Gitnux/Report 2026

Food and Bev Industry Statistics

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Food and Bev Industry Statistics
Samuel NorbergWritten by Samuel Norberg·Fact-checked by Maya Johansson
Published
How this report is researched
01Editorial Scope

An editor sets the topic, the inclusion criteria, and the evaluation framework before research starts.

02Source Research

AI search agents locate sources and extract each figure together with the document it came from.

Read our full methodology →

Search agents attach provenance to every extracted figure.

Next review: within 39 days

01 Industry overview

The food and bev industry at a glance

The global food and beverage market reached $7.04 trillion in 2025 and is forecast to expand at a 5.9% CAGR through 2030, while foodservice continues to capture a larger share of consumer spending.

$7.04T[91]
Global market size, 2025
5.9%[91]
Global CAGR, 2025–30
$2.51T[64]
U.S. food spending, 2025
56.3%[64]
U.S. foodservice share, 2025
Market size
The global food and beverages market reached $7.04 trillion in 2025, according to The Business Research Company. In the United States, total food spending reached $2.51 trillion in inflation-adjusted terms in 2025, including $1.41 trillion at foodservice outlets and $1.10 trillion at food-retailing outlets.[91][64]
Forecast & CAGR
The global market is projected to reach $9.32 trillion by 2030, implying a 5.9% compound annual growth rate from 2025 to 2030. Allianz Research separately expects food and beverage processing to approach $10 trillion by 2030, with the broader agrifood sector growing at about 7% annually during 2025–30.[91][92]
Market share & regions
Asia-Pacific was the largest regional market in 2025, while Western Europe was identified as the fastest-growing region in the global market forecast. In the EU, food, beverage and tobacco wholesalers, retailers and foodservice enterprises generated €3.25 trillion in turnover and employed 17.1 million people in 2023.[91][7]
Segmentation
The market is segmented by product into alcoholic beverages, non-alcoholic beverages, grain products, bakery and confectionery, frozen foods and other categories; by nature into organic and conventional products; and by distribution into supermarkets and hypermarkets, convenience stores, e-commerce and other channels. In U.S. expenditure statistics, food is also divided into food at home, food away from home, alcohol at home and alcohol away from home.[91][64]
Pricing
U.S. food-at-home prices increased 2.3% in 2025 compared with 2024, below the 20-year average annual increase of 2.6%. Internationally, the FAO cereal price index averaged 4.9% below its 2024 level in 2025, while the overall food-price environment remained affected by commodity, energy, logistics and labor costs.[64][75]
Trends, drivers & challenges
Growth is being supported by higher disposable incomes, demand for low- and no-sugar beverages, convenience and foodservice consumption. Major challenges include elevated energy, logistics and fertilizer costs, uneven commodity prices and pressure to reformulate products for health and sustainability goals; Allianz Research reported agrifood gross margins of about 30% in 2024.[91][92]
Consumer behavior & competition
U.S. consumers allocated 56.3% of total food expenditures to food away from home in 2025, compared with 43.7% to food at home. Limited-service U.S. foodservice sales reached $516.1 billion in inflation-adjusted 2025 dollars, exceeding the $488.4 billion recorded by full-service establishments.[64]
M&A
Food and beverage M&A activity recovered in 2026 but remained selective, with buyers emphasizing valuation discipline and due diligence. In U.S. transactions during the third quarter of 2026, manufacturers accounted for 56.6% of reported deals, while distribution and retail represented 32.9%.[93][94]
Regulation
The FDA issued a final rule on October 9, 2026, allowing salt substitutes in standardized foods whose standards of identity specify sodium chloride; the change applies to 139 standards of identity and is intended to support sodium reduction. Regulation is also expanding around product formulation, labeling, packaging and sustainability across major markets.[95][7]
Latest news
Recent 2026 industry developments include renewed packaged-food consolidation and stronger M&A activity in selected categories. PMCF reported that food and beverage manufacturers represented 56.6% of U.S. transactions in the third quarter, while AP reported a proposed combination of McCormick and Unilever announced in March 2026.[94][96]

02 Ranking

Top 10 Companies in the Food And Bev Industry

The leading companies in the food and bev industry, ranked on market impact, performance, momentum, innovation and brand popularity.

Updated November 10, 2026 · Next review December 10, 2026

Verdict

Cargill leads Gitnux's 2026 food and bev ranking with an Overall score of 9.5, with revenue growth of 6.5%. The Coca-Cola Company is the highest-ranked non-alcoholic beverage producer at 9.2, backed by 33.8 billion unit cases sold in 2025.

Ranked by Overall score · How we score ↓

Editor's top 3 picks

Where to start, by need.

  1. #1 Overall · Leader in food ingredients and protein

    Cargill

    US

    Ranked #1 · 9.5 · Food ingredients and protein

    Why we picked it: The agricultural commodities, ingredients, and protein segment links supply sourcing to ingredient and protein delivery.

    See in ranking ↓Visit cargill.com ↗

  2. Leader in non-alcoholic beverage

    The Coca-Cola Company

    US

    Ranked #2 · 9.2 · Non-alcoholic beverage

    Why we picked it: The non-alcoholic beverages and concentrates segment is measured at system case volume.

    See in ranking ↓Visit coca-colacompany.com ↗

  3. Leader in quick-service operations

    McDonald's

    US

    Ranked #3 · 9.1 · Quick-service operations

    Why we picked it: The quick-service restaurant operation is scaled by a franchise model and a large restaurant footprint.

