About
Most food innovation stories start with a pitch deck.
From 30+ years on the job…
From 30+ years on the job…
Services
Articles by David
Activity
8K followers
-
David Foerstner shared thisEnd of the World Eating - What's Next? For 30 years, the winning food message was subtraction. Less fat. Less sugar. Fewer calories. More guilt. That game is over. Beef tallow sales just hit $1.1 billion, up 275% in three years. Butter is at a 50-year high. Plant-based burgers dropped 34%. People are not saying one thing and buying another. They are buying flavor, richness, and permission. The new message is addition. More flavor. More richness. More of the thing that makes you close your eyes and savor every bite. Look at what's winning. Conagra is putting "double-cooked in beef tallow" right on the front of the package. Tillamook's "Butternaise" sold out in ten minutes. Nobody is hiding indulgence behind a health halo anymore. They put it in the spotlight and charge for it. Tallow is the loudest signal, but this is bigger than one ingredient. It's a shift in what people want from food. So if you make it or market it, two moves. Stop leading with "guilt-free." That instinct is working against you. Lead with pleasure. And bet on the durable signal, not the fad. The craving for bold, rich, satisfying food shows up every time life feels expensive and uncertain. It tends to stick around. Your customers stopped asking whether your product is good for them. They are asking whether it's worth it. Give them something worth it. What product have you seen lean all the way into indulgence lately? I break down shifts like this every week in The Food Forward Scoop. Subscribe here: https://lnkd.in/efCrAspa #CPG #FoodInnovation #FoodAndBeverage #ProductDevelopment
-
David Foerstner shared thisEND OF THE WORLD EATING? I've been looking at consumer food data for 30 years. I have never seen anything quite like what's happening right now. These are in sharp decline in social food conversation, and it's happened fast: →Nutritious. →Climate change. →Self care. →Weight management. →Mental health. →Animal rights. That is not a list of fading flavor trends. That is the entire value system that has driven food culture over the last three decades. Gone. Simultaneously. In the same dataset. At the end of last year, I was tracking an increase in indulgence and comfort food. That's happened before during periods of economic stress and cultural uncertainty. What's different this time is the speed and the scale. This didn't drift. It moved fast, and it moved decisively across the entire value system at once. Here is what is rising to replace it: →Intense flavor: +121% →Melty: +118% →Ritual: +108% →Silky: +93% →Buttery: +59% →Sweet and spicy: +55% And the single fastest growing ingredient in snack and seasoning data: →Tallow. Up 172% year over year. The animal fat the food industry spent 40 years telling us to avoid. People are not confused. They are making a choice. When grocery bills are unpredictable, the news is exhausting, and optimizing for a future self feels beside the point... you stop counting calories. You eat what tastes like something, right now, without apology. We're calling this End of World Eating. This is not a blip in the data. This is a cultural mood showing up in what people are putting in their carts. For food manufacturers and the suppliers who serve them, the brief has changed. Consumers are not asking whether a product is good for them or good for the planet. They are asking whether it delivers. We track these signals for the food companies and suppliers we work with. If you want to understand where your category is heading, let's talk.
-
David Foerstner shared thisBack in the heyday of California cannabis edible development, a client handed me samples of edible gummy candies. They wanted me to develop something similar for their own product line. They told me they were CBD. I had no reason to doubt them. I tasted my way through the samples, took my notes, wrapped up the meeting, and drove back to my office. When I parked and tried to get out of my car, I knew something was wrong. I stepped out and nearly fell over. Made it inside. That was about all I managed. I slept through the rest of the afternoon and into the evening. Those were not CBD gummies. I billed the client for that time. They paid without argument, which told me everything I needed to know. I've spent decades in food product development. I know how to evaluate what's in something, analytically, sensorially and technically. I'd even developed THC products myself at that point. And I still didn't catch it that day, because I was relying on what I'd been told rather than starting from scratch with my own assumptions. That's the part that stayed with me. In this industry, ingredient integrity isn't a paperwork issue. It's not a labeling technicality. It's the foundation everything else is built on. When it breaks down, accidentally, carelessly, or deliberately, the consequences travel further than most people expect. An undisclosed cannabinoid is one version of this. An undisclosed allergen is another. A peanut trace in a "nut-free" snack, a milk derivative in a "vegan" product, or gluten in something a celiac customer trusted. Same category of failure, much higher stakes. Brands have lost everything over gaps smaller than mine. I was lucky. I lost an afternoon and gained a story I've been telling ever since. Know what's in your product. All of it. Don't rely on someone else's word for it.
