Why the food industry can’t innovate alone anymore

Key takeaways:

• The food industry is increasingly relying on startups to accelerate innovation as traditional inhouse R&D struggles to keep pace with rapid market and technological change.
• Scaling and regulation remain the biggest barriers preventing promising food-tech innovations from reaching commercial success.
• Key challenges such as cocoa volatility, fat replacement and GLP-1-driven reformulation are driving deeper collaboration between startups and established ingredient companies.

The food industry is under pressure to innovate faster than ever but it can’t do it alone. From cocoa supply volatility to fat reformulation and the rise of GLP-1 diets, manufacturers are facing a new wave of complex formulation challenges that are reshaping how products are developed.

As pressure mounts from shifting consumer expectations, fragile supply chains and increasingly complex regulations, the traditional model of inhouse R&D is being stretched to its limits. The pace of change is no longer incremental, and the industry is struggling to keep up using internal resources alone.

That shift is driving a fundamental rethink across the ingredient sector. Rather than relying solely on internal pipelines, companies are turning outward – partnering with startups to access new technologies, specialist expertise and faster routes to market. The balance of power in innovation is shifting.

“The growing reliance on startup partnerships signals that traditional, often closed, corporate R&D models can struggle to match the level of agility required today,” says Emanuele Pizzigalli, chief innovation officer at Nexture. “The food sector is undergoing continuous and meaningful transformation, and keeping pace is essential to remain competitive.”

It’s against this backdrop that Nexture has launched its latest push into open innovation through Generate, its innovation hub designed to identify and scale next-generation ingredient solutions. The programme targets startups working across bakery, fats and texturisation, alternative proteins and carbohydrates, nutrition and future-proofing ingredients.

Why the old R&D model is being rewritten

If there’s any doubt about the direction of travel, Pizzigalli dispels it quickly. Large ingredient companies are no longer the sole engines of innovation – but they’re not trying to be either.

“In this context, large ingredient companies are acting as scalers of innovation rather than sole creators,” he explains. “We accelerate the industrialisation and commercialisation of ideas that originate externally.”

That shift reflects deeper structural challenges within traditional R&D. Long approval cycles and complex organisational layers slow down experimentation, while startups are built to move quickly, pivot and embrace failure as part of the process.

“At the same time, corporates tend to focus on incremental improvements – optimising existing products and processes – rather than creating entirely new categories,” says Pizzigalli. “And building niche expertise internally can be time-consuming and costly. Partnering with startups allows faster access to cutting-edge knowledge.”

This is where programmes like Generate come into play. By combining startup agility with industrial scale, they create a model that’s better suited to today’s pace of change. “We provide access to advanced labs, application capabilities and industrial know-how,” he says. “At the same time, we share the risks associated with early-stage innovation.”

This is no longer a nice-to-have strategy – it’s becoming the only viable way to keep up.

The scale-up problem still holding food-tech back

For all the excitement around food-tech, turning promising ideas into commercial reality remains notoriously difficult. According to Pizzigalli, two barriers continue to stop even the most compelling innovations in their tracks: scaling and regulation.

“The first challenge is the transition from lab to industrial scale,” he says. “Many technologies perform well in controlled environments but struggle when moving from pilot to full-scale production.”

The issue isn’t just technical, but economic. “In some cases, costs that are already high at laboratory level don’t decrease sufficiently during scaling, making the solution economically uncompetitive or unsustainable for the market.”

Even when technologies clear that hurdle, regulation presents another major bottleneck. “Many innovations involve novel ingredients, requiring extensive validation processes, significant investment and long timelines – typically three to five years.”

In Europe, those timelines are particularly challenging. “Regulatory frameworks are more stringent and slower compared to regions such as the United States, Singapore or Israel. As a result, startups often seek more favourable markets to launch their technologies, and in some cases, they run out of funding before completing the approval process.”

This is where partnership models prove their value again. Without access to industrial expertise, infrastructure and commercial pathways, many innovations simply stall before they ever reach consumers.

The next ingredient battlegrounds

The areas targeted by Generate’s 2026 Open Call highlight just how complex the innovation challenge has become and why collaboration is essential to solving it.

Take palm oil, a cornerstone of bakery formulations but one of the most difficult ingredients to replace. “It largely depends on the application,” Pizzigalli says. “Replacing palm oil in bakery fats and coatings is already possible using alternative tropical fats. But replicating the same functionality using locally sourced oils such as sunflower or canola is much more difficult.”

That shift would deliver both nutritional and sustainability gains, but the technical barriers remain significant, particularly in more demanding applications. “Achieving the same technological performance in complex systems such as laminated fats is still a major challenge,” he admits. However, more disruptive solutions are beginning to emerge. “We’re working with Green-On, a startup producing edible fats from CO₂ using a highly resource-efficient technology. Combined with local oils, this could allow us to replicate specific functionalities of palm oil.”

Even so, Pizzigalli is clear that the industry is still some way from a full solution. “Replacing palm oil through truly sustainable and high-performing alternatives is a long-term innovation journey.”

A similar split between short-term fixes and long-term disruption is playing out in cocoa. “In the short term, alternatives are already commercially viable,” he says, pointing to carob-based ingredients that deliver a chocolate-like profile while offering a more stable and sustainable supply chain.

But true replacements are further off. “Technologies such as cellular agriculture – producing cocoa from cultivated cell lines – are still in their infancy. They’ll require time to reach industrial scale and cost competitiveness.”

Perhaps the most immediate shift, however, is being driven by changing consumer behaviour linked to GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. Reduced appetite and altered taste perception are forcing a rethink of product formulation. “This trend is already having a significant impact across all food segments, including bakery and snacks,” says Pizzigalli. “We’re moving from a volume-driven model to one focused on nutrient density and functionality. Consumers need to obtain the nutrients they require from less food.”

That’s reshaping ingredient priorities across the board. “This means higher protein content, increased fibre, reduced sugar and a strong focus on maintaining taste, texture and processability.”

For Nexture, that translates into a growing portfolio of solutions designed to deliver on those needs. “We’re developing plant-based protein systems, fibre enrichment solutions and sugar reduction technologies that maintain structure, mouthfeel and shelf life.”

Crucially, Pizzigalli doesn’t see this as a passing phase. “This isn’t a short-term shift but a structural evolution that is already influencing how products are formulated,” he says.

Taken together, these pressures are redefining what innovation looks like in the ingredient space. Speed, scale and scientific depth are all essential but none can be achieved in isolation.

“The future of our industry will be built through collaboration,” Pizzigalli says. “Combining the agility of startups with the scale and expertise of established companies is the only way to accelerate solutions that are truly ready for the market.” Going it alone is no longer the best option.