    See in ranking ↓Visit mcdonalds.com ↗

Pick 1 is the #1 company overall. Picks 2 and 3 are the highest-ranked companies in the top 5 that add a new segment.

Full ranking

Sort by
Top 10 companies in the food and bev industry, 2026 – Gitnux ranking
#CompanyOverall ↓Company snapshot
1

Cargill

Food ingredients and protein · US

9.5
2

The Coca-Cola Company

Non-alcoholic beverage · US

9.2
3

McDonald's

Quick-service operations · US

9.1
4

Yum! Brands

Quick-service franchising · US

9.1
5

JBS

Multiprotein food production · NL

9.1
6

Mars

Confectionery, petcare and food products · US

8.8
7

Nestlé

Global food, beverages, nutrition and petcare · CH

8.7
8

PepsiCo

Convenient foods and beverages worldwide · US

8.7
9

Starbucks

Global coffeehouse operations and beverages · US

8.5
10

Tyson Foods

Chicken, beef, pork and prepared foods · US

8.5

How we score

  • Impact (30%): scale and weight in the market (revenue, market share, employees, market position).
  • Performance (20%): recent revenue growth and operating margin; an analyst assessment where a company does not publish them.
  • Momentum (20%): growth trajectory and future potential.
  • Innovation (15%): R&D intensity and how technologically advanced the company is.

Popularity (brand search demand, 15%) counts toward Overall but is not published as a column. Overall leaves out what is not known.

Scale Scores are shown on a 7–10 scale with one decimal; bars start at 7.0.

Cadence Recalculated when new figures are published; next review December 10, 2026.

Independence. Rankings are editorially independent. Scores, ranks, picks and the verdict follow the method above; no company can pay to change them.

Cite this ranking

APA

Samuel Norberg. (2026, November 10). Top 10 companies in the food and bev industry. In Food And Bev Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-and-bev-industry-statistics/#top-companies

report visual · Comparison

Share of EU food and beverage processing value added by product category

Other food manufacturing holds the largest share at 31.3%.

Other food manufacturing31.3%
Bakery and starch-based products18.1%
Beverages16.9%
Meat and meat products15.7%
Dairy products10.9%
Fruit and vegetables7.1%
source-verifiedec.europa.eu

04 Statistics

Technology & Innovation

AI and automation adoption is broad in North America, with 39% implementing or using AI in a 2024 outlook survey and 60% using automation for more tasks in 2023.

AI in the food and bev industry

  • 8.1% was the 2021–22 revenue growth reported by North American food and beverage companies implementing or using AI.[1]
  • 7.6% was the 2021–22 profit growth reported by North American food and beverage companies implementing or using AI.[1]
  • 39% of North American food and beverage organizations were implementing or using AI in the 2024 outlook survey.[1]
  • 7.3% was the 2024 profit growth reported by food and beverage companies with no AI implementation plans or still investigating AI.[2]
  • 40% of North American food and beverage organizations were already implementing or using AI in 2023.[1]
  • 97% of food and beverage businesses were at least investigating AI in 2024, while more than one-third were already using it globally.[2]

Automation in the food and bev industry

  • 60% of North American food and beverage processors, manufacturers and distributors were using technology to automate more tasks in 2023.[2]
  • 9% of food and beverage companies had fully automated maintenance scheduling in 2025.[3]
  • 28% of food and beverage companies had fully automated production-line control in 2025.[3]
  • 13% of food and beverage companies had fully automated food-safety monitoring in 2025.[3]
  • 22% of food and beverage companies had fully automated inventory management in 2025.[3]
  • 227.5% was the increase in total robot stock in food and beverage manufacturing from 2010 to 2020.[4]

Digital Transformation in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 28% of food, beverage, and ingredient professionals reported positive effects from digital transformation technologies on food-safety preventive controls in 2024.[5]
  • 40% of 423 food and beverage professionals worldwide identified disconnected systems and data as their organization’s biggest operational barrier in 2026.[6]
  • 82% of food and beverage leaders said technology adoption was a strategic priority, while 6% reported fully integrated digital systems, in a 2025 survey.[6]
  • 34% of food, beverage, and ingredient professionals said manufacturing process or assembly had been positively affected by digital transformation technologies in 2024.[5]

Technology Adoption in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 50% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in artificial intelligence as part of their 2025 digital-transformation strategies.[5]
  • 31% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in robotics or robotic process automation in 2025.[5]
  • 22% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in machine-learning software in 2025.[5]
  • 23% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in mobile-app technologies in 2025.[5]

Cloud Computing in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 30% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in cloud computing or enterprise resource-planning software and systems in 2025.[5]
  • 39.5% of EU enterprises in accommodation and food-service activities used paid cloud-computing services in 2025.[7]
  • 52% of food processors and manufacturers were considering cloud technology, while 45% reported no cloud use, in a 2023 industry survey.[1]
  • 18% of food manufacturers were already using cloud-based manufacturing-execution systems, while 51% planned implementation, according to a 2025 industry survey.[3]

Big Data in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 24% of food-manufacturing respondents were very familiar with advanced analytics, while 34% were moderately familiar, in CRB’s 2025 survey.[8]
  • 13% of food manufacturers were already using advanced-analytics or big-data platforms, while 44% planned implementation, in a 2025 industry survey.[3]
  • 35% of food, beverage, and ingredient companies anticipated investing in big data and real-time analytics in 2025.[5]
  • 47% of food, beverage, and ingredient professionals identified gathering, analyzing, and leveraging data for data-driven decisions as a digital-transformation investment driver in 2024.[5]

Blockchain in the food and bev industry

  • 43% of surveyed food-supply-chain organizations were researching, planning or piloting blockchain adoption in 2024.[9]
  • 22% of survey respondents were food distributors or wholesalers in a 2024 food blockchain adoption study.[9]

05 Statistics

Data & Analytics

Data governance and business intelligence remain uneven: Nearly 25% reported difficulty quickly obtaining and analyzing performance and efficiency data in 2024.

