Experts highlight rising influence of retailers and insurers, workforce strain, and a renewed focus on preventable risks like foreign material, allergens, and labeling.
NOVATO, Calif. – January 8, 2026 – SafetyChain, the leading digital plant management platform for food and beverage manufacturers, today released its top predictions for how food safety, quality, and operations will evolve in 2026. Drawing on insights from SafetyChain’s customer-facing experts and plant-floor consultants, the forecast points to a year where retailers and insurers play a larger role in setting standards, labor constraints drive consolidation, and manufacturers move from reacting to recalls to preventing them.
With potential changes to regulatory oversight on the horizon, brands and their suppliers are expecting more responsibility to fall on the private sector. At the same time, ongoing workforce shortages, aging facilities, and growing scrutiny around allergens and foreign material are exposing gaps in traditional paper-based systems and manual processes. SafetyChain’s experts see 2026 as a pivotal year for manufacturers to simplify their systems, strengthen food safety culture, and make better use of the data already being collected every day on the plant floor.
Based on frontline conversations with food manufacturers across the globe, SafetyChain experts have identified five trends that will shape food and beverage operations in 2026:
1. Private stakeholders become the de facto watchdogs of food safety
“As public budgets tighten and regulatory resources come under pressure, manufacturers are bracing for more oversight from their largest customers and insurers. Retailers, quick-service restaurant groups, and their insurance providers are already pushing stricter supplier expectations, including more frequent customer audits and tighter documentation requirements. In 2026, that pressure is expected to intensify. Large brands will increasingly mandate their own food safety and quality standards regardless of what regulators can enforce, requiring suppliers to prove control over their programs in far greater detail. Likewise, larger retailers are going to place the same level of expectations on smaller manufacturers. These additional quality requirements could inhibit their ability to get into larger retailers.” - Dan White, Industry Consultant, Former Plant & District Manager
2. Food safety culture moves from talking point to audit requirement
“Global schemes tied to GFSI are adding more detailed clause-level expectations around food safety culture, and manufacturers are preparing for auditors to dig deeper than slogans or one-off training sessions. In the year ahead, plants will need to demonstrate how food safety is embedded into daily routines: how leaders set priorities, how frontline workers are trained and empowered, and how issues are raised and resolved. This will extend beyond manufacturers to foodservice and quick-serve environments, where high turnover and limited training can quickly undermine safe practices.” - Tiffany Donica, Sr. Manager of Industry Consultants, Former Director of Quality & CI, and Matthew Snider, Director of Industry Coaches, Former COO
3. Labor shortages and consolidation reshape risk across the supply chain Plant data and AI evolve from hindsight to foresight
“Many food manufacturers have already digitized core checks such as metal detector verifications, quality forms, and process controls. The next phase of maturity is using that data to anticipate problems rather than simply documenting them after the fact. By 2026, more plants are expected to route operational data into analytics and AI tools that can identify patterns in rejects, process parameter changes, or environmental conditions before they escalate into scrap, downtime, or rework. The most effective initiatives will avoid adding unnecessary complexity and instead focus on delivering simple, accessible insights that support better real-time decisions on the plant floor. Facilities that design digital systems around how work actually flows will be best positioned to realize the value of these predictive capabilities.”.- Matthew Snider, Director of Industry Coaches, Former COO, and Ruth Bitterman, Continuous Improvement Coach, Former Director of Technical Services
4. Preventable recalls face a zero-tolerance mindset
“Recent recalls tied to foreign material, allergens, and mislabeling have highlighted how often the root causes trace back to controllable factors such as equipment condition, metal detection performance, product temperature, aperture settings, packaging controls, and changeover discipline. SafetyChain expects 2026 to bring a sharper focus on these preventable incidents. Manufacturers will be under greater pressure to prove they are maintaining equipment appropriately, validating detection systems, and managing labels and allergens with rigor. As equipment is moved between facilities or installed in older buildings with long-standing hygienic challenges, due diligence will be critical to avoid transferring problems along with the machinery. Preventive maintenance and hygienic design will be treated as frontline protections against brand-damaging events.” - Tiffany Donica Sr. Manager of Industry Consultants, Former Director of Quality & CI
5. Plant data and AI evolve from hindsight to foresight Labor shortages and consolidation reshape risk across the supply chain
“Despite rising wages, food manufacturers continue to face persistent challenges in recruiting and retaining skilled labor. Alongside broader cost and efficiency pressures, these constraints are contributing to continued consolidation across the industry, with production increasingly concentrated in fewer, larger facilities serving wider distribution networks. As production footprints shift, products move through new routes, climates, and logistics partners, introducing operational variables that may be unfamiliar to receiving teams. Without effective transfer of institutional knowledge, these changes can elevate risk through subtle process differences, packaging performance under new environmental conditions, or site-specific execution gaps. In this environment, organizations with limited cross-training and poorly documented best practices may struggle to maintain consistency, compliance, and operational resilience, while manufacturers that intentionally share lessons learned and build deeper, more flexible benches of expertise across facilities will be better positioned to adapt as their networks evolve.” - Matthew Snider, Director of Industry Coaches, Former COO
About SafetyChain Software
SafetyChain is the leading digital plant management platform trusted by over 2,500 food and beverage manufacturers to improve quality, throughput, and compliance. By connecting plant floor operations with real-time visibility and optimization tools, SafetyChain helps manufacturers unlock performance gains, reduce risk, and ensure regulatory compliance. More information about SafetyChain is available at safetychain.com
SafetyChain is the leading digital plant management platform trusted by over 2,500 food and beverage manufacturers to improve quality, throughput, and compliance. By connecting plant floor operations with real-time visibility and optimization tools, SafetyChain helps manufacturers unlock performance gains, reduce risk, and ensure regulatory compliance. More information about SafetyChain is available at safetychain.com
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