When large food companies began cutting back on in-house R&D in favor of investing in startups’ with promising ideas, some either didn’t factor in or miscalculated the resources and time needed to scale-up their acquisitions before seeing returns – leaving them with a gap in their innovation pipelines and no easy way to fill it themselves.

As the line begins to blur between food and beverage, consumers are looking for more than just hydration from their drinks – they also want function, but according to market research firm Mintel figuring out which benefits resonate with which consumers in which category is a challenge that has many manufacturers stumped.

The CBD market is exploding with the ingredient popping up in everything from bars to beverages to confections and everything in between – driving up sales to more than $200 million in 2018 by conservative estimates and an expected $3.8 billion by 2025, according to market research.

Members of the Organic Trade Association converged in Washington, DC, last week to celebrate the segment’s continuous improvement, and to brainstorm with each other and legislators potential solutions to ongoing challenges facing the industry.

Despite what your parents told you growing up – looks matter – especially for food and beverage products in the current era of Instagram where more than 500 million people around the world check their photo feeds daily and 68% of Millennials photograph their food before eating it.

While the rapid growth of the plant-based market in the US initially may have been fueled by demand for alternatives to animal-protein and -dairy, the trend is quickly evolving as consumers’ tastes become more sophisticated and they begin to embrace plants for what they are – and not just what they can mimic and replace.

The exponential growth of non-dairy milk sales and variety in the US, in many ways has been a harbinger for the overall plant-based movement, but as demand for the beverages continues to rise – so too are consumers’ standards, which could prompt a shake-out in the near future.

Attracted to recent high-dollar acquisitions, consumer demand for healthy and sustainable options, and the opportunities created by a diversifying retail landscape, the number of investors flocking to the food and beverage industry continues to grow exponentially as does the amount of capital they are betting on increasingly earlier stage companies.

While the vast majority of Americans still buy their groceries in supermarkets or at supercenters, their loyalty should not be taken for granted as other stores – including limited assortment, club, specialty and even farmers markets – are stepping up their game to capture market share.

Blockchain technology may be best known for its ability to securely move crypto-currencies such as Bitcoin around the word, but the technology can do much more -- especially in the food and beverage industries.