Business intelligence in the food and bev industry

  • 54% of European food and beverage companies already had business-intelligence tools in 2023.[2]
  • 40% of European food and beverage companies wanted to introduce business-intelligence tools within 12 months of the 2023 survey.[2]
  • 67% of U.S. restaurant respondents said consolidated data would definitely help their business or be a total game-changer in 2025.[10]
  • Nearly 25% of food and beverage organizations reported difficulty quickly obtaining and analyzing business-performance and efficiency data in 2024.[1]
  • 46% of U.S. restaurant respondents used two to four different software systems to run their businesses in 2025.[10]
  • 66% higher revenue growth was reported for food and beverage companies using industry-specific business-intelligence software than for companies without BI software in 2024.[1]

Data analytics in the food and bev industry

  • 19% of food manufacturers said data analytics provided the most value for batch-quality deviation analysis in 2025.[3]
  • 25% of food manufacturers said data analytics provided the most value for energy-consumption patterns and peak-usage alerts in 2025.[3]
  • 33% of food manufacturers said data analytics provided the most value for identifying production bottlenecks in 2025.[3]
  • 33% of U.S. restaurant operators said they used AI for data analytics in 2024.[11]
  • 21% of food manufacturers said data analytics provided the most value for equipment-failure prediction and prevention in 2025.[3]
  • 27% of food manufacturers said data analytics provided the most value for product-yield-loss tracking and alerts in 2025.[3]

Data Quality in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 22% of consumer-products companies reported that businesses lacked trust in data quality and validity in 2024.[12]
  • 6.4 out of 10: Food, beverage and agriculture respondents rated data accuracy as important in 2018.[13]
  • 77% of retail and consumer-products companies identified improving data quality as a priority in 2023.[14]
  • 6.4 out of 10: Food, beverage and agriculture respondents rated data timeliness as important in 2018.[13]
  • 7.0 out of 10: Food, beverage and agriculture respondents rated data completeness as important in 2018.[13]
  • 6.6 out of 10: Food, beverage and agriculture respondents rated data consistency as important in 2018.[13]

Data Governance in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 22% of consumer-products companies planned to increase investment in data infrastructure and governance over the following 12 months in 2024.[12]
  • 81% of supply-management organizations found their data-governance program useful in 2024.[15]
  • 61% of supply-management organizations had a dedicated data-governance function in 2024.[15]
  • 90% of supply-management organizations agreed or strongly agreed that data governance was necessary in 2024.[15]
  • 43% of consumer-products companies reported struggling to establish the right level of data governance in 2024.[12]
  • 47% of supply-management data-governance functions were housed in a center of excellence in 2024.[15]

KPIs in the food and bev industry

  • 80% of restaurant respondents used at least some external partnerships to analyze menu changes in 2024.[16]
  • 96% of food and beverage shippers considered KPIs essential to logistics management in the cited survey.[17]
  • 73% of restaurant operators were at least somewhat confident they were putting their data to good use in 2025.[18]
  • 47% of food and beverage shippers identified changing strategy based on KPI results as a top challenge.[17]
  • 21% of restaurant respondents conducted very rigorous operations-based analyses when evaluating menu changes in 2024.[16]
  • 25% of restaurant operators were confident they optimized data well in December 2023.[19]

06 Statistics

Strategy & Growth

Competitive spend ties to product development and valuation discipline in a selective 2026 recovery; U.S. manufacturers accounted for 56.6% of reported deals in Q3 2026.

Growth in the food and bev industry

  • 2.7% is the forecast year-over-year increase in Canadian food and beverage manufacturing sales for 2026, reaching C$173 billion.[2]
  • 4.8% was the increase in Canadian food services and drinking places operating revenue in 2024, reaching C$99.6 billion.[20]
  • 12.1% was the year-over-year increase in Canadian food and beverage manufacturing sales in 2022, reaching C$158 billion.[2]
  • 30.1% was the compound annual growth rate of U.S. ready-to-drink alcoholic beverages cited for the 2019–2023 period.[21]
  • 14.5% was the year-over-year increase in Canadian food and beverage manufacturing sales in 2021, reaching C$141 billion.[2]
  • 5.7% was the year-over-year increase in Canadian food and beverage manufacturing sales in 2023, reaching C$167 billion.[2]

Differentiation in the food and bev industry

  • 10.2% of U.S. consumers identified natural or organic ingredients as a major food and beverage purchase factor in 2025.[3]
  • 3.6% of U.S. consumers identified environmental impact or sustainability as a major food and beverage purchase factor in 2025.[3]
  • 80.6% of U.S. consumers identified price or value as a major food and beverage purchase factor in 2025.[3]
  • 51% of surveyed food and beverage leaders cited staying competitive as a reason for increasing new-product-development spending in 2024.[6]
  • 29.6% of U.S. consumers identified safety and quality as a major food and beverage purchase factor in 2025.[3]
  • 17.4% of U.S. consumers identified convenience or ease of preparation as a major food and beverage purchase factor in 2025.[3]