-
David Foerstner shared thisI've been seeing mentions of GLP-1 effect on the food industry. This post explains how and why. Fascinating!David Foerstner shared thisGLP-1 is the biggest disruptor the food industry has ever seen. And most founders and investors I speak to are still treating it just like a health story. 2.5 million people in the UK are already taking it, across every income bracket. Their appetite is suppressed, cravings have disappeared and impulse buys are falling off a cliff. If you're in food, retail or FMCG and you're not paying attention, you're already behind. But there is a huge opportunity for entrepreneurs who ARE paying attention. Danone just paid £865m for Huel (X4 revenue), in large part to future-proof itself against this very shift. That's a €27bn food giant repositioning around the likelihood that millions of people simply stop eating the way they currently do. I sat down with doctors, nutritionists, patients and food industry insiders to unpack what's really happening - and where the opportunities are for smart entrepreneurs. A few things stand out: 👉 This is consumer-led, not policy-led. This makes it nearly impossible to slow down. 👉 Convenience, snacking, alcohol, and confectionery: Categories with the fattest margins are the ones most exposed. 👉 The ripple effects are already showing up in places you wouldn't expect. E.G. corner shops, high street rents, supplier negotiations. But brands that understand what they are really selling, and to whom, will survive what's coming. The ones that don't will wonder what just happened. The full documentary - "The Appetite Economy" – is out this week. Here’s a trailer… BTW, every week, I show founders and investors how to read shifts like this one before it's too late. Link: https://lnkd.in/dxifzHyS
-
David Foerstner shared thisThis is what the wrong ingredient looks like at production scale. The roller should be cutting clean pieces onto the belt. Instead the dough is wrapped around it. The cavities are jammed. The belt is empty. The approved formula called for a modified starch that is engineered for controlled water absorption and predictable behavior under heat and shear. What got loaded was a native version. Same percentage. Same look. Functionally, a different ingredient. The cost: two production days lost to roller stickiness, broken parts, and drifting sheet thickness. Your formula isn't a recipe, it's a specification. Exact ingredients. Exact suppliers. A substitution made on the floor without R&D sign-off can quietly cost a week of production. Ingredients matter. 👋🏻 Hi, I'm Dave, and I am the founder and technical director. I help food companies develop successful products. If you need help with food innovation through manufacturing, send me a DM!
-
David Foerstner shared thisA snack brand was weeks away from a major national retailer launch. Their entire product positioning was built around a front of pack protein claim. Nobody had checked whether the claim was actually legal. That's where I came in. When we ran the FDA label math across the full product line, the problem was immediate. The base chip hit the protein threshold. But the flavored SKUs -- because seasoning dilution reduces the protein percentage per serving -- fell below the minimum required to make the claim. The claim that got them into the retailer. The claim printed on every bag. The claim the buyer expected to see on shelf. If this had surfaced during production trials, or worse, after packaging was printed, the launch timeline was dead. And possibly the retailer relationship with it. Here's what we built before a single trial was run: → The exact protein threshold required across every SKU, not just the base product → A breakdown of the production variables that control the outcome -- fat content, moisture, fry time, de oiling efficiency → A prioritized list of process adjustments ranked by impact and feasibility → A trial sequencing plan with go/no-go criteria at each stage → A risk assessment identifying where the claim was most vulnerable to falling short The team entered production trials with a clear target, a defined process control framework, and decision criteria that removed the guesswork from every step. The launch timeline held. The label claim held. The retailer relationship held. This is what I mean when I talk about Phase Zero discovery work. The problems that kill launches aren't usually formulation problems. They're the questions nobody thought to ask until it was too late. I'd rather find the problem in a spreadsheet than on a production floor.
