by many challenges.
There has undoubtedly been a drastic change in the public’s perception of the food and beverage sector. People are becoming more health-conscious, preferring fat-free and sugar-free items, and are generally more motivated to maintain good health.
The fact that food goods are assessed not just on their quality but also on their nutritional composition lends credence to this school of thinking. This dynamic thought process has compelled food manufacturers to make significant modifications to their current manufacturing processes to address some of the market’s most pressing issues effectively.
Here are a few current challenges in the food and beverage industry:
- Food Fraud: A Global Problem
Food fraud isn’t a new issue, but it’s getting a lot of attention lately. The olive oil crisis of the 1980s, the milk adulteration scandal of 2008, and the horsemeat hoax of 2013 all exposed worldwide food networks to fraud and organized crime. Food fraud is a global issue that influences the local agri-food industry, consumer health, and consumer confidence. Stakeholders will benefit from new data-sharing and forecasting approaches, and there will be a need to share information, most of which is freely available.
Food fraud and a lack of traceability are both direct results of the production problem. Food fraud cases are unavoidable and, unfortunately, on the rise because there is such a high demand combined with a scarcity of supply.
For example, there is ten times more olive oil produced in Italy than the country can produce.
- Rise of the Meat-free and Veganism Movements
People’s eating habits are changing as a result of their rising concern for animals. The demand for meat and other goods has decreased significantly as more customers seek vegetarian and vegan alternatives, creating one of the biggest problems in the food and beverage sector. People choose to buy items with labels like “cruelty-free” because social platforms and internet information portals raise awareness about animal mistreatment and this has resulted in creating the biggest 2021 food trends ever.
- Consumers are Becoming More Health-conscious
Food-related diseases are becoming more common, prompting consumers to make significant dietary and lifestyle adjustments, making them more health-conscious than ever. Automatically, one’s thoughts are drawn to meals that do not have additional preservatives that might harm one’s health. Food and beverage advanced analytics companies are now aware that the market for items that do not bear the “healthy” label is sure to fall. And so the executives must eliminate artificial components from their products to stay on top, and this is something that isn’t that easy to achieve.
- Plastic BAN
The ‘plastic ban’ enforcement is based on the ideology that has lasted several years amid discussions on international platforms. This has now resulted in a consistent growth pace of industrialization, of which the F&B sector. Food and beverage manufacturers are now striving toward making the food manufacturing process highly favorable to the environment by adopting numerous recycling practices.
Several food analytics companies offer such insights and more, that continue to help the food and beverage industry deal with the challenges and move forward.