Exploring the Future of Food
Exploring how food systems are being reshaped to meet food security, health, and longevity goals, while respecting planetary resources. Anticipating emerging trends and innovations helps us reimagine how we nourish people and the planet in a rapidly changing future.
Building Tomorrow’s Food Systems
From cultivated protein to precision fermentation, we're pioneering the conversation around sustainable food systems and global food security.
Plant-Based
Exploring meat alternatives sourced from plants to mimic taste and texture of animal products.
Cultivated Meat
Real meat grown directly from animal cells, without the need for traditional farming.
Precision Fermentation
Using microorganisms to produce proteins, fats, and other ingredients traditionally from animals.
Food Security
Supporting UAE's National Food Security Strategy 2051 through innovation and technology.
Sustainability
Reducing environmental impact through alternative protein production methods.
Healthspan
Connecting nutrition innovation to longevity and quality of life improvements.
Mission Possible: Food Security
Our comprehensive report assesses the alternative proteins ecosystem — plant-based products, cellular cultivation, and precision fermentation — to understand their potential benefits and development pathways.
Three Years of Food Innovation
Exclusive Tasting Experience
Future Sampling
A tasting experience where innovation met gastronomy – an invitation to explore how cutting-edge food technologies are reimagining the ingredients that shape our daily rituals, from morning coffee to everyday indulgences.
Made possible through a partnership with Emirates Flight Catering and with curation support from Forward Fooding, the experience brought together pioneering companies from around the world. Each showcased breakthrough solutions addressing some of the most pressing challenges within global food systems.
Guided by the innovators themselves, the tasting unfolded as both a sensory and intellectual journey – revealing the science, creativity, and ambition behind each product. Participants experienced butter created from CO₂ by Savor (Feel Good Fats); lettuce grown in the desert through hydroponics; coffee developed through fermentation without the use of coffee beans by Prefer (Bean-Free Coffee); and protein bars made using marine whey by NXW (Nutrition From Water).
Facilitated Workshop
From Lifespan to Healthspan
A transformative workshop facilitated by Trend Researcher and Cultural Analyst Chloé de Ruffray and Innovation Strategist Julie Ezan-Zecca explored how futures thinking can shape healthier, longer, and more fulfilling lives. The session reframed longevity as a source of creativity and societal transformation, culminating in a thoughtfully designed lunch by Patricia Roig, Head Chef of BOCA.
Through strategic foresight tools and guided collective exercises, participants surfaced their imaginaries of longevity, engaged with collaborative futures wheels, and unpacked the shifts, tensions, and opportunities emerging from alternative futures. The experience invited participants to reconsider longevity as one of the defining opportunities of our century – moving beyond the misconception of ageing as a burden, and instead embracing it as a catalyst for innovation.
Forum × Dubai Event
Taste of Tomorrow
As part of the Forum × Dubai initiative, an exclusive dining experience unfolded at BOCA, bringing together futurists, chefs, and food innovators around a shared table. The Taste of Tomorrow dinner created a space where conversation and cuisine intersected, anchored by a thought-provoking panel featuring Culinary Anthropologist Nithiya Leila, Experimental Philosopher Jonathon Keats, and Sonalie Figueiras, Founder of Green Queen. Together, they explored the future of food systems, examining resilience, cultural adaptation, and the shifting narratives around what – and how – we eat.
Central to the experience was the use of climate analog mapping – a foresight tool that compares a city's future climate to the present-day conditions of another – offering a tangible lens into the environmental transformations ahead. Guided by this approach, the menu, co-developed by BOCA's culinary team in collaboration with Jonathon Keats, translated data into a sensory journey. Each dish reflected possible futures shaped by climate change, inviting participants to consider how evolving ecosystems may redefine ingredients, culinary traditions, and the cultural meaning of food itself.
Exclusive Tasting Experience
Cultivated Meat Tasting
We hosted MENA's largest cultivated meat tasting event and introduced guests to the future of sustainable protein. Cultivated lamb meatballs were prepared live, marking a historic moment for food technology in the region.
While the lamb was being cooked, the smell filled the room. It looked, cooked and tasted exactly like the lamb I grew up eating. The future is exciting.— Forum Attendee
We're honoured to be able to showcase some of the work we've been doing over the last few months with a global audience here at the Dubai Future Forum. This was the largest tasting we've hosted in our company's history.— Brett Thompson, CEO & Co-Founder, Newform Foods