F&B Industry: Adjusting to Rapid Change in the Hospitality Industry - Essay Sample

Introduction

The food and beverage industry (F&B) are undergoing tremendous changes. These changes are attributed to several factors in the fast-changing world. Many factors, including but not limited to; health, technology, and social factors, are expected to shape the future of the industry (Plunkett, 2018). These changes are taking place in the whole of the hospitality industry. Consequently, the two sectors are adjusting their mode of operations to fit in the new situation. For example, the hospitality industry has evolved from the roadside stop-overs, where travelers would just take a rest to the current modern home-like hotels.

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Changes in the food and beverages industry began immediately with changes in the entire hospitality industry. From history, the first hotel was built in 1829 in Boston, Massachusetts (Davis et al., 2015). From that time, the industry has undergone evident changes to suit the requirements at the moment. The Food and Beverages industry (F&B) evolved, and it has also undergone similar changes to offer the needs of the moments. Some changes are innovational and situational.

In the F&B industry, changes were the first simple in traditional times to the current complex changes. Traditionally, food preservation methods such as salt, smoke, and sun-drying were used to preserve food for long periods. Other methods, such as boiling, were used to remove the poison from the diet (Ojugo, 2016). Fermentation was also used to brew traditional alcoholic drinks. Food preparation and preservation during the traditional errors were simple and less procedural. As times and seasons changed, changes made way to the industry as well.

When advancements in technology knocked in the F&B industry, new features were made to the foodstuffs and drinks for sale. Canning, pasteurizing, and processing are a few changes brought by technology in the industry (Davis et al., 2015). As a result, buyers were looking for; specific colors, specific tastes, and concrete additives to opt for a particular brand. These preferences were based on the aspect of either traditional or modern food or drinks. Different processing also brought different tastes for a distinct population group. Later, education and further technological changes have created more changes in the industry. For instance, people not only buy to satisfy hunger and quench thirst but also cater to their health. People want to know which food helps to prevent a particular disease. They also eat and drink according to medical advice (Ojugo, 2016).

In the food and beverage industry, changes have been inevitable since the time immemorial. Reforms began with simple technologies such as the use of smoke, salt, and cooking to kill microorganisms. For instance, meat would be salted and smoked and salted before it was transferred to the storage (Querol & Fleet, 2017). In the pre-school days, traditional fermentation was the talk of the town for beer and wine brewers. The process would make the drink tasty and attractive to the consumers. The drinks were considered safer than water in places where water was an issue or was sanitarily fresh. These were, however, home-based implementations.

During the industrial revolutions, the food and beverage industry was picked by several changes. For instance, an easy way to preserve foodstuffs safely was invented. That was and still is the canning process. The sealing makes it the most convenient since it prevents or completely covers food or the drink from access by dirt or microorganisms, causing decompositions (Plunkett, 2018). Fresh foods such as vegetables and dairy products also began to be preserved through pasteurization. Packaging enables them to stay longer (Querol & Fleet, 2017). However, with the second-to-second changing world, the food and beverage industry still have a future.

The Future Trends

Healthy Concern

Healthy is becoming everyone's issue. Everything done everywhere has healthy as their number one aspect of consideration. As a result, the food and beverages (F&B) industry have been placed at the center to ensure people eat healthily. The concern is that processed foods and drinks have several health challenges. In recent days, synthetic food has been linked to several health impacts. For example, they have been linked to cancer cases—other cases such as; organ disorders and other impairments still under research. As a result, people are now moving from are processed foods to plant-based food (Davis et al., 2015). The F&B has well adopted the measure. The majority of its meals and drinks are now made of plant-based products.

Cannabis sativa, a plant that has been under the jaws of the law for a long time, is now making it come back in people's lives in a grand style. With its laboratory proofed health benefits, the crop is becoming the new ingredient in the F&B industry. From the laboratory, cannabis has been evidenced to be a proper treatment for cancer. It has also been discovered to have some ethical impacts on people with depression. The crop is also useful in mending broken bones. The F&B industry has picked up with plants to sell its health values combined with foodstuffs and drinks. In food processing, cannabis exits in various forms. For example, there is cooking oil processed from the crop (Ojugo, 2016).

