The Department of Food Science in the College of Natural Sciences recently brought together scientists, industry executives, regulatory experts, policymakers and entrepreneurs to chart an agenda for the next decade of food science.

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“Food 2036: Shaping the Future of Food,” an invitational workshop held June 1-2 in Boston and made possible by a gift from the Manning Family Foundation, was the inaugural convening of the university’s Future of Food Initiative — a university-wide effort to integrate food science, public health, biotechnology, artificial intelligence and policy around the food challenges facing society.

In his opening remarks, Chancellor Javier Reyes underscored why food sits at the center of the university’s research mission. “It’s hard to find one more area that will bring so many sciences and so many other disciplines together to support it than food,” Reyes said. “Everything we have at UMass Amherst — as a land-grant research university — converges around food, and that is our commitment.”

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“Food connects to nearly every major global challenge we face — from energy and water to disease, population and economic security,” said Lili He, professor and head of the UMass Amherst Department of Food Science, who organized the workshop. “Food 2036 was designed to bring together the most diverse and talented minds to ask not just what food will look like in 10 years, but what we need to do today to shape it.”

The workshop’s keynote was delivered by Mehmood Khan, former chief scientific officer and vice chair of PepsiCo and current CEO of the Hevolution Foundation. Khan positioned the workshop around five priorities: leading rather than defending; integrating food, pharma, biotech, aging and public health; pursuing a moonshot to redesign protein and food supply systems; using rigorous science to connect food with health span; and building global, cross-sector collaborations that treat food innovation as essential to public health, economic resilience and national security.
 

Five Sessions, Five Frontiers

Discussions unfolded across five thematic sessions, each pairing expert panels with interactive roundtables led by five UMass Food Science faculty: “Blurring the Line Between Food and Pharma,” led by Hang Xiao; “AI in the Food System 2036,” led by Jiakai Lu; “How Novel Technologies Will Define Food Ingredients and Products in 2036,” led by Lutz Grossmann; “Ultra-Processed Foods: Reimagining the Grocery Store,” led by David Julian McClements; and “From Challenges to Acceptance — Building Consumer Trust in Future Foods,” led by He. Together, the sessions addressed the convergence of food science with pharmaceutical and aging science, the promise and data infrastructure requirements of agentic AI, emerging protein technologies, the science of ultra-processed foods, and the behavioral and equity dimensions of food adoption.

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“The future of food will be shaped collectively through convergence, community, and exploration to nourish people, expand human healthspan, strengthen communities and improve lives for generations,” said Noel Anderson, co-chair of the workshop and advisory board member of the UMass food science department and the College of Natural Sciences.

The evening sessions on June 1 featured a chef showcase in partnership with UMass Dining, ranked the best campus food program in the nation for the ninth consecutive year, putting future food concepts on the plate in real time. The evening also included remarks from Massachusetts Lieutenant Governor Kim Driscoll and State Senator Jo Comerford, underscoring broad state support for the initiative. Remarks were also offered by Michael Fox, dean of the College of Natural Sciences.
 

Looking Ahead

The workshop closed the afternoon of June 2 with a commitment to translate its discussions into durable outcomes. UMass Amherst announced plans to publish the insights drawn from the workshop and to develop a post-workshop roadmap, and the university introduced the Strategic Research Alliance — an industry membership model connecting corporate R&D with the expertise, research infrastructure and student talent of the UMass food science department.

For more information about the Future of Food Initiative, contact the Department of Food Science at 413-545-2277.