INSIDE THE SIAL INSIGHTS 2026 PRESS LUNCH
No traditional press conference, no rows of chairs, no slide sequence. On 23 June, SIAL Paris chose a more fitting stage for the presentation of SIAL Insights 2026: a luncheon designed as an edible reading of the report. Held at Atelier Sévigné, in Paris’s Marais district, the event brought together a small circle of journalists, influencers, SIAL Paris representatives and expert partners around one long table decorated with white linens and yellow flowers and lemons, echoing the show’s signature colour. It turns the report’s findings into a shared culinary experience to be shared through flavour, format and conversation.
Produced with ProtéinesXTC, Kantar and Circana, SIAL Insights 2026 looks at the forces reshaping food markets in France, Europe and beyond. Its ten key insights track a sector pulled between pleasure and control, value and quality, local reassurance and global curiosity, digital influence and deep personalisation.
A press lunch built as a tasting of ideas
Each course was designed as a culinary interpretation of one trend identified in the SIAL Insights 2026 report. Introduced by a master of ceremonies and enriched by exchanges with expert partners, each service became a moment of explanation and discussion. Between courses, the SIAL Insights spokespeople changed seats to encourage direct conversations with guests.
Rodolphe Lameyse, Managing Director, Comexposium’s Food & Beverage Division, opened the lunch with a welcome message and an introduction to his arrival at the head of the recently created division. Audrey Ashworth, General Director of SIAL Paris, then introduced SIAL Insights and its expert partners, setting out the concept of taking insights off the page and into the plate. Jean-Gabriel Mollard, Global Marketing & Communication Director for the SIAL NETWORK, guided the meal’s successive stages.
The spokespeople for the SIAL Insights partners included Karin Perrot from Kantar, Xavier Terlet from ProtéinesXTC, Maria Bertoch and Emily Mayer from Circana.
From brioche vegan to baba suzette
The menu opened with Champagne Fleury Blanc de Noir and two amuse-bouches: a vegan brioche with French cashew cream and Breton seaweed caviar, followed by a xiaolongbao with shiitake, Chinese cabbage, Sichuan notes and poppy chilli oil. This first course reflected one of the report’s central trends: From the comfort of home to the outside world: origin as a culinary passport, bringing local cues and global references onto the same plate.
The starter moved towards functional food and personalised health: green asparagus, turnips and eryngii mushrooms glazed with seaweed butter, served with either an umami broth of bergamot and lemongrass or an oyster, ginger and citrus broth. In the SIAL Insights report, health food is no longer framed as a niche, but as a confirmed purchasing lens.
For the main course, brocciu and summer courgette ravioli was served with vegan “à la française” peas, broad beans, sorrel and mint. The corresponding insight was the changing role of plant-based food. Rather than simply replacing meat, plant-led eating is presented as a broader movement of diversification, hybridisation and snacking.
Dessert, a vegan baba suzette with JNPR vanilla syrup, fermented oranges, kumquat jelly and oxalis flower, carried the theme of inclusive innovation, pointing to a market where gluten-free, dairy-free, vegan, allergen-aware and socially responsible offers are moving further into the mainstream.
A room of journalists, editors and food voices
The guests reflected the event’s aim: to put market analysis directly in front of those who follow consumption, distribution, innovation and industry strategy. Attendees included Aurélie Carabin of AFP, Florence Bray of LSA, Adrien Cahuzac of RIA, Joanna Chabas of RTL, Olivia Detroyat of Le Figaro, Paul Fedele of France Snacking, Pierre-Henri Girard Claudon of L’Usine Nouvelle, Agathe Lejeune of Linéaires, Alexandre Rousset of Les Echos and Jean-François Aubry of Le Monde du Surgelé.
The event also welcomed food and retail voices from the influence sphere, including Caroline Nobilé, founder of INSWIP and an expert in food innovation and consumer behaviour, and Marie-Anne Burrier, consultant in food purchasing and marketing at La Factorie de Marie. Their presence reflected one of the report’s emerging themes: digital influence is no longer confined to communication. It increasingly shapes product visibility, desirability and routes to market.
A discreet preview of the next food landscape
The lunch offered a culinary entry point to SIAL Insights 2026 and as a sensory prelude to the wider report, selecting trends that could be tasted without exhausting the analysis. Around the table, functional health met digestive wellbeing, the plant-based aisle moved beyond imitation, inclusivity entered the dessert plate, and snacking appeared in the takeaway bag through a ginger, mint and timut digestive broth or an energy ball made with dates, almonds, oats, seeds, cocoa and dried fruit.
This format suited a food innovation show with a global audience, giving SIAL Paris 2026, taking place from 17 to 21 October, an early editorial pulse. SIAL Insights 2026 offers the sector a first reading of the forces likely to shape conversations in the aisles: functional health, plant-based diversification, inclusive innovation, digital influence, local trust, global flavours and the continuing search for pleasure. The lunch turned those themes into a shared experience, while the show will bring them to full scale through exhibitors, products, expert exchanges and market discoveries. In that sense, SIAL Insights acts as a compass for the months ahead, pointing towards the questions, categories and innovations that will define SIAL Paris 2026.