Meeting the Healthy Eating Challenge: What Manufacturers Need to Do Next”
The Future of Food: Trends, Tech, and Changing Tastes in 2025
The reason we love the UK food and drink manufacturing industry is that it is always moving and in 2025, the pace feels faster than ever. With new technology, shifting consumer demands and constant pressure to stay competitive, manufacturers are being asked to do more than just keep up. They need to be forward-thinking, agile and ready to adapt.
At True North Talent, we spend our time speaking to leaders, candidates, and businesses across the industry. That means we’ve got a front-row seat to the changes shaping the sector right now. In our third article, we look at the consumer shift in healthy eating and what it means for food manufacturers.
Meeting the Healthy Eating Challenge: What Manufacturers Need to Do Next”
If there’s one thing shaping food and drink manufacturing right now, it’s the shift in how consumers define “healthy.” It’s no longer just about low-fat or low-sugar options; today’s shoppers are looking for products that align with a much wider view of wellbeing.
We’re seeing a surge in demand for functional foods and drinks, i.e. products that offer added benefits, like gut health, immunity support or high protein content. Brands like Moju, Eat Real, This, One Living are bringing innovative products to the market and here at True North Talent, we do our utmost to sample as many of these new products as we can. Plant-based and flexitarian diets are also here to stay, but with more emphasis on taste, texture and nutritional value than ever before. People don’t just want “healthy,” they want healthy and delicious (and rightly so).
There’s also the growing influence of transparency and clear labelling. Consumers want to know exactly what’s in their food, its origin and traceability and how it was made. That puts extra pressure on manufacturers to not only reformulate products but also improve packaging, communication and wide appeal.
For manufacturers, this means faster NPD cycles, investment in R&D and strong collaboration between technical, marketing and supply chain teams to keep pace with consumer expectations. It’s an exciting space, but also a highly competitive one. Companies that can’t innovate quickly risk being left behind.
And of course, this shift has a huge impact on recruitment. Businesses need to bring in the right people - from food technologists and NPD chefs to brand managers and nutrition experts – those who understand the consumer demands and can turn them into successful products on the shelves.
At True North Talent, we help food and drink businesses connect with the innovators, problem-solvers and the specialists who make healthy product development possible, so they can stay ahead in this ever-evolving market.
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Emma Symonds
Director
Emma Symonds is Director of True North Talent and a leading specialist in Food and Drink Manufacturing recruitment, with 20 years’ experience in permanent and interim hiring, executive search and talent strategy, supporting organisations and senior leaders across the UK food, drink and manufacturing sectors.
Latest Insights
Explore our latest market insights on all things food and drink manufacturing.
When to Hire Permanent vs. Interim in Food Manufacturing
Your Technical Manager hands in their notice on a Monday morning. There's a BRCGS audit eight weeks out, a customer visit before that, and a quality management system only one person on site properly understands. By Monday afternoon, you're already behind. Production has its own version. A shift manager goes off sick with no return date. A supervisor steps up to cover, and three weeks later that supervisor is taking calls from an agency, because the extra responsibility arrived without the extra money. Both situations force the same decision. Do you run a permanent search and live with the gap, bring in an interim, or do both at once?
The Biggest Hiring Challenges Facing UK Food and Drink Manufacturers in 2026
The pressure on UK food and drink manufacturers has never been more visible from a talent perspective. Production lines are running short-handed. Technical vacancies are sitting open for months. Middle management layers that should be your most stable operational bedrock are the very roles that are hardest to fill, and the hardest to retain when you do. This isn't a recruitment problem. It's a business continuity problem wearing a recruitment problem's overalls. With consumer demand fragmenting across plant-based, functional foods, premium ready meals, and low/no alcohol categories, and with automation beginning to reshape what skills you actually need on the floor, the talent landscape in 2026 looks nothing like it did five years ago. The manufacturers who are winning commercially are the ones who've already made that connection.
