Innovation on the Menu: Reflections on the Meals Collective & Future of Food Competition MeetUp
There are few things more energising than gathering with the people who are asking not just what’s next in food — but what could be radically different. That’s exactly what happened at the recent MeetUp hosted by Meals Collective & Future of Food Competition — a space where ideas, taste, and innovation converged in surprising, promising ways.
Here are the key insights and takeaways from an afternoon where innovation was not just a buzzword but the star ingredient.
What Made The MeetUp Special: Innovation Lived, Not Just Discussed
Several things stood out about this event that perfectly mirror how we think at System1 about innovation: boldness, emotional resonance, and working with real uncertainty.
High Emotional Impact = High Potential
One plant-based concept used local, regeneratively grown ingredients — but it wasn’t the sourcing story alone that connected. It was the passion of the founder, the nostalgic flavors, and the elegant packaging that together created an emotional high. You could see people’s reactions: interest, surprise, even delight.
Attention-Grabbing Concepts Break Through
Several entries had highly distinctive visuals — bold color palettes, sculptural food shapes, or unexpected packaging forms (think: edible wrappers or reusable bento sleeves). These innovations got noticed instantly.
➤ We know from testing thousands of concepts: attention is scarce. In a busy category like food, standing out is non-negotiable. Design and presentation aren’t window dressing — they’re core to breakthrough.
Familiar Twist = Fluent Innovation
Fluency — the balance of new and known — is where many food innovations win or lose. The most promising ideas at the Meet-Up were familiar enough to be accepted, but novel enough to excite. For example, one finalist took a globally loved snack and reimagined it with functional ingredients — not disruptive, just smart and emotionally fluent.
Real-Time, Real-World Learning
What made this Meet-Up so exciting is how close it came to the type of feedback we help brands generate through our tool — but in a live, visceral way. Guests weren’t scoring concepts on rational checklists. They were reacting with their faces, their gut instincts, their tastebuds. They were testing like humans do in the real world.
Imagine if every innovation process allowed for this kind of early emotional testing — before scale-up, before packaging, before launch. That’s the exact gap Test Your Innovation was built to fill.
What We Learned
From the event, a few patterns emerged that shed light on how innovations are most likely to succeed — especially in food — when evaluated through the gut, not just the spreadsheet.
| What We Observed | What the Gut (System1) Response Tells Us |
| Flavour surprises — unexpected juxtapositions, unusual ingredient pairings | People pay attention. Surprise is high risk, but high reward — especially when balanced with something familiar so it’s not alienating. |
| Strong sensory cues — texture, aroma, plating | What you taste isn’t the only thing. The look, feel, smell — these evoke instantaneous emotional reactions. Innovations that neglect these lose early. |
| Purpose + provenance — knowing “where it comes from” or “who made it” matters | Builds trust and emotional connection. Even innovation that’s futurefacing benefits from a rooted narrative. |
| Whimsical vs pragmatic balance — a mix of serious sustainability with playful flavour experiments | Too whimsical can feel gimmicky; too pragmatic can feel bland. The best ideas blend both: measurable benefit + joy. |
Implications for Brands, Innovators & Marketers
If you’re leading innovation in food (or in any highly sensory, emotionally driven category), here are what I believe are some practical steps, drawn from what we saw at the MeetUp:
- Prototype earlier and test more
Don’t wait until something is polished. Even rough, smallbatch prototypes or flavor sketches can expose where emotional disconnects lie. Use small feedback moments to test gut reactions. - Design for distinctiveness, not just capacity
What will make consumers stop in their scroll, stall in their shopping aisle, or pick up the fork? Packaging, experience, narrative — these are not extras. They are core to whether innovation wins affection. - Tell the story & feel the story
From sourcing to packaging to mission: these elements must cohere and be felt. If your innovation can evoke purpose, provenance, or place, it’s more likely to embed in memory. - Manage the novelty familiarity tension
Too novel and people alienate; too familiar and you become invisible. Test both edges. Push enough to surprise, but not enough to lose people emotionally or cognitively. - Measure beyond the rational
Surveys that focus on features are necessary, but not sufficient. System1’s work shows that emotional metrics — attention, emotional response, distinctiveness — are often stronger predictors of longterm growth. Build those into your innovation evaluation.
Looking Ahead: Where We Go From Here
As I left the evening, I kept returning to one thought: the future of food innovation is as much about feel as it is about function. Taste, story, memory — these are the levers that will define which innovations make it past first bite, first moment of exposure, and into regular habit.
I look forward to seeing how many of these MeetUp ideas evolve — which ones catch on, how they scale, and how consumers embrace them emotionally. Because ultimately, innovation isn’t just the next cool thing on a shelf. It’s the thing people love, pass on, remember.