Speciality Food Magazine - April 2026

6 UK shoppers struggle to source healthy and sustainable food. Based on responses from 19,954 consumers across 18 European countries, the research found that: The Feed. Spring has always been the season of fresh starts. It is marked in our family by our 100-year-old tortoise, Flash, emerging from hibernation in her fridge. But in the world of food and drink, it is often the time for a flurry of rebrands, reformulations, and relaunches. It feels like the right moment to ask an uncomfortable question: when brands reinvent themselves, how often does it actually work? I've just returned from Japan, and as always, it left me with a lot to think about. Japanese on- pack communication is in a class of its own. Clean, focused, and quietly confident, the packaging borrows the visual language of beauty and wellness, where every shape, graphic and word earns its place. Nothing shouts, and everything speaks. It's a masterclass in how design can signal quality without ever saying the word. Walking the aisles there, you're reminded just howmuch noise clutters our shelves in the UK, and how rare genuine clarity really is. Clarity matters That clarity matters more than ever, because most so-called innovation isn't really innovation at all. Mintel recently published findings that show that only around 20% of food and drink launches are genuinely new, compared with 35% across the broader consumer goods space. The vast majority are refreshes, new looks, new stories, new flavours layered onto existing foundations. This is the bedrock of marketing today, as a better story told more clearly can absolutely change how consumers feel about a brand. But it only lands when it is a better articulation of your brand promise or solves a real problem. Relevance is key That's the question too many rebrands skip: what is the pain point? Why isn’t my brand story landing well enough today? Why should someone who has walked past your product a hundred times suddenly stop and reconsider? A new logo won't answer that, and neither will a trendier font or a prettier colour palette. What changes minds is relevance, the sense that a brand has looked honestly at how people's lives are changing and responded with something genuinely useful and established how they can have a role. The brands that thrive t hrough reinvention aren't necessarily the ones with the boldest new look. They're the ones who remain genuinely obsessed with the people they're trying to serve, stay close to shifting needs, and resist the temptation to refresh the surface while leaving the substance untouched. Reinvention done right Speciality&Fine Food Fair to join Food, Drink&HospitalityWeek from2027 “This quiet crisis has been building for years, but the pressure is intensifying and will reach a crisis point without a meaningful shift in approach. Our analysis shows this is a structural challenge, bigger than any one business, and it requires industry and government working together to secure the future of the UK food system. At the same time, the UK is facing a growing crisis of youth opportunity. We have a responsibility, as the nation’s largest private sector employer, to give young people the future they deserve, as part of a confident, skilled, future-ready workforce” Naomi Kissman, social impact director at IGD , on the workforce issues within the UK’s food and drink industry as fewer workers enter the employment market – explored in its Food and Drink Workforce – a quiet crisis building? report Speciality & Fine Food Fair will begin a new chapter in 2027 as it moves to take place alongside Food, Drink & Hospitality Week at Excel London on 5th-7th April, bringing the UK’s speciality food and drink community closer than ever to the wider food, drink and hospitality industry. As part of this transition, the Fair will not take place in 2026 and will therefore not hold another edition at Olympia London. By taking place as part of Food, Drink & Hospitality Week, the Fair will be joining forces with IFE and its sister events, which welcome more than 25,000 trade visitors across three days. The new setting is designed to increase visibility and commercial opportunity for participating producers while preserving the distinctive spirit that has defined Speciality & Fine Food Fair for more than two decades. Speciality brands will continue to showcase high-quality food and drink in a curated environment that champions craftsmanship, innovation and storytelling, while gaining access to a larger and more diverse buyer audience. The move also places the Fair earlier in the year, aligning more closely with key buying cycles, budget planning and menu development across retail and hospitality. This move allows us to preserve everything our community values about the Fair while giving our exhibitors access to a significantly larger and more diverse audience of buyers Nicola Woods, event manager for Speciality & Fine Food Fair What changes minds is relevance, the sense that a brand has looked honestly at how people's lives are changing 51% want to eat more healthily, but say cost and entrenched habits are preventing change 69% Interest in sustainable living has fallen from 76% in 2021 to 69% in 2025 48% Only 48% of Europeans believe they eat a sustainable diet 2026 Trust Report, EIT Food Consumer Observatory OLIVER LLOYD , CONSULTANT