What is an Innovation Gap? An ‘Innovation Gap’ occurs when the belief in the importance of food innovation for future success is present within an organisation or brand. But that same organisation or brand is not satisfied with their current level of innovation. This gap between what they know to be important and true (i.e. where they would like to be), and what their current reality demonstrates, is an Innovation Gap. And it is prevalent across many industries, especially the food industry. Food innovation is essential in our modern society, in such a fast-paced world. And consumer decision-making process means that brands need to keep up or risk out of the coveted top-of-mind position for consumers. You need to make sure that you are developing on-trend products at a pace that allows you to get to market. Before the trend reaches the decline stage of its life cycle. I see the primary objective for closing the food innovation gap as investigating ways of addressing the ever-increasing consumer demands. This includes more safe, nutritious and affordable food to satisfy a growing population. The challenge here is in achieving this while using less land, not contributing to more waste and also aiming to reduce our environmental impact. 
your customers who will decide whether your innovations are ‘successful’ or not through purchases and repurchases, so it is important to consider their opinions and feedback in the product development process. You can do this in a variety of ways, for example, through focus groups or customer testing or tasting with prototypes.
Now that we understand more about what the food innovation gap is, how do we go about closing it?
Firstly, it is good practice to carry out processes that will allow you to understand where you are currently at with your innovation activities in comparison to the rest of the market. And also define what you would like your innovation processes to look like. A food innovation workshop can be helpful here for helping you to generate more ideas and put them into action. It will help you clarify what you want to achieve with innovation, and understand the specific issues that can prevent you from implementing innovative strategies. Following this first step, you can then identify the areas of your innovation processes, structures and policies (if you have them – if you don’t, you will need to create some) that can be improved. And determine the steps needed to make that happen. These don’t need to be solely located in the R&D department. Innovation can be found anywhere across the organisation from the Finance department to IT. So bear that in mind when analysing your company. It is highly unlikely that a brand will be able to close their innovation gap using the same thinking and strategies that got them to where they are today. Something needs to change somewhere along the line. And discovering what this is in the most efficient way possible is often best achieved through specific, collaborative efforts with internal or external partners.Promoting Open Innovation
The food industry is moving from a more traditional ‘introverted’ approach and closed-door culture to a more collaborative and extroverted mindset. This new mindset will hopefully allow for more open innovation to take place within food industry brands and organisations. An open innovation culture can positively impact and encourage the people within a company, from employees to C-level, to be curious, open-minded and always on the lookout for new ideas. A good way to incorporate this is to usually work with a top-down approach, but encourage bottom-up input along the way. One method of promoting open innovation in your organisation is to allow employees to set aside a certain amount of time per week to dedicate to brainstorming. New product ideas, flavours, packaging improvements etc. Finally, in order to encourage innovation within your brand, it is essential to also involve your customers where possible. At the end of the day, it isyour customers who will decide whether your innovations are ‘successful’ or not through purchases and repurchases, so it is important to consider their opinions and feedback in the product development process. You can do this in a variety of ways, for example, through focus groups or customer testing or tasting with prototypes.