Food and beverage manufacturers have spent years investing in food safety software, traceability platforms, and AI tools with no independent measure of whether those investments are paying off. Food Safety Tech is moving to close that gap, launching Food Safety Tech Research (FSTR) — a dedicated research and advisory practice built to produce primary benchmark data for the food safety and foodservice technology market.
The anchor product is the Food Safety Digital Maturity Benchmark, which FSTR describes as the first comprehensive study of how food and beverage manufacturers adopt digital technologies, where adoption stalls, and how maturity levels correlate with operational resilience and business performance. The study will debut publicly at the 15th Anniversary Food Safety Consortium, running October 21–23 in Washington, D.C.
Why Operators Should Pay Attention
For procurement teams, operations directors, and technology buyers inside food and beverage companies, the absence of independent benchmarking has been a real liability. Vendor case studies are optimized for sales, and analyst opinions often lag deployment realities. David Hatch, Co-Founder and Chief Research Officer of FSTR, put it plainly: "Digital transformation is no longer optional, but organizations still lack independent evidence to separate technology promises from measurable business outcomes."
That gap has become more acute as manufacturers layer AI tools onto legacy ERP and food safety management systems. Without peer-level data, operators evaluating new platforms — whether for recall readiness, supplier traceability, or automated HACCP documentation — are negotiating largely blind. FSTR's longitudinal design means benchmarks will evolve year over year, giving buyers a moving baseline rather than a one-time snapshot.
What This Signals for the Vendor Landscape
The launch matters as much for technology providers, insurers, and investors as it does for operators. An independent maturity framework creates a common vocabulary for conversations between buyers and vendors — and raises the bar for what counts as a credible proof point. Vendors who can show their clients ranking highly on a third-party maturity index gain a durable sales asset; those who cannot will face harder procurement scrutiny.
This also fits a broader shift in how foodservice and food manufacturing operators approach tech procurement. AI readiness assessments, digital audit tools, and procurement intelligence platforms are all seeing increased operator interest, as covered in our reporting on AI procurement tools for hospitality operators and operator intelligence on food safety tech investment. FSTR is essentially institutionalizing that intelligence layer for the manufacturing side of the supply chain.
Qualified professionals at food and beverage manufacturers can participate in the benchmark survey confidentially and anonymously; participants receive the full findings report plus a personalized maturity scorecard — making participation directly useful at the company level, not just for industry aggregates.
Written by Michael Politz, Author of Guide to Restaurant Success: The Proven Process for Starting Any Restaurant Business From Scratch to Success (ISBN: 978-1-119-66896-1), Founder of Food & Beverage Magazine, the leading online magazine and resource in the industry. Designer of the Bluetooth logo and recognized in Entrepreneur Magazine's "Top 40 Under 40" for founding American Wholesale Floral, Politz is also the Co-founder of the Proof Awards and the CPG Awards and a partner in numerous consumer brands across the food and beverage sector.
