Expo Foodtech 2026 highlights the role of technology as a driver of transformation in the food industry

The constant technological transformations and advances in digitalization are providing endless new opportunities for companies to consolidate increasingly innovative, efficient, and sustainable models. This is precisely what the Expo Foodtech will highlight in its sixth edition, the great technological fair of the food industry, which will return once again to Bilbao on May 27 and 28. Under the motto Optimize Everything, Accelerate Success, this important event will focus especially on various key tools, such as automation and food processing solutions, designed to optimize processes and improve the production and distribution of their products.

Read more Carlos Sainz, first driver to complete a lap of the Madring, venue of the Spanish GP

More than 8,000 professionals from the food and beverage sector will attend to discover the latest solutions and technologies in food processing, automation and robotics, logistics, and food packaging presented by the more than 250 exhibiting companies at the fair. In total, more than 400 innovations in Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data, Internet of Things (IIoT), blockchain, or robotics, applied to food production plants, among many others, can be discovered.

Once again, Expo Foodtech will host the Food 4 Future World Summit. In what can already be considered the largest European congress on food innovation, more than 300 international experts will share the latest trends and success stories, as well as their particular industry predictions to evolve the way food is produced, improve processes, and progress towards a more efficient and sustainable sector.

In this edition, we will also see the largest gathering to date of CEOs and managing directors of the main food and beverage companies. Among them, we can highlight the top executives of companies such as Unilever, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Danone, Ferrero, Gallo, Frit Ravich, Deoleo, Campofrío, Kellanova, Nueva Pescanova, General Mills, Eroski, Alma Carraovejas, and Leo Boeck, among others. It will be the ideal opportunity to learn firsthand about more than a hundred industrial experiences from leading companies in the food industry that are already implementing solutions to produce more efficiently, automated, and sustainably.

This is the case, for example, of Pepsico, which will present its new catering model Pilla Tortilla, a restaurant that turns Lay’s potato chips into the main ingredient for making the Spanish omelette. Also Hijos de Rivera, the food and beverage company worldwide known for producing Estrella Galicia beer, which will share a pioneering global project to simulate flavor perception using quantum computing and AI. Or Florette, which will showcase its packaging technology designed to preserve all freshness, reduce waste, and advance towards more sustainable solutions in fresh food products.

Likewise, the congress will have a content agenda focused on each industry segment – meat, beverages, dairy, fishing, horticulture, new ingredients, and also food packaging and logistics – as well as for each professional profile – CEOs, Plant Managers, CTOs (Chief Technology Officers), CIOs (Chief Information Officers), R&D directors, and operations and logistics managers –.

As a major novelty this year, the fair goes a step further, bringing together the entire ecosystem of companies and professionals dedicated to the application of advanced technologies throughout the food chain in the first global forum of open innovation in the foodtech field in Europe, led by Eatable Adventures.

Read more Eurovision from Tel Aviv: “We must bring Zionists and patriots to the stage”

The Open Innovation & Corporate Venturing Summit will bring together startups with disruptive proposals to address the strategic challenges posed by the major corporations in the food sector. These companies will have a properly structured space to present their strategic and technological challenges to the international entrepreneurial ecosystem, facilitating access to innovative solutions that are ready to be piloted, scaled, or invested in.

The Open Innovation & Corporate Venturing Summit will feature a high-level agenda, including inspiring talks from international leaders in corporate venturing (the strategy of established companies to accelerate their digital transformation by investing in startups) and open innovation. Strategic panels will also be held where the keys to effectively collaborating with these emerging companies will be shared, as well as success stories of companies already transforming their business through open innovation.

The new edition of Expo Foodtech and Pick&Pack will feature Italy as the guest country. This will allow attendees to get to know firsthand the agri-food ecosystem of the transalpine country, which combines the weight of a consolidated industry with growing activity in agrifoodtech innovation.

To this end, the fair will bring together executives from prestigious Italian food companies such as Laurette de Franco, Head of Open Innovation at Barilla; Alessandro Schena, Open Innovation Manager at Loacker; Graziano Stasi, Head of Management, Ingredients, and Retail at Molino Casillo; and Jacopo Alberti, Innovation Expert at Amadori. They will all share their views on how Italian family businesses and large food groups are incorporating new open innovation models to strengthen the competitiveness, efficiency, and sustainability of their value chains.

In short, Expo Foodtech will once again be an essential event for professionals and companies related to the food production chain. They will all have the unique opportunity to learn about the latest innovations and the most transformative and useful experiences to continue progressing towards a food sector that will undoubtedly offer many new growth opportunities thanks to the full incorporation of technology.

Read more The new German life of Freixenet