-
David Foerstner shared thisMost product failures don't fail on taste. They fail on timing, positioning, or solving a problem nobody actually has. I've seen founders spend $50K developing a product that was already losing momentum in the category before they even started. Not because the product was bad. Because nobody checked whether the market still wanted it. That's the part of innovation that gets skipped the most. Not formulation. Not packaging. The upfront work of figuring out whether this thing is worth building in the first place. Here's what that looks like in practice: → Real-time consumer data showing what people are actually buying, cooking, and searching for… not what a trend report predicted 18 months ago. → Category-level competitive context so you know where the white space is and where it's already crowded. → Retailer shopper profiling to understand what the buyer on the other side of the table is looking for in their next reset. → Flavor and ingredient signal tracking that separates a genuine shift from a social media moment. This is the work I do with clients before a single formula is written. Because a great product that nobody's looking for is just an expensive science project. And a good product that lands in the right category, at the right time, with the right positioning -- that's the one that gets reordered. Innovation isn't just about what you can make. It's about what's worth making.
-
David Foerstner shared thisNobody has ever gotten excited about a nutrition facts panel. But getting one wrong can cost you a retailer relationship, a product recall, or an FDA warning letter. I've seen all three. Labeling and food safety compliance is the part of product development that founders want to skip past. I get it. It's not the creative work. It's not the part that makes you fall in love with your product. But here's the reality: → An incorrect ingredient statement can pull your product off shelves overnight → A missing allergen declaration is a liability issue, not a typo → Retailers like Whole Foods, Target, and Costco have their own compliance standards on top of federal requirements → A co-packer won't run your product without a food safety plan. Period. FDA and USDA compliant nutrition facts panels. Ingredient statements. Label review. HACCP plans. FSMA compliance. SQF audit preparation. I handle all of it. Not as a separate service bolted on at the end. It's built into the development process from the start. Because compliance isn't a phase. It's a baseline. The companies that treat it as an afterthought are the ones scrambling to fix labels after they've already printed 50,000 units. The ones that build it in from day one don't have that problem. Precision matters here. There's no room for "close enough."
-
David Foerstner reposted thisYour formula works perfectly in the lab. That means almost nothing. The gap between a bench formula and a production-ready product has killed more innovations than bad taste ever has. I've watched founders spend months perfecting a recipe, then lose six more months because nobody thought about how it would actually get made. At scale. On real equipment. At a cost that leaves room for margin. Here's where it usually breaks down: → The formula calls for an ingredient the co-packer can't source at volume → The texture changes when you go from a 5-gallon batch to a 500-gallon batch → The process works on pilot equipment that doesn't exist at the contract manufacturer → The cost per unit makes retail pricing impossible Every one of those problems is preventable. But only if you're thinking about commercialization from day one of development. Not after. That's how I build every project at Food Forward. The formula and the production path are developed together. Ingredient sourcing, equipment constraints, co-packer capabilities -- all of it informs the formulation decisions before we're locked in. Getting a product made once is a science experiment. Getting it made consistently, at cost, on someone else's line -- that's commercialization. And it's where most of the real work happens. Book a meeting with me to discuss!
David Foerstner commented on a post
1d
The difference between memorable and overwhelming is often restraint.