Mergers and acquisitions in the food and bev industry

  • 36.1 billion dollars was the disclosed value of Mars’s acquisition of Kellanova in 2024.[22]
  • 9.0 billion dollars was the value of BlueTriton Brands’ acquisition of Primo Brands in 2024.[23]
  • 2.1 billion dollars was the value of Performance Food Group’s acquisition of Cheney Brothers in 2024.[23]
  • 83.1 billion dollars in food and beverage deals closed globally in 2023.[23]
  • 674 North American food and beverage M&A transactions closed in 2024.[22]
  • 602 North American food and beverage M&A transactions closed in 2023.[22]

Strategic partnerships in the food and bev industry

  • 85% is the stake Anheuser-Busch agreed to acquire in BeatBox under its 2025 beverage partnership transaction.[24]
  • 71 million pounds was Fever-Tree’s share-buyback program initiated after its U.S. strategic partnership with Molson Coors.[25]
  • 80 million dollars was Food Empire’s planned investment in a freeze-dried soluble-coffee facility in Vietnam announced in 2024.[26]
  • 36.4 million Singapore dollars was Mitsui’s planned investment for a 15% stake in four SATS food businesses in 2024.[26]
  • 18 million dollars was Oobli’s Series B1 financing announced alongside its partnership with Ingredion in 2024.[27]
  • 40 million dollars was the initial investment announced by Ikhlas Capital in its strategic partnership with Food Empire in 2024.[28]

07 Statistics

People & Workforce

Hiring in the food and bev industry

  • 16% of U.S. manufacturing workers were employed in food and beverage manufacturing in 2024.[4]
  • 2.1 million people worked in U.S. food and beverage manufacturing in 2024.[4]
  • 350,400 people worked in U.S. bakeries and tortilla manufacturing in 2024, representing 17% of sector employment.[4]
  • 35% of U.S. restaurants said filling openings was more difficult in 2025 than in 2024.[29]
  • 556,400 people worked in U.S. animal slaughtering and processing in 2024, representing 26% of food and beverage manufacturing employment.[4]

Employee retention in the food and bev industry

  • 74% of U.S. millennials said they had worked in the restaurant industry at some point in their lives in 2025.[29]
  • 51% of U.S. adults said restaurant work had been their first job in 2025.[29]
  • 937,000 separations averaged each month in the U.S. leisure and hospitality sector in 2025.[29]
  • 135% was hourly employee turnover at U.S. limited-service restaurants in the third quarter of 2024.[30]
  • 59% of North American food and beverage companies had restructured or reduced the working day or week to retain staff in 2024.[1]

Remote Work in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • Across U.S. food and beverage businesses, 26% let employees choose to work in-person or remotely in 2025, while 73% require in-person work.[31]
  • U.S. accommodation and food-services firms averaged 0.1 work-from-home days per week from November 2024 through January 2025.[32]
  • Among food-sector career starters globally, 36% were fully site-based during their first two years of work, according to a 2024 survey.[33]
  • In U.S. accommodation and food services, 1.7% of employees were able to work fully remotely in 2024.[34]

Hybrid Work in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among food-sector career starters globally, 27% worked in a hybrid arrangement during their first two years, according to a 2024 survey.[33]
  • In 2025, 80% of hospitality and food-services employers said they were still struggling to get the balance right with hybrid working.[35]
  • In U.S. restaurant and bar businesses, 12% offered employees a choice between in-person and remote work in 2025.[31]
  • Across U.S. food and beverage businesses, 26% offered employees the option to work in-person or remotely in 2025.[31]

Upskilling in the food and bev industry

  • 0.6 percentage points was the revenue-growth gap associated with reskilling or upskilling existing employees among food and beverage companies.[1]
  • 48% of North American food and beverage companies changed manufacturing locations in 2024.[1]
  • 24% of North American food and beverage companies planned to reskill or upskill existing employees within 12 months in 2024.[1]
  • 1.8 percentage points was the revenue-growth gap associated with using technology to prevent knowledge loss among food and beverage companies.[1]
  • 59% of North American food and beverage companies used less rigid job descriptions in 2024.[1]

Employee Engagement in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • Food-service employees recorded 72.6% engagement in 2026, up 9.1 percentage points from the prior measurement.[36]
  • Globally, 21% of employees were engaged in 2025, providing an economy-wide benchmark relevant where food-and-beverage-specific engagement data are limited.[37]
  • Among U.S. and Canadian frontline employees surveyed in 2024, 52% worked in foodservice, in a sample of 46,250 employees used to assess workplace engagement.[19]
  • Food-and-beverage organizations scored 7.91 out of 10 for employee engagement in the latest 2026 benchmark dataset.[38]

DEI in the food and bev industry

  • 54.5% of Canada’s full-service restaurant workforce was female in 2023.[20]
  • 50% of U.S. restaurant and foodservice managers were female in 2024.[39]
  • 43% of women were represented in food and beverage manufacturing’s corporate entry-level workforce in 2024.[40]

