#20 9 Food and Drink Trends from Expo West 2026

#28 Still getting taste complaints? You're solving the wrong problem

Still getting taste complaints after switching the flavour? You're not solving the right problem. In this episode I walk you through the 4 root causes behind almost every food and drink product taste complaint, and what a proper diagnosis actually looks like. After years training and working inside a flavour house, and working with brands like McVitie's, I kept seeing the same cycle play out with food and drink founders. Taste complaint comes in, they contact their supplier, they request more samples, and nothing really changes. Sometimes they end up with 20 or 30 flavour samples and no real direction. The problem is almost never just the flavour. Understanding which root cause is actually behind your complaint is what changes everything. In this episode I cover the wrong flavour profile, off-notes from challenging functional ingredients, an unbalanced base, and ingredient interactions, and I give you a structured 4-question taste audit you can do this week before you reach out to anyone. 👋 If you are new here, I am Manon Galizzi, food scientist and flavour expert with over 10 years in the food and drink industry. The Food Lab is the podcast for food & drink founders who want to build brands that actually last on retailer shelves. Subscribe so you never miss an episode! 📱 STAY CONNECTED ▪️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicsi.uk ▪️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-galizzi-94700666/ ▪️ Website: epicsi.co.uk Related Topics: Food Industry Trends, Product Development, Flavour Development, Taste Complaints, Food Product Formulation, Functional Ingredients, Masking Flavouring, Off-Notes, Flavour Profile, Food Startup Strategy, EPICSI

#27 Why your customers buy your product once and never come back

Your food or drink product is on the shelf. Consumers are picking it up. So why aren't they coming back for more? Most food & drink founders blame their marketing or their price point. To be honest, the answer is almost always in the product itself — and more specifically, in the flavour. In this episode, I break down the three flavour problems that quietly destroy your repeat purchase rate, and I give you the exact fixes for each one. Here is the number that changed everything for me: a customer who buys your product once has around a 25% chance of buying again. But a customer who buys it twice? That jumps to 50%. That compounding effect is where food & drink businesses actually become sustainable. Tasting nice is not enough. It has to be amazing. It has to be memorable. And in this episode, I show you exactly how to get there. If you are working through a specific flavour challenge and would like a professional perspective on what is going on and how to fix it, this is exactly what I do at EPICSI. 👉 Book a call here: https://www.epicsi.co.uk/quote 📱 STAY CONNECTED ▪️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicsi.uk ▪️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-galizzi-94700666/ ▪️ Website: epicsi.co.uk 👋 If you are new here, I am Manon Galizzi, food scientist and flavour expert with over 10 years in the food and drink industry. The Food Lab is the podcast for food & drink founders who want to build brands that actually last on retailer shelves. Subscribe so you never miss an episode!

#26 Your food product passes the taste test and STILL gets delisted (here is why)

Your product tastes good. Your team agrees, the reviews are positive, and the complaints are few. And yet your repeat purchase rate is far lower than it should be. So you start questioning the packaging, the price, the marketing. But what if none of those things are the real problem? In this episode I go one level deeper into the neuroscience of why consumers come back, the three specific things at taste level that quietly destroy repeat purchase rate, and how to diagnose which one you are dealing with before the damage is already done. 🎯 Not sure if your product's flavour is what's holding back your repeat purchase rate? Start with the Flavour MOT. It gives you a full expert audit of your product's taste performance, aligned with your target consumer feedback, so you know exactly what to fix and how. 👉 https://www.epicsi.co.uk/flavour-MOT ▶️ WATCH NEXT: #25 Why staying on shelf is HARDER than getting listed (the one metric that decides it) 📱 STAY CONNECTED ▪️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicsi.uk ▪️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-galizzi-94700666/ 👋 If this is your first time here, I am Manon Galizzi, a food scientist and flavour expert with over 10 years in the food industry. I created The Food Lab Podcast to have honest conversations about what it actually takes for food and drink brands in the UK to succeed on retailers' shelves. On this channel you will find: ▪️ Solo episodes where I break down the metrics, strategies and flavour science that food founders need to know ▪️ Behind the scenes looks at real product challenges and how they get solved ▪️ Practical frameworks you can apply to your brand right now Subscribe and let's build products consumers actually want to buy again.

#25 Why staying on shelf is HARDER than getting listed (the one metric that decides it)

Most food and drink founders are pouring everything into finding new customers. New listings, new stockists, new ads. And on the surface, it looks like growth. But underneath that, there is a question most of them are not asking. Are the people who bought last month actually coming back? In this episode I share a real client story that changed the way they saw their entire business, break down the maths that make the case for retention over acquisition, and explain the one number that tells you more about the health of your food brand than anything else. 🎯 Not sure if your product's flavour is holding back your repeat purchase rate? Start with The Flavour MOT. It gives you a full expert audit of your product's taste performance, aligned with your target consumer feedback, so you know exactly what to fix and how.👉 https://www.epicsi.co.uk/flavour-MOT ▶️ WATCH NEXT: #24 76% of new food products FAIL (and nobody tells you the real reason why) 📱 STAY CONNECTED▪️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicsi.uk▪️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-galizzi-94700666/ #foodbusiness #foodfounder #repeatpurchase #FMCG #customerretention 👋 If this is your first time here, I am Manon Galizzi, a food scientist and flavour expert with over 10 years in the food industry. I created The Food Lab Podcast to have honest conversations about what it actually takes for food and drink brands in the UK to succeed on retailers' shelves. On this channel you will find:▪️ Solo episodes where I break down the metrics, strategies and flavour science that food founders need to know▪️ Behind the scenes looks at real product challenges and how they get solved▪️ Practical frameworks you can apply to your brand right now Subscribe and let's build products consumers actually want to buy again.

#24 76% of new food products FAIL (and nobody tells you the real reason why)

Every year, more than 1,300 new food and drink products are launched on UK retail shelves. And 76% of them quietly disappear. To be honest, I do not think this is talked about enough, because the reason why is so fixable. In this episode, I explain the one metric that retailers like Tesco actually use to decide who stays on shelf and who gets delisted, why your sales figures are not telling you the full story, and what the data consistently shows drives repeat purchase across every single food and drink category. 🎯 Not sure if your product's flavour is holding back your repeat purchase rate? Start with the Flavour MOT. It gives you a full expert audit of your product's taste performance, aligned with your target consumer feedback, so you know exactly what to fix and how.👉 https://www.epicsi.co.uk/flavour-MOT 📱 STAY CONNECTED ▪️ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/epicsi.uk ▪️ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/manon-galizzi-94700666/ 👋 If this is your first time here, I am Manon Galizzi, a food scientist and flavour expert with over 10 years in the food industry. I created The Food Lab Podcast to have honest conversations about what it actually takes for food and drink brands in the UK to succeed on retailers' shelves. On this channel you will find: ▪️ Solo episodes where I break down the metrics, strategies and flavour science that food founders need to know ▪️ Behind-the-scenes looks at real product challenges and how they get solved ▪️ Practical frameworks you can apply to your brand right now Subscribe — and let's build products consumers actually want to buy again.