Eat Me (or Try Not To)

In under two centuries, favorite food brands span continents and cultures, spur innovation and technology, and forever change the food landscape.

Food preferences are influenced by dozens of factors, including genetics, environment and habit, but the taste is also about perception; the color, texture and weight of food are as important as the flavor.

At one point, each and every food brand had to come up with a plan to get people to try them; today, the food and drink marketing industry is worth about $900 billion and growing.

With every single bite or sip that people take, they participate in one of the most sophisticated journeys around the world ever taken; the global food supply chain is part of an $8 trillion network that produces over 4 billion tons of food annually.

Food brands travel around the world, stick around and change the places they visit; once the food is adopted by eager taste buds, it becomes part of local culture and tradition.

Climate change, a global pandemic, and a booming world population mark an opportune time to be in the food business, not unlike the first wave of the industrial food revolution that gave people the first globally mass-produced, processed foods.