08 Statistics

Customer & Sales

Customer experience in the food and bev industry

  • 89 points was the 2024 full-service restaurant score for beverage quality in the United States.[41]
  • 79 points was the 2024 customer-satisfaction score for U.S. fast-food restaurants on a 0–100 scale.[41]
  • 92 points was the 2024 full-service restaurant score for food-order accuracy in the United States.[41]
  • 89 points was the 2024 full-service restaurant score for food quality, taste, temperature and freshness in the United States.[41]
  • 87 points was the 2024 full-service restaurant score for speed of receiving food at the table in the United States.[41]

Customer retention in the food and bev industry

  • $4,071 in sales was generated per 1,000 guests receiving non-personalized marketing.[42]
  • 92% of first-time restaurant guests without targeted outreach did not return in the following year.[42]
  • 4.1 million of 27 million active restaurant guests who visited in 2023 returned in 2024.[42]
  • 70% of restaurant revenue was attributed to uncommitted customers in Upside’s 2025 analysis.[43]
  • 17% was the overall restaurant guest-retention rate in 2024 across more than 2,000 locations and 68 million unique guests.[42]

Customer acquisition in the food and bev industry

  • 20% of active restaurant guests were directly reachable through loyalty programs at the high end of the 2025 industry estimate.[44]
  • 82% of Gen Z U.S. food and beverage shoppers bought a product based on an online influencer recommendation during the year ending June 2025.[45]
  • 63% of U.S. food and beverage shoppers bought a prepackaged product based on an online influencer recommendation during the year ending June 2025.[45]
  • 15% of active restaurant guests were directly reachable through loyalty programs, according to a 2025 industry analysis.[44]
  • 56% of food and beverage marketers targeting millennials or older consumers ranked Facebook among their top three customer-reach platforms in 2025.[45]

Customer loyalty in the food and bev industry

  • 75% of quick-service restaurant operators with loyalty programs said those programs boosted traffic in 2024.[29]
  • 76% of limited-service restaurant operators with loyalty programs said those programs boosted traffic in 2024.[29]
  • 96% of restaurant loyalty-program customers said in 2024 that rewards programs were a good way to earn more value for their money.[39]
  • 78% of coffee-and-snack operators with loyalty programs said those programs boosted traffic in 2024.[29]
  • 62% was the average month-to-month loyalty-member retention rate among high-performing quick-service restaurants in 2024.[46]

Lead generation in the food and bev industry

  • 200 food and beverage marketing professionals participated in Tinuiti’s U.S. lead-generation and customer-reach survey in June 2025.[45]
  • 49% of millennial U.S. food and beverage shoppers purchased from influencer-founded or influencer-led brands during the year ending June 2025.[45]
  • 61% of millennial U.S. food and beverage shoppers with children under 18 purchased from influencer-founded or influencer-led brands during the year ending June 2025.[45]
  • 33% of U.S. food and beverage shoppers purchased products from influencer-founded or influencer-led brands during the year ending June 2025.[45]
  • 8% of Gen Z U.S. food and beverage shoppers discovered new products through AI chatbots during the year ending June 2025.[45]

09 Statistics

Marketing & Brand

Marketing remains sensitive to costs and tariffs: 59% of U.S. food and beverage marketers said they were leaning into healthiness and convenience through marketing in 2025.

Marketing in the food and bev industry

  • 33% of U.S. food and beverage marketers said changing tariffs were very disruptive to their business in 2025.[45]
  • 59% of U.S. food and beverage marketers said they were leaning into healthiness and convenience through marketing in 2025.[45]
  • 59% of U.S. food and beverage marketers said they were focusing marketing on organic product qualities in 2025.[45]
  • 48% of U.S. food and beverage marketers said changing tariffs were at least somewhat disruptive to their business in 2025.[45]
  • Nearly one-third of U.S. food and beverage marketing decision-makers expected tariffs and import costs to have a significant impact on advertising strategy in 2025.[45]

Digital marketing in the food and bev industry

  • 49% of U.S. food and beverage brands advertised on Walmart in 2025.[45]
  • 27.4% was the projected 2024 growth rate for U.S. nonalcoholic beverage digital advertising.[47]
  • Amazon Prime Video was the second-most effective streaming video platform for reaching U.S. food and beverage customers according to marketers surveyed in 2025.[45]
  • 22% of U.S. food and beverage shoppers most often discovered new products on YouTube in 2025.[45]
  • 5.4% was the projected 2024 growth rate for U.S. food digital advertising.[47]

Branding in the food and bev industry

  • $24.6 billion was Nestlé’s global food brand value in 2026, up 23% year over year.[48]
  • $1.1 billion was Canada Dry’s global brand value in 2026.[48]
  • 93 out of 100 was Amul’s Brand Strength Index score in 2026.[48]
  • $46.1 billion was Coca-Cola’s global nonalcoholic drinks brand value in 2026, down 1% year over year.[48]
  • $33.4 billion was the combined global brand value of functional drinks in 2026.[48]

Social media in the food and bev industry

  • 742.3K was the average TikTok follower count for food and beverage brands in Dash Social’s H1 2025 benchmark.[49]
  • 0.3% was the average Instagram engagement rate for food and beverage brands in Dash Social’s H1 2025 benchmark.[49]
  • 42% of U.S. adults who saw food or nutrition content on social media encountered it on TikTok in 2024.[50]
  • 63% of U.S. adults who saw food or nutrition content on social media encountered it on Facebook in 2024.[50]
  • 68% of U.S. adults who had seen food or nutrition content on social media trusted it at least a little in 2024.[50]

