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F&B procurement leaders are navigating rising supply volatility, cost pressure, and compliance expectations. As we move through 2025 and into 2026, teams must rethink how they manage sourcing, supplier evaluation, and risk. Long RFQ cycles and traditional supplier databases no longer cut it. Forward-looking companies are adopting AI-enabled models backed by deep category expertise.
This article highlights five key challenges and how leading F&B teams are addressing them with smarter, faster support models.
Five Key Challenges for 2025 and 2026
1. Ingredient and Input Volatility
From emulsifiers and natural flavors to edible oils and stabilizers, sourcing volatility is now the norm. Climate-linked disruptions, geopolitical instability, and seasonal price swings have pushed some input categories up by 15 to 30% in the past 18 months. Procurement teams need faster ways to track price movement, qualify alternates, and spot supply risk early.
2. Packaging and Co-man Constraints
Many F&B firms face bottlenecks with packaging suppliers and co-manufacturing partners. Lead times for flexible films and printed cartons have increased by 20 to 40%. Available capacity among regional co-mans is tight, especially for niche formats. Teams need to move fast, find new partners, and assess fit before competitors do.
3. Stricter Quality and Compliance Expectations
Certifications like BRC, SQF, and allergen declarations are now under constant review. Buyers must validate more documentation, track supplier performance more closely, and align to evolving customer or retailer mandates. In 2024, over 40% of rejected suppliers were disqualified due to incomplete or outdated compliance files.
4. Siloed and Manual Workflows
Most sourcing teams still rely on spreadsheets, static supplier trackers, and email-based RFQs. This slows down decisions and limits visibility. On average, it takes 4 to 6 weeks to fully qualify a new supplier. Companies using AI-first support have reduced this to 10 to 15 business days and improved shortlist quality by over 30%.
5. Cost Pressure with No Extra Headcount
Teams are being asked to deliver faster decisions and deeper insights with flat or reduced headcount. Traditional consulting is too slow and expensive. Internal research is stretched thin. Sourcing and category leads need a faster, leaner way to gather intelligence and validate options.
How Leading Teams Are Using Cognition
F&B procurement teams are working with Cognition to close these gaps using a hybrid model. Our AI tools scan thousands of suppliers, extract certification data, track price shifts, and flag risk patterns. Analysts with direct F&B experience then validate results, run supplier interviews, and tailor outputs to client needs.
This approach cuts research time by 50 to 60%, reduces cost by up to 45%, and shortens time-to-decision by 3 to 4 weeks. Whether it is identifying certified suppliers for allergen-sensitive inputs, finding excess co-man capacity, or benchmarking category-level sourcing practices, Cognition helps teams act faster and with more confidence.
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