-
David Foerstner liked thisDavid Foerstner liked thisMy problem with most steak burgers is... they're trying too hard. A giant slab of rare steak that's impossible to bite through. Or so many toppings you can't even taste the beef. I wanted this one to be different: Thin slices of our local Capital Farms reverse-seared picanha. Provolone. Chimichurri mayo. Pickled onions. That's it. The burger isn't competing with the steak. It's just there to get it to your mouth. See how I make it, recipe link in comments. What cut should we cook next? Episode 3 | Cooking Through Half a Cow
-
David Foerstner liked thisDavid Foerstner liked thisOne of the biggest mistakes leaders make is thinking they need to be the smartest person in every single workstream. They try to own the vision and hoard the execution. Real leadership isn't about having all the answers; it’s about having the sharp instinct to recognise your gaps, drop the pretence, and bring in world-class experts to optimise the work. A few clear examples of what this looks like in practice for us right now: Bringing in Paul Domanski from Domanski.AI to sharpen our AI capabilities and refine complex workstreams. Partnering with Race Digital Marketing to lock in high-performing paid media strategies. The way I see it: Instinct sees the opportunity and sets the vision. Expertise builds the system so it scales. You don't win by trying to do everything yourself. You win by pairing unapologetic focus with specialists who elevate the whole team. #Leadership #BeverageIndustry #Alcohol #TeamWork
-
David Foerstner liked thisDavid Foerstner liked thisAllow me... us... to reintroduce ourselves this Friday. 👯♀️ Lisa Macfarlane Before the products. Before the TV show. Before Tesco. Before anyone knew what the hell the microbiome was... ...there were two identical twins who volunteered for a gut microbiome study and became completely obsessed with making gut health make sense. We had no business plan. No nutrition background. Just a belief that if we could understand the science, we could help everyone else understand it too. A decade later, we're still on exactly the same mission, just with a few more products, a few more grey hairs, and the privilege of talking sh*t for a living. Here's how we got here👇
-
David Foerstner liked thisDavid Foerstner liked thisWalk down any cake mix aisle and you’ll notice that all the packaging looks the same. Every box has a photo of a cake and uses bright, bold colours. Brand after brand, it’s the same formula. Our packaging for Good Mess breaks both rules: no photo of the cake, no bright colours. While I was developing it, every consultants and grocery buyer I spoke to told me the same thing: put a picture of the cake on the pack and use much brighter colours or no one will notice it on the sheIf. I did not do it. The goal was never to look like the rest of the category. It was to look like the exact opposite so that (1) people would actually notice it and pick it up and (2) it stands out as a better for you, more premium option next to everything else on shelf. It’s worked better than I expected. Most of the customers I talk to say they first picked it up from the shelf because the packaging stood out and they were curious about it. 🍰 *Inspired by Zoe Lacey's post about hummus and Amelia Christie-Miller's post about beans!
Experience & Education
-
Food Forward Consulting
View David’s full experience
See their title, tenure and more.
or
Licenses & Certifications
-
-
FSPCA FSMA Preventative Control for Human Foods Course
BRC
-
Recommendations received
1 person has recommended David
Join now to viewOther similar profiles
Explore more posts
-
Csilla Paizs-Kis
The Future of Food Safety Is Live. Launching in 7 Days. 🚨 The truth about food safety in most businesses… It still runs on: • Paper logs • Missed checks • “We’ll do it later” Not because people don’t care. But because the system makes it hard to stay consistent. And consistency is everything in food safety. Over the past weeks, I’ve been building something different: A live digital system designed for real kitchens — not perfect ones. ✔ Real-time tracking ✔ Clear daily actions ✔ Built to actually be used by staff This is not about tracking everything. It’s about tracking what truly matters. ⏳ 7 days. #FoodSafety #FoodBusiness #Restaurants #Compliance #FoodIndustry #Entrepreneurship #Startup
1 Comment -
Dairy Council of California
Strengthening School Nutrition Through Agriculture On October 2, Dairy Council of California partnered with the CALIFORNIA SCHOOL NUTRITION ASSOCIATION INC's Mother Lode Chapter 45 to co-host a hands-on dairy tour at Tollcrest Dairy in Wheatland. Nearly 30 school nutrition professionals—including foodservice directors, chefs, and RDNs—gathered to explore how sustainable dairy practices directly support student health and well-being. Led by third-generation farmer Chase Tollenaar, participants toured the rotary milking parlor and engaged in thoughtful conversations about connecting farm practices to healthy school meals. Watch the recap video and see how dairies such as Tollcrest are nourishing California’s children: https://lnkd.in/gSpRivXk #FarmtoSchoolMonth #NutritionSecurity #SchoolNutrition #DairyEducation #SustainableFarming #PartnershipsInAction
Explore top content on LinkedIn
Find curated posts and insights for relevant topics all in one place.
View top content