Influencer Marketing in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • 49% of U.S. millennial food and beverage shoppers said they purchased from an influencer-founded or influencer-led brand in the previous year, according to a 2025 survey.[45]
  • 69.3% of TikTok videos featuring branded food or beverage products had no brand-relationship disclosure, based on an analysis of 648 videos published in 2025.[51]
  • 33% of U.S. food and beverage shoppers said they purchased a product from an influencer-founded or influencer-led brand such as Prime or Feastables in the previous year, in 2025.[45]
  • 63% of U.S. food and beverage shoppers said they purchased a prepackaged product based on an online influencer’s recommendation in the previous year, according to a June 2025 survey.[45]
  • 47.6% of TikTok videos featuring food products from top influencers included a branded product, based on an analysis of 1,360 videos published in 2025.[51]

10 Statistics

Operations & Execution

Automation coverage is partial, while recalls show risk categories by share: 40% of U.S. food and beverage recalls from 2002 to 2023 involved Listeria or Salmonella.

Process optimization in the food and bev industry

  • 22% of surveyed food and beverage companies had fully automated inventory management in 2025.[3]
  • 3% of Canadian food and beverage processors improved cold storage to manage food loss in 2024.[52]
  • 28% of surveyed food and beverage companies had completely automated production-line control in 2025.[3]
  • 37% of surveyed food and beverage companies used a mix of digital and manual processes for production-line control in 2025.[3]
  • 4% of Canadian food and beverage processors implemented new technology, such as food traceability, to manage food loss in 2024.[52]

Operational efficiency in the food and bev industry

  • 51% of surveyed food and beverage companies used a mix of digital and manual processes for warehouse management in 2025.[3]
  • 9% of surveyed food and beverage companies had fully automated maintenance scheduling in 2025.[3]
  • 55% of surveyed food and beverage companies used a mix of digital and manual processes for recipe or batch management in 2025.[3]
  • 0.4% was the annual decline in hours worked at U.S. restaurants and other eating places from 2019 to 2024.[4]
  • 20% of surveyed food and beverage companies had fully automated warehouse management in 2025.[3]

Quality management in the food and bev industry

  • 40% of U.S. food and beverage recalls from 2002 to 2023 involved Listeria or Salmonella.[53]
  • 95 food recalls were coordinated by Food Standards Australia New Zealand in 2024, up 16% from 2023.[54]
  • 28% of U.S. food and beverage recalls from 2002 to 2023 involved allergens.[53]
  • 6% of U.S. food and beverage recalls from 2002 to 2023 were classified as Class III recalls.[53]
  • 9% of U.S. food and beverage recalls from 2002 to 2023 were attributed to processing issues.[53]

Supply chain in the food and bev industry

  • 46% of surveyed North American food and beverage companies wanted to improve inventory-level maintenance in 2024.[2]
  • 31% of food and grocery supply-chain leaders identified implementing new fulfillment models for shifting customer demand as a top challenge in 2025.[55]
  • 9.5% was the out-of-stock rate for foods reported by consumers in 2024.[56]
  • 32% of surveyed North American food and beverage companies wanted to increase quality checks to strengthen supply-chain resilience in 2024.[1]
  • 54% of surveyed North American food and beverage companies wanted to align production schedules with available inventory in 2024.[2]

Outsourcing / Offshoring in the food and beverage sector (sector benchmark)

  • Among United States and European food-services and facility-management buyers, 91% expected outsourcing budgets to increase over the five years following 2024.[57]
  • Across food and beverage CPG companies globally, 52% planned to expand their international footprint in 2023, including North America, EMEA and APAC expansion.[58]
  • Across food and beverage CPG companies globally, 75% used at least some co-manufacturing resources in 2023.[59]
  • Across food and beverage CPG companies globally, 55% outsourced more manufacturing in 2023 than three years earlier, according to a survey of 287 industry leaders.[59]
  • Among food and beverage CPG companies globally, 47% worked with up to 10 co-manufacturers in 2023.[59]

11 Statistics

Finance & Pricing

Pricing actions reflect cost pressure: 85% of U.S. limited-service restaurant operators increased menu prices in 2025 because of higher food costs.

Pricing strategy in the food and bev industry

  • 2.2% of Scottish food and drink businesses reported no customer price increase in the latest Johnston Carmichael survey.[60]
  • 85% of U.S. limited-service restaurant operators increased menu prices in 2025 because of higher food costs.[61]
  • 47% of U.S. restaurant operators raised prices during the six months covered by the 2025 survey, compared with 67% in 2023.[62]
  • 90% of U.S. full-service restaurant operators increased menu prices in 2025 because of higher food costs.[61]
  • 35.1% of Scottish food and drink businesses reported average price increases of 5% to 10%.[60]

Cost reduction in the food and bev industry

  • 37% of U.S. full-service restaurant operators increased food-waste tracking in 2025.[61]
  • 63% of U.S. full-service restaurant operators shopped for alternative suppliers in 2025 to address higher food costs.[61]
  • 51% of U.S. limited-service restaurant operators shopped for alternative suppliers in 2025 to address higher food costs.[61]
  • 60% of U.S. full-service restaurant operators removed menu items in 2025 to mitigate higher food costs.[61]
  • 47% of U.S. full-service restaurant operators cut costs in other operating areas in 2025.[61]

