Many people still think of foodtech as being just about food delivery and online orders. But this is an outdated idea.
The market for delivery has grown a lot. These services now make up more than half of the market. But the industry itself has long gone beyond this framework. It has become much broader and deeper.
Today, foodtech covers the entire chain, from making and delivering food to how customers are treated and managing restaurants.
In this article, we'll look at what technologies and trends are going to shape the market in 2026 — and how businesses can use them.
In Europe, especially in France and the Netherlands, FoodTech solutions are growing and becoming more innovative. These solutions include growing food in cities, reducing food waste, automating restaurants, and introducing new service formats.
In the food industry, we can develop apps for restaurants and coffee shops, solutions for farms, kitchen automation systems, and robotic service formats.
We have put together a table that shows the main parts of the market for developing solutions in food technology.
|
The path of growth |
What solutions can we create? |
|
Agricultural technologies |
Farm management systems, IoT platforms (sensors, drones), yield analytics, automation and robotization of agriculture, solutions for urban farms. |
|
Food technology |
Tools for developing new products: digital platforms for research (R&D), systems that help model the composition, taste and properties of food before launching into production. |
|
Solutions for restaurants and catering |
POS systems, mobile applications for orders, booking platforms, kitchen management systems, cloud kitchens, process automation. |
|
Food selection and personalization |
Nutrition matching applications, personalized recommendations, recipe and diet planning services, integration with wearable devices and bio-data. |
|
Shipping and online orders |
Online ordering platforms, delivery aggregators, logistics management systems, darkstores, solutions for fast delivery and route optimization. |
|
Supply chains and food retail |
Supply management systems, product tracking, warehouse automation, smart packaging, and solutions to reduce food waste. |
The development of digital solutions is becoming part of the business strategy in the food industry.
In other words, almost every fourth ruble in the food industry today passes through digital channels — applications, aggregators, online services.
The food delivery segment is the most diverse in formats:
Each of these formats assumes its own IT infrastructure. For example: a mobile application with a ration constructor, a warehouse management system, and courier route optimization.
Aroi Dee is an ecosystem of food delivery apps in Phuket. We have developed a set of cross-platform solutions for customers, restaurants and couriers, where the user can order food, track delivery in real time, and restaurants and couriers manage orders through separate applications and web panels. The system integrates the entire delivery process into a single digital cycle and ensures stable operation under high load.
Cafe and restaurant applications automate order acceptance, loyalty programs, table reservations, kitchen and warehouse management.
For example, a mobile application for coffee shops allows a guest to order a drink before arrival, accumulate points and receive personalized offers. Integrations with POS systems, kitchen screens, and analytics systems are relevant for restaurants, so the owner can see in real time what is for sale and what is stale.
Tiffin Loop is a B2C aggregator of reusable tableware rental service for restaurants. The project was launched in the context of changes in German legislation prohibiting the use of single-use plastic, and united restaurants and users into a single "loop" system.
We have developed a mobile application and infrastructure that allows:
Planning
Who is the target audience, what functionality is needed at the start, which technology stack is suitable for the tasks and budget.
Interface Design
Development
Testing
Release and support
After launch, the team monitors the operation of the platform and promptly fixes errors.
The AI market in food and beverages is growing rapidly, with an average annual growth rate of 38.8% projected through 2035. Artificial intelligence-based technologies are used in product sorting, quality control, automation of production and packaging.
Personalization and neural networks are also important, especially when working with a young audience. Millennials and zoomers are willing to experiment with brands and tastes, so companies use AI to analyze behavior on social networks and create taste profiles for a specific user.
In 2023, Coca-Cola released a limited—edition Y3000 Zero Sugar drink, the recipe of which was developed jointly by humans and AI - based on how the audience imagines the taste of the future.
AI sensors sort products by size, color, maturity, and contamination faster and more accurately than is manually possible. In January 2024, Tomra Solutions introduced two such AI-based calibration solutions.
A separate area is customer interaction: AI operators accept orders, answer questions and make recommendations, unloading employees and reducing waiting times.
An AI operator for the food industry is an automated chatbot integrated into a restaurant's website, app, or messengers that independently processes up to 80% of typical customer requests for food orders, similar to how we automated transportation calculations for a large logistics company (NDA).
First, you need to determine the target audience, startup functionality, technology stack, and budget.
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