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As tomorrow's World Food Day 2026 highlights the importance of innovation in food systems, Emma Curtis, managing director of Strong Roots, argues that changing what we eat is a powerful lever for building a more sustainable and resilient future. But that doesn’t require radical new consumption habits. One of the biggest opportunities lies in improving the foods consumers already know, love and buy every week.

This year’s World Food Day theme, 'Innovate today. Nourish tomorrow.', raises an important question for the food industry: what innovation will deliver the changes we need at scale?

Food systems face scaling challenge

Climate change is increasing pressure on agricultural production; natural resources are under growing strain and changing consumer priorities are rising across many markets – the need for change is pressing. Research from the EAT-Lancet Commission has highlighted the importance of shifting toward more plant-forward diets and transforming food production systems to build a healthier, more sustainable future. Equally, organisations such as Tilt Collective have pointed to the need for practical interventions that can shift consumption patterns towards more plant-forward choices at scale.

However, much of the conversation around the solutions to these problems centres on breakthrough technologies, novel ingredients and entirely new categories of food. While these innovations have an important role to play, there is a risk that we overlook a simpler and potentially more scalable opportunity: improving the nutritional and environmental profile of the foods people already eat every day.

However, the challenge is finding realistic pathways to get to the destination. Innovation only delivers impact when people embrace the products it creates.

The overlooked opportunity: More vegetables on more plates

One of the clearest opportunities lies in helping consumers eat more vegetables, more often. We already know that diets richer in vegetables can support better health outcomes while helping reduce pressure on food systems, yet awareness has often proved easier to build than behaviour change.

Most consumers are not making food choices based on health or sustainability alone. They are balancing affordability, convenience, taste, habit and nutrition, often all at once.

For manufacturers, that reality should be viewed as an opportunity rather than a barrier. If we want to encourage more sustainable diets, we need to make those choices more appealing and more accessible within existing eating habits.

Making better choices easier

The food industry often talks about changing consumer behaviour. A more useful question may be how we can work with existing behaviour instead.

Research demonstrates that, when forced to, most will prioritise value and simplicity above all else. The most successful food innovations, therefore, tend to reduce those trade-offs rather than reinforce them.

That means focusing on products that fit naturally into people's lives. Foods that consumers already recognise, enjoy and regularly buy often provide a far more effective route to impact than entirely new categories that require people to rethink the way they shop, cook or eat.

Food manufacturers should therefore judge innovation by its impact, and ask how familiar foods can be improved through better ingredients, better production methods and better agricultural practices – such as incorporating regenerative farming and sustainable sourcing.

Reinventing familiar foods

By improving foods that already have a place in consumers' shopping baskets and freezer aisles, consumers aren't asked to abandon familiar favourites.

As part of the wider McCain Foods family, we see first-hand how food-system resilience depends on both how food is grown and produced. Regenerative agriculture practices can strengthen the long-term resilience of food production, while continuing to bring innovation to how familiar foods are made more sustainably. It is a reminder that meaningful change can happen across the entire food system, from the way ingredients are grown to the way everyday foods are produced and enjoyed.

The broader lesson is that innovation does not always require entirely new categories. Sometimes the biggest impact comes from improving the ones that already exist.

Health, sustainability and innovation at scale

As World Food Day prompts reflection on the future of food, it is worth remembering that resilience is not built through technology alone, it is built through adoption.

Too often, food innovation is discussed through a single lens, whether health, sustainability or technology. In reality, successful innovation combines all these priorities, alongside taste and convenience. A healthier product that fails to deliver on taste is unlikely to achieve widespread adoption, while a sustainable product that is inconvenient to prepare may struggle to fit into busy lives.

The most effective innovations are often those that fit seamlessly into people's lives, helping them eat more vegetables and make better choices without demanding entirely new behaviours.

Building a more resilient food system is unlikely to depend on asking consumers to reinvent their lifestyles. More often, it will depend on reinventing the foods they already love.