Profitability in the food and bev industry

  • 78% of Australian food and beverage companies in the McGrathNicol sample converted higher sales into higher earnings in fiscal 2024.[63]
  • 2.2% was the forecast increase in Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing gross-margin rate index for 2027.[2]
  • 32.0% was the median food and non-alcohol beverage cost as a share of sales for U.S. full-service restaurants in 2024.[39]
  • 3.6% was the decline in Canada’s food and beverage manufacturing gross-margin rate index in 2023.[2]
  • 12.3% of revenue was represented by wages in Canada’s seafood manufacturing subsector in 2025.[2]

Financial planning in the food and bev industry

  • 29.6 days was the average working-capital cycle for the Australian food and beverage sample in fiscal 2024.[63]
  • 31.5 days was the average days sales outstanding for the Australian food and beverage sample in fiscal 2024.[63]
  • 52.2 days was the average days payable outstanding for the Australian food and beverage sample in fiscal 2024.[63]
  • 5% was average revenue growth among the Australian food and beverage companies sampled for fiscal 2024.[63]
  • 5.3% was the decline in capital expenditure by Canada’s food and beverage manufacturers in 2025.[2]

12 Statistics

Product & Service

Product churn is large: about 20,000 new and reformulated food products enter the U.S. food system annually.

Product development in the food and bev industry

  • 20,000 new and reformulated food products per year are introduced into the U.S. food system.[64]
  • 63% of Gen Z U.S. consumers prioritize taste or flavor when choosing food and beverages.[3]
  • 8% of U.S. consumers with household incomes above $100,000 prioritize sustainability in food and beverage purchases.[3]
  • 25% of Gen Z U.S. consumers prioritize brand reputation when choosing food and beverages.[3]
  • 17% of U.S. consumers with household incomes above $100,000 prioritize natural or organic ingredients in food and beverage purchases.[3]

Product lifecycle in the food and bev industry

  • More than 80% of U.S. consumers who notice shrinkflation say it feels deceptive, affecting perceptions during the product lifecycle.[65]
  • About 20,000 new and reformulated food products enter the U.S. food system annually, illustrating the scale of product replacement and renewal.[64]

Value proposition in the food and bev industry

  • 61% of U.S. consumers would be more likely to buy a product priced $2 lower than a similar product made with fair-worker practices.[66]
  • 40% of beverage shoppers say trusted quality defines good value in beverages.[67]
  • 46% of beverage shoppers say taste defines good value in beverages.[67]
  • 17.4% of U.S. consumers identify convenience or ease of preparation as a leading food and beverage purchase factor.[3]
  • 46% of U.S. consumers would choose a mid-priced, somewhat eco-friendly food product over higher- or lower-priced alternatives.[66]

13 Statistics

Sustainability & Ethics

ESG disclosure and worker engagement differ: only 20% of companies in a 2026 food and beverage benchmark disclosed direct engagement with workers or their representatives.

Sustainability in the food and bev industry

  • 83% of surveyed food and beverage manufacturers had an ESG policy in place in 2024, globally.[8]
  • 20.7% of Nestlé’s key ingredient volumes came from farmers using regenerative agriculture practices in 2025.[68]
  • More than half of surveyed food and beverage manufacturers expected carbon-neutral or net-zero manufacturing within five years in 2024, globally.[8]
  • 23.8% was the U.S. market share of consumer packaged goods marketed with sustainable attributes in 2024.[69]
  • 26.6% was the average price premium for U.S. consumer packaged goods marketed with sustainable attributes in 2024.[69]

ESG in the food and bev industry

  • 90% of global food and beverage companies by market capitalization reported sustainability information in the OECD’s 2024 dataset.[70]
  • Only 20% of companies in the 2026 food and beverage benchmark disclosed direct engagement with workers or their representatives.[71]
  • 15 out of 100 was the average forced-labour-prevention score of major food and beverage companies in the 2026 KnowTheChain benchmark.[71]
  • 20% of Nestlé’s long-term management incentive remuneration was linked to sustainability-related targets in 2024.[68]
  • 5 out of 100 was the 2026 benchmark score for remedy processes among major food and beverage companies.[71]

Ethics in the food and bev industry

  • Only 6 companies in the 2026 benchmark disclosed sourcing-country data for at least three raw materials.[72]
  • 49% of benchmarked food and beverage companies disclosed some sourcing-country data for raw materials in 2026.[72]
  • 84% of benchmarked food and beverage companies sourced beans or cattle products in 2026.[72]
  • 38 companies in the 2026 benchmark disclosed sourcing beans as a high-risk commodity.[72]
  • 37 companies in the 2026 benchmark disclosed sourcing palm oil as a high-risk commodity.[72]

CSR in the food and bev industry

  • 135.4 billion servings of affordable micronutrient-fortified nutrition were provided by Nestlé in 2025.[68]
  • 62% of Canadian food and beverage processors identified supply-chain issues as a high-priority concern in 2023–2024.[52]
  • 92% of Canadian food and beverage processors reported programs intended to enhance public trust in 2023–2024.[52]
  • 58% of Canadian food and beverage processors identified labour concerns as a high-priority issue in 2023–2024.[52]
  • 14.7 million trees were secured for planting by Nestlé in 2023.[73]

