This report presents four scenarios on the futures of food consumption and the agrifood ecosystem in Europe in 2035, prepared for the EIT Food Consumer Observatory. It continues the 2024 scenario work, this time with emphasis on technological advances, specifically consumer acceptance of alternative proteins and of processed and functional food. Starting from the general and consumer trends, wild cards and weak signals identified by the Observatory, the EIT Food community and a broader set of food and foresight experts took part in three online workshops in autumn 2025.
Crossing the two dimensions gives four structurally different futures: Natural and Local (low in processing, low in alternatives), Whole-Food Mosaic (low in processing, high in alternatives), High-Tech Savour (high in processing, high in alternatives) and Convenient and Affordable (high in processing, low in alternatives). Each narrative is written in the present tense, as if already in 2035.
Threats, opportunities and stakeholder actions were then developed for each scenario and synthesised in ten cross-scenario areas, among them making healthy and sustainable food affordable for all, safeguarding farmers' futures in the transition, reframing 'processing for good' with scientific evidence, managing the energy and climate footprint of new food technologies, expanding protein diversification to aquaculture and coordinating multi-level governance through transition partnerships. The annexes publish the workshop agendas, the driving forces, the raw ideation per scenario and implication tables per stakeholder group.
