Under fake pink cherry blossom, guests sipped House of Suntory cocktails and picked at plates of chicken karaage, prawn gyoza and cauliflower tempura from a kaitenzushi-style conveyor belt … This was the London launch of Waitrose's new Japanese range. But without knowing it, and even if you live hundreds of miles away, your food choices may have had a hand in shaping the supermarket's 26-dish Japan Menyū range. That is because it was developed with input from Tastewise, an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that analyses menus, social media and online recipes to pinpoint food trends. While many businesses and individuals are concerned that AI is going to eat their lunch rather than set the menu, the technology is becoming more prevalent in the food industry, with its use doubling since 2017, according to McKinsey's 2022 Global Survey on AI. This is probably because it offers under-pressure retailers and food manufacturers an understanding of what fickle shoppers will want to buy in the future. It takes a year to perfect a new food project, but even so most of them miss the mark, and in recent times, companies have instead been forced to play catch-up with trends that have exploded on social media.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the food industry by opening the doors to innovation and new product development (NPD), aligning to global food trends. This is not only limited to developed economies but is also taking off in emerging economies. A new Brazilian start-up company, Fazenda Futuro has developed a vegan burger using AI technology. The burger has the taste, smell and texture uncannily like the regular meat version, and is prepared from ingredients that include pea, soy, and chickpea protein. The'Futuro' burger also has the same nutritional value as a regular beef burger.

Artificial Intelligence is making its way into our food system in a big way. Lately, we've noticed AI playing another role in what we eat: this time in flavor development. We've rounded up 5 startups merging AI and flavor to help restaurants and consumers create more sophisticated dishes, teach home cooks how to make dinner, and reduce friction for food R&D. Foodpairing is a platform which uses machine learning and data analysis to create a sensory map detailing which foods taste good together. Since roughly 80% of taste actually comes from smell, they base their findings on the aromas of each ingredient.

For all 10 trends, watch the full video here. 'Technofoodology,' and artificial intelligence in particular, are some of the best things to ever happen to a grocery store. Our smartphones and our home-based assistants are ushering in a new way to buy our foods. Sure, we can replenish our foods by asking Alexa to order from Amazon, and just last week one of my favorite c-stores, Sheetz, announced that their made-to-order foods from all their 564 stores can be ordered on Alexa. By 2020, there will be 55 million smart devices in our homes--making that the biggest supermarket chain on the planet.