From April 2023 to March 2025, global launches of snacks with health claims grew by 22% (Innova), with nuts and seeds leading the way. Heart health, energy support, and weight management are now the top three functional positions. As consumer demand evolves, the focus is shifting from single health claims to multi-functional, experience-driven products. This session explores opportunities and challenges in functional ingredient innovation, with insights from leading brands on formulation and consumer education.

Food innovation is like a never-ending relay race. Traditional models often build on current assumptions, technologies, and business models to drive incremental progress. Mondelez believes true breakthroughs start by imagining the future. For leaders in the F&B industry, future-back thinking is especially critical as global forces reshape what, how, and why people consume. It helps companies anticipate change, align innovation with long-term shifts, and build resilience and growth in an uncertain world.

With the U.S. FDA pushing to phase out synthetic colors, global food giants like Nestlé and Kraft Heinz have pledged to eliminate artificial colorants by 2026–2027. As the industry moves toward cleaner labels, can natural colors—through their vivid appearance and clean-label positioning—offer a competitive edge in product innovation?

Traditional brewing extracts only 30% of coffee's aroma and flavor—the rest ends up as grounds. But what if you could taste 100% of the coffee? Mokable founder Akinori Itoyama, who spent over a decade in coffee R&D at Suntory, uses micro-grinding technology to turn roasted beans into ultra-fine powder, blend it with oils, and fully preserve the bean's aroma and flavor—transforming coffee into an edible ingredient.

Gummies are evolving beyond sweet treats into carriers of flavor, texture, and emotional value. Japanese ice pop brand Hokkyoku has transformed its iconic summer flavors into shelf-stable gummies—replicating the icy sensation of frozen treats through crystallization technology. Let's explore how confectionery innovation can use technology to transcend physical formats, recreate multisensory experiences, and inspire new directions for snack and bakery development.

(Image source: Hokkyoku)

Diverse flavors have become the core driver of winning consumers' taste buds. From cross-category mashups to niche ingredients and the global reinterpretation of local cultures, new ideas keep emerging. But how can brands identify which trends are truly worth investing in? Drawing on the latest global snack innovations, this session will decode the 2025–2026 flavor landscape, and explore following questions. How to spot the next big flavor? Which ingredient innovations truly resonate with consumers? And how to balance regional preferences in global R&D strategies? The answers will help make innovation investments more forward-looking and efficient.

Want to taste specialties from across Japan? Just visit a supermarket and pick up Koikeya's "Pride" chips. From Kobe beef and Kyoto yuzu to Kyushu seaweed soy sauce and Kumamoto grilled meat, Koikeya transforms iconic dishes into layered, flavor-rich snacks using local potatoes and corn. With a commitment to Japanese ingredients and meticulous flavor crafting, the brand reached ¥59.38 billion in consolidated sales in FY2025. How does Koikeya engineer taste? From flavor selection and ingredient sourcing to precise formulation—this is how chips rivaling real cuisine are born.

As low-sodium and clean-label trends grow, maintaining that "addictive" savory taste becomes a major R&D challenge. Sensory analysis offers a scientific approach. By combining Quantitative Descriptive Analysis with consumer testing, teams can quantify attributes like saltiness, aftertaste, and richness. Advanced tools like GC-MS and electronic tongues help identify key flavor compounds and build statistical flavor models. Will this method improves low-salt formulations across nuts, baked snacks, and cereal crisps?

In today's "emotional economy," looks often sell more than ingredients—visual delight can drive impulse purchases. Toyosu takes a unique approach, drawing inspiration from nature to shape rice snacks into watermelons, bamboo, cherry blossoms, snowmen, and sweet potatoes, delivering playful and comforting emotional value.

(Image source: Toyosu)

Ganyuan, a leading flavor nut brand, has built dominance with signature items like green peas, sunflower kernels, and broad beans. In response to health trends, Ganyuan innovates by applying freeze-drying to combine fruit and nuts—creating hits like mango cashews and freeze-dried nut blends. By precisely controlling fruit pulp ratio, particle size, and moisture content, the brand achieves a layered taste of fruity freshness and nutty richness, while maintaining nutrients and a crisp texture. This session will explore how process innovations like coating, freeze-drying, and chocolate layering enable multi-sensory snacking—and how technology powers Ganyuan's next growth curve.

By 2032, the global high-protein snack market is projected to exceed $58.7 billion. What began with protein bars has now expanded into bean-based snacks, meat jerky, and many other formats. While nutrition matters, taste is the ultimate challenge. How can brands strike the right balance between nutrition and deliciousness? In this session, we invite R&D leaders from top global protein snack companies for a “high-energy” dialogue, sharing their breakthroughs and revealing the secret to making protein truly tasty.