Circular economy in the food and bev industry

  • 2.2% was the reduction in total U.S. surplus food from 2023 to 2024.[74]
  • 58 million tonnes of food waste were generated in the EU in 2024.[7]
  • 20% of EU food waste came from processing and manufacturing in 2024.[7]
  • 83.4 million tonnes of packaging waste were generated in the EU in 2022.[7]
  • 186.5 kilograms of packaging waste per person were generated in the EU in 2022.[7]

Carbon footprint in the food and bev industry

  • 2.4 gigatonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent were emitted by African agrifood systems in 2023.[75]
  • 30.67 million tonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent were associated with post-consumer food waste in China in 2022.[53]
  • 1.4 gigatonnes of carbon-dioxide equivalent came from packaging, transport and retail in 2023.[75]
  • 43.98 grams of post-consumer food waste were generated per person per meal in China in 2022.[53]
  • 32% of global anthropogenic greenhouse-gas emissions came from agrifood systems in 2023.[75]

15 Statistics

Globalization & Expansion

Trade scale is significant, with the global food import bill estimated at $2.22 trillion in 2025, up 7.9% year on year.

Globalization in the food and bev industry

  • $54.8 billion was the value of Canada’s global agricultural imports in 2025.[64]
  • $2.22 trillion was the estimated global food import bill in 2025, up 7.9% year on year.[86]
  • $10.2 billion was the average annual Canadian direct-investment position in the U.S. food industry during 2022–2024.[64]
  • 230 economic territories participated in aquatic-food trade in 2024.[75]
  • 85% of global soybean and palm-oil exports came from the two leading exporters for each commodity in 2024.[75]

Cultural adaptation in the food and bev industry

  • 1.24 cup-equivalents was the average daily fruit consumption of non-Hispanic Asian U.S. consumers in 2011–2018.[64]
  • 1.06 ounce-equivalents was the average daily seafood consumption of non-Hispanic Asian U.S. consumers in 2011–2018.[64]
  • 23 countries are covered by FAO minimum dietary diversity surveys.[75]
  • 8 food subgroups are separately measured in the USDA International Food Consumption Patterns database.[64]
  • 74% of new immigrants consumed fruit on a given day, compared with 62% of native-born people in the same U.S. racial or ethnic group.[64]

Supplier management in the food and bev industry

  • 11 million farmers are covered by the European food and drink industry’s agricultural supply relationships.[87]
  • 70% of EU agricultural produce is purchased by the European food and drink processing industry.[87]
  • 2.12 million SMEs in Unilever’s retail value chain were supported to grow their businesses in 2025.[88]
  • 43% of Unilever procurement spend was represented by suppliers signing its Living Wage Promise by the end of 2025.[88]
  • 4.5 million farms supply Nestlé indirectly through suppliers worldwide.[87]

Stakeholder management in the food and bev industry

  • 49 large food and drink companies participated in FoodDrinkEurope’s 2025 CEO survey.[87]
  • 2.3 million farm jobs were indirectly supported by the EU food and drink industry in 2025.[87]
  • €300 billion was the value added generated by the EU food and drink industry in 2025.[87]
  • More than one-third of surveyed EU food and drink CEOs reported worsening business conditions in Europe in 2025.[87]
  • 13 EU member states were represented in FoodDrinkEurope’s 2025 CEO survey.[87]

Distribution channels in the food and bev industry

  • About one in five U.S. household grocery shoppers purchased groceries online at least once in the previous month in 2022.[64]
  • 60% of Philippine food retail sales came from small local grocers in 2024.[89]
  • 43.7% of U.S. food expenditures were spent on food at home in 2025.[90]
  • 26.4% of U.S. food-at-home sales came from warehouse clubs and supercenters in 2025.[90]
  • 56.3% of U.S. food expenditures were spent on food away from home in 2025.[90]

Key questions about the food and bev industry

What is the size of the global food and beverage market in 2025?
The global food and beverage market reached $7.04 trillion in 2025.
How fast is the market expected to grow to 2030?
The market is forecast to expand at a 5.9% CAGR through 2030, reaching $9.32 trillion by 2030.
Which companies lead the food and bev industry?
Cargill leads Gitnux's 2026 food and bev ranking with an Overall score of 9.5, with revenue growth of 6.5%. The Coca-Cola Company is the highest-ranked non-alcoholic beverage producer at 9.2, backed by 33.8 billion unit cases sold in 2025.
What technology shifts matter most for processors, manufacturers, and distributors?
Automation and data use show measurable adoption: 60% of processors, manufacturers, and distributors used technology to automate more tasks in 2023.
How does food spending split between food at home and away from home in the U.S.?
In 2025, U.S. consumers spent 56.3% on food away from home and 43.7% on food at home.
What regulatory change affects standardized foods in 2026?
The FDA issued a final rule on October 9, 2026 allowing salt substitutes in standardized foods where standards specify sodium chloride, applying to 139 standards of identity.
Reference

Cite This Report

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APA
Samuel Norberg. (2026, November 10). Food And Bev Industry Statistics. Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-and-bev-industry-statistics
MLA
Samuel Norberg. "Food And Bev Industry Statistics." Gitnux, 10 Nov 2026, https://gitnux.org/food-and-bev-industry-statistics.
Chicago
Samuel Norberg. 2026. "Food And Bev Industry Statistics." Gitnux. https://gitnux.org/food-and-bev-industry-statistics.

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