The Role of Data in Optimising Factory Performance
How Food Manufacturing will Shape Up in 2026 The UK food and drink manufacturing industry shows no signs of slowing down in 2026. If anything, the pace of change is accelerating. With rapid advances in technology, evolving consumer expectations, ongoing supply chain pressures and tighter margins, manufacturers are being challenged to do far more than simply stand still. Success now depends on being agile, forward-thinking and ready to adapt quickly. At True North Talent, we’re in constant conversation with industry leaders, hiring managers and professionals across the sector. That gives us a real, on-the-ground view of how the landscape is shifting - and what businesses need to stay competitive in the years ahead. The Role of Data in Optimising Factory Performance In food and drink manufacturing, margins are tight, customer expectations are high, and downtime is expensive. Everyone talks about working smarter, but what does that actually look like on the factory floor? More often than not, the answer is data. Used properly, data isn’t just numbers on a dashboard – it’s one of the most powerful tools manufacturers have to improve performance, reduce waste and make better decisions, faster. Turning information into insight Most factories are already sitting on huge amounts of data. Production outputs, downtime logs, quality checks, waste levels, labour hours – it’s all there. The challenge is turning that information into something meaningful. When teams can clearly see where time is being lost, where waste is creeping in, or where quality issues keep reoccurring, improvement stops being guesswork. Decisions become fact-based rather than reactive, which is when real operational gains start to happen. Reducing downtime and improving efficiency One of the biggest wins from better data use is reducing downtime. Tracking machine performance and identifying patterns can help spot issues before they become failures. Predictive maintenance, for example, allows engineering teams to fix problems early rather than reacting after a line has already stopped. On the production side, data helps highlight bottlenecks, balance lines more effectively, and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Small improvements, consistently applied, can make a big difference to output and cost. Supporting quality and food safety Data also plays a critical role in maintaining food safety and quality standards. Real-time monitoring, trend analysis, and accurate reporting make it easier to stay compliant and audit ready. More importantly, they help teams prevent issues rather than firefight them. When quality teams have clear visibility of recurring issues, they can focus on root cause analysis and long-term solutions, not just short-term fixes. The people behind the data Technology and systems are only part of the story. Data is only as good as the people interpreting it and acting on it. As factories become more data-driven, there’s growing demand for managers, engineers and operations leaders who are comfortable working with data and translating insight into action. This shift is changing the skill sets businesses need – combining operational know-how with analytical thinking and strong leadership on the factory floor. Making data work for your operation The most successful manufacturers don’t collect data for the sake of it. They focus on the metrics that genuinely impact performance, communicate them clearly, and embed them into daily decision-making. How True North Talent Can Help At True North Talent, we work with food and drink manufacturers who are building data-led operations and need the right people to make that happen. Whether it’s operations leaders, engineers or technical specialists, having the right talent in place is just as important as the systems themselves. 👉 Because in the end, data doesn’t optimise factories – people do
When to Hire Permanent vs. Interim in Food Manufacturing
Your Technical Manager hands in their notice on a Monday morning. There's a BRCGS audit eight weeks out, a customer visit before that, and a quality management system only one person on site properly understands. By Monday afternoon, you're already behind. Production has its own version. A shift manager goes off sick with no return date. A supervisor steps up to cover, and three weeks later that supervisor is taking calls from an agency, because the extra responsibility arrived without the extra money. Both situations force the same decision. Do you run a permanent search and live with the gap, bring in an interim, or do both at once?
The Biggest Hiring Challenges Facing UK Food and Drink Manufacturers in 2026
The pressure on UK food and drink manufacturers has never been more visible from a talent perspective. Production lines are running short-handed. Technical vacancies are sitting open for months. Middle management layers that should be your most stable operational bedrock are the very roles that are hardest to fill, and the hardest to retain when you do. This isn't a recruitment problem. It's a business continuity problem wearing a recruitment problem's overalls. With consumer demand fragmenting across plant-based, functional foods, premium ready meals, and low/no alcohol categories, and with automation beginning to reshape what skills you actually need on the floor, the talent landscape in 2026 looks nothing like it did five years ago. The manufacturers who are winning commercially are the ones who've already made that connection.
The Role of Data in Optimising Factory Performance
How Food Manufacturing will Shape Up in 2026 The UK food and drink manufacturing industry shows no signs of slowing down in 2026. If anything, the pace of change is accelerating. With rapid advances in technology, evolving consumer expectations, ongoing supply chain pressures and tighter margins, manufacturers are being challenged to do far more than simply stand still. Success now depends on being agile, forward-thinking and ready to adapt quickly. At True North Talent, we’re in constant conversation with industry leaders, hiring managers and professionals across the sector. That gives us a real, on-the-ground view of how the landscape is shifting - and what businesses need to stay competitive in the years ahead. The Role of Data in Optimising Factory Performance In food and drink manufacturing, margins are tight, customer expectations are high, and downtime is expensive. Everyone talks about working smarter, but what does that actually look like on the factory floor? More often than not, the answer is data. Used properly, data isn’t just numbers on a dashboard – it’s one of the most powerful tools manufacturers have to improve performance, reduce waste and make better decisions, faster. Turning information into insight Most factories are already sitting on huge amounts of data. Production outputs, downtime logs, quality checks, waste levels, labour hours – it’s all there. The challenge is turning that information into something meaningful. When teams can clearly see where time is being lost, where waste is creeping in, or where quality issues keep reoccurring, improvement stops being guesswork. Decisions become fact-based rather than reactive, which is when real operational gains start to happen. Reducing downtime and improving efficiency One of the biggest wins from better data use is reducing downtime. Tracking machine performance and identifying patterns can help spot issues before they become failures. Predictive maintenance, for example, allows engineering teams to fix problems early rather than reacting after a line has already stopped. On the production side, data helps highlight bottlenecks, balance lines more effectively, and improve overall equipment effectiveness (OEE). Small improvements, consistently applied, can make a big difference to output and cost. Supporting quality and food safety Data also plays a critical role in maintaining food safety and quality standards. Real-time monitoring, trend analysis, and accurate reporting make it easier to stay compliant and audit ready. More importantly, they help teams prevent issues rather than firefight them. When quality teams have clear visibility of recurring issues, they can focus on root cause analysis and long-term solutions, not just short-term fixes. The people behind the data Technology and systems are only part of the story. Data is only as good as the people interpreting it and acting on it. As factories become more data-driven, there’s growing demand for managers, engineers and operations leaders who are comfortable working with data and translating insight into action. This shift is changing the skill sets businesses need – combining operational know-how with analytical thinking and strong leadership on the factory floor. Making data work for your operation The most successful manufacturers don’t collect data for the sake of it. They focus on the metrics that genuinely impact performance, communicate them clearly, and embed them into daily decision-making. How True North Talent Can Help At True North Talent, we work with food and drink manufacturers who are building data-led operations and need the right people to make that happen. Whether it’s operations leaders, engineers or technical specialists, having the right talent in place is just as important as the systems themselves. 👉 Because in the end, data doesn’t optimise factories – people do
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