In the past, food, and drinks shopping habits, people used to buy foodstuffs based on physical characteristics. For, buyers checked on the food colors, the taste of the product, its packaging style, and many such others. However, with the health aspect as a primary concern for everyone, these habits have changed. People now make food purchases depending on its health benefits (Davis et al., 2015). For instance, consumers now purchase food depending on its ability to reduce particular spreading in the body, and the diet promotes good health. With these habits, the F&B industry players will have to shift from providing a solution for hunger to providing a solution for health. For example, the increased use of the moringa plant has been copied from India across the globe in hotels and home food preparation. The crop's leaves contain a lot of vitamins (Ojugo, 2016). The crop is also used to cater for cases of malnutrition in other parts of the world. The F&B industry will, therefore, need to copy these uses in the future to remain relevant.

Emerging cases such as the sadly trending presence of Covid-19, calls for immediate changes in the F&B industry to address the issue. As discovered, the virus, just like other viruses such as HIV, is here to stay with us. Thus, swift mechanisms need to be approached for combat measures. These measures need to be in areas where people make frequent visits, such as hotel places (Hossain & Uddin, 2020). Therefore, the F&B industry needs to be prepared to act as the trail-blazer for the changes. Simply, people are food, and food is people! Initiating health can work swifter to people when implemented in the food and drinks sector (Hossain & Uddin, 2020).

The Covid_19, just like any other flue, may find it difficult to survive in acidic environments (Headey & Ruel, 2020). Thus, food for human consumption will need some relative acidity included in it. For instance, fruits such as lemon, lime, and unripe mangoes already have a broader market in the F&B industry. Other vegetables such as sauerkraut, cabbage, and beets are also acidic and can help mitigate the effects of the Covid-19 when adequately taken (Hossain & Uddin, 2020). Other foodstuffs such as ginger will now find a route to a broader market of the food processing industry. Thus, the F&B will need to make these changes on their menus because people not only eat to stop hunger but also create specific treatments.

The F&B industry has a full coverage ranging from bars to eateries will also need to make several structural changes as results of Covid-19 (Headey & Ruel, 2020). This virus thrives in congested areas. Where else do people love congesting? Bars, restaurants, hotels, and such related is the answer. As a result, structural changes such as; sitting arrangements, queuing, and even lodging services will need to be altered (Cory et al., 2018). Social distancing is the new talk of the town. It is a measure that must be observed in the F&B industry to avoid or reduce infections of Covid-19. It is sadly going to be impossible for people to get congested in facilities like a swimming pool. Although drastic, the hotel industry, on the other hand, will need to make them for the safety of their clients (Hossain & Uddin, 2020).

Social Factors

Changes in the F&B industry also cause social factors. From the current to the near future, the youth, for example, aged 18-34 years. They are expected to be the most significant visitors to hotels. The F&B industry, therefore, needs to re-adjust itself from offering the tastes of the old to the flavors of the youth (Querol & Fleet, 2017). Strategies made, therefore, need to be in line with this change. Various changes from branding, product designing, service re-programming, and facility restructuring will need to be checked and re-developed. For instance, games loved and played by older people may lack the market in the future because the youth generation is taking over (Headey & Ruel, 2020). Some of the simple reasons for these changes are; the youth are the most significant population, and they also technology-friendly.

Around the world, there is an influx of visitors internationally. International travel has been on the rise due to the improvements in the flight sector. People want to expose, make fun, and make history in traveling to a place. This influx means a mixture of new cultures. It is, therefore, crucial that the F&B industry players adjust to offering foodstuffs and drinks that are available and other choices for visitors from other cultures (HortiDaily, 2020). Taking the example of Dubai as the heavily visited place on the earth, there may be different from the visiting cultures. Thus, the players in their F&B will need to adjust and offer food and drinks that are acceptable by the visitors (Plunkett, 2018).

Technological Advancements

Technological advancements are also shaping the future of the F&B industry. With technology, everything is changing to an unstoppable pace. For instance, taking an example of food orders in restaurants, people would find food and drinks readily prepared (Cory et al., 2018). This norm later became to be misplaced by the sit-in orders. At this point, people were allowed to give simple rules, specific menus, and wait in a moment for their requests to be ready (Ojugo, 2016). The quickness of this system was enabled by the innovation of kitchen technology, which functions in a nutshell. Although this system is still in use in some parts, the change in the F&B industry is visibly approaching.

Today, the F&B industry operates in preferably best operations. For instance, there has been an increased use of the internet by food lovers and 'drinkers' to place orders. Thus, each hotel has been on the run to create an online platform for its clients to make orders. The change has enabled the industry to operate with a cashless mode of business. For instance, sellers will need to know and master the schedules of their different clients. People simply want to have mobile kitchens where food and drink are supplied to their various destinations at various places at the correct time (Davis et al., 2015). For instance, people wish to have their breakfast and lunch meals provided at their workplaces, and then super-meals were done in their homes. It is, th...