Welcome to this week’s Food Exec Brief, a roundup of the most important news shaping food and beverage manufacturing, from M&A moves and regulatory shifts to tech innovation and sustainability trends.
Key takeaways:
- 🔄 Strategic restructuring: Keurig Dr Pepper’s $18.4B acquisition of JDE Peet’s followed by immediate split signals new era of portfolio optimization, while food robotics investments dip 8% after pandemic-driven surge.
- ⚠️ Supply chain crisis: Global procurement worries hit record highs as 53% of leaders blame geopolitical factors, with food sector predicting 14% price increases amid shipping and logistics inflation.
- ❄️ Cryogenic breakthrough: Ultra-low temperature freezing emerges as a platform for innovation beyond preservation, delivering 2-3 year shelf life while enabling clean-label formulations and superior taste retention.
- 🎨 Dye phaseout acceleration: Major food companies commit to artificial color removal by 2027, with Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and Nestlé leading industry-wide reformulation following federal regulatory pressure.
🔄 Corporate restructuring and strategic pivots
Food giants embrace portfolio optimization through strategic splits while robotics investment normalizes after pandemic-driven automation surge.
Keurig Dr Pepper’s $18.4B acquisition signals new split strategy
Keurig Dr Pepper announced the acquisition of Amsterdam-based JDE Peet’s for €15.7 billion ($18.4 billion) in an all-cash transaction, immediately followed by plans to split into two separate companies: Global Coffee Co. (approximately $16 billion in annual sales) and Beverage Co. (more than $11 billion in annual sales). The move reflects growing industry recognition that mega-mergers prioritizing scale over portfolio coherence may be unsustainable. Upon completion, Global Coffee Co. will become “the world’s largest pure-play coffee company” with reach across more than 100 countries, while Beverage Co. will serve as “a scaled challenger in the $300 billion North American refreshment beverage market”. The timing proves challenging given coffee commodity prices nearing $4 per pound — double traditional ranges — amid ongoing supply pressures.
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Food robotics investment normalizes after pandemic surge
Food and Consumer Goods sectors saw an 8% decrease in robotic investment during the first half of 2025, bucking the broader industrial trend of 4.3% unit growth and 7.5% revenue increase in North American robotics orders. Industry analysts attribute the decline to early automation during COVID-19, when facility closures and demand spikes drove rapid robotics adoption in 2020-2021. The decrease reflects “how strong the first half of last year was for the food and consumer goods space” rather than indicating any long-term retreat from automation, with the sector having “doubled its relative share of the robotics industry” over recent years. Companies continue prioritizing robots for “dirty” and “dangerous” roles while embracing user-friendly interfaces and AI-powered diagnostics.
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⚠️ Supply chain disruption and cost pressures
Global procurement concerns reach unprecedented levels as geopolitical tensions and shipping inflation threaten food sector stability.
Supply chain worries hit record highs
Global procurement professionals report record-high supply chain concerns, with short-term anxiety scoring 4.57 out of seven (up from 4.36 in Q1) and long-term worries reaching 5.03 (versus 4.91 previously). Food industry leaders face mounting pressure as 53% of supply chain professionals blame geopolitical factors for current shortages, while 36% identify the US-China trade conflict as a primary driver. The crisis extends beyond typical inflation concerns, with shipping and logistics expecting 22% price increases while food and beverages predict 14% cost hikes. Five spending categories now forecast increases exceeding 10% — up from just three categories in Q1 — threatening to force consumer price increases that could constrain central bank rate reduction strategies.
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❄️ Technology innovation and operational transformation
Cryogenic freezing emerges as an innovation platform while cocoa substitutes address the commodity price crisis.
Cryogenic freezing transforms food innovation beyond preservation
Cryogenic freezing using liquid nitrogen at -321°F enables foods to maintain optimal quality for 2-3 years while eliminating synthetic preservatives, aligning with clean-label consumer demands. The technology delivers superior taste and nutrition by minimizing ice crystal formation that ruptures cell walls, with cryogenically frozen vegetables retaining more nutrients, vibrant color, and fresh flavor than “fresh” grocery counterparts after transport delays. Applications span from Norwegian salmon frozen at sea to revolutionary coffee concentrates that surpass traditional fresh-brewed coffee in flavor through GC-MS testing by preserving volatile aromatics lost during conventional brewing’s heat exposure. Despite higher infrastructure costs, the technology supports centralized production, global distribution, and waste reduction through extended shelf life.
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Cocoa alternatives address unprecedented price crisis
Raw cocoa prices have surged from $2,000-$3,000 per metric ton historically to above $8,000 currently (reaching $12,000 peaks), driving manufacturers to seek substitutes that can replace up to 25-30% of cocoa content. Leading solutions include Ardent Mills’ wheat-based Cocoa Replace, which provides both flavor and color through toasting while reducing fat content, and Prova’s tailored flavor solutions validated for compound applications. German company Planet A Foods uses sunflower seeds and grape seed flour in its ChoViva replacer, now found in approximately 70 products across nine countries, while NotCo leverages AI and precision fermentation to create cocoa-free alternatives. Industry experts predict cocoa prices will remain elevated for “another three-plus years” as supply deficits of 494,000 tons in 2023/2024 slowly recover.
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🎨 Regulatory compliance and reformulation strategy
Artificial dye phaseout accelerates as major manufacturers commit to comprehensive portfolio reformulation ahead of federal deadlines.
Industry-wide artificial dye elimination gains momentum
Major food manufacturers have committed to removing artificial dyes from their portfolios by 2027, with Kraft Heinz, General Mills, and Nestlé leading comprehensive reformulation efforts following FDA’s Red No. 3 ban and planned phaseout of six synthetic dyes by 2026. The movement encompasses diverse timelines: PepsiCo targets end-of-2025 for some brands, General Mills commits to summer 2026 for cereals and K-12 foods, while Hershey and J.M. Smucker set end-of-2027 deadlines for complete portfolio transformation. Unlike previous failed attempts by General Mills (2015-2017) and Mars (2016-2021) that reverted due to consumer backlash, current commitments reflect sustained regulatory pressure and state-level legislation. The California Food Safety Act and California School Food Safety Act, taking effect in 2027, have triggered over 15 similar bills adopted across states in 2025 alone.
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