Make the right product decision. Then build it right.
Food Forward helps food companies make better product decisions and execute them correctly, combining market insight with real-world product development. Behind every engagement is a senior advisor and a team that can actually deliver.
David Foerstnerand Team
Food Forward is led by David Foerstner, a food and beverage innovation advisor with over 30 years of experience across product development, food science, and commercialization. David works directly with clients at the strategic level, helping them make the right product decisions before and during development.
Behind him is a small, consistent team of specialists who execute the work: product development, market research, formulation, and commercialization. Clients get senior-level judgment on every engagement and a capable team to deliver it.
Food Forward combines real-time consumer and market intelligence with applied food science to evaluate opportunities, reduce development risk, and translate complex challenges into clear, executable plans. The result is a partner who brings strategic thinking and hands-on delivery to every engagement.
Food Forward also works as an extension of your internal R&D and innovation team, adding senior expertise, development capacity, or specialized capabilities when an important project falls outside your team's bandwidth or experience.
Trusted in high-stakes product decisions
We work with founders, operators, and established companies, including Fortune 500 organizations, navigating high-stakes product decisions.
From decision to shelf.
Consumer Insight & Innovation Strategy
Strong ideas become successful products when they align with real market demand and execution realities. Using real-time consumer intelligence and category data, we help clients identify which products are worth building before development begins. This includes trend analysis, retailer shopper profiling, flavor and ingredient signal tracking, and competitive context. The result is a development pipeline grounded in what consumers are actually doing.
Innovation Decision Support
Most product development problems are actually product decision problems. The most expensive mistake in food innovation is building the wrong product. Before development begins, the most important questions are: Is this the right product? Is it commercially viable? Does it fit your margin targets and retail strategy? We help you answer those questions first, then build the product correctly.
Commercialization & Scale-Up
Getting a formula right is only part of the challenge. Getting it made consistently, at scale, and at the right cost is where many innovations stall. The right decisions early in development make everything downstream faster and more effective. With deep experience across contract manufacturing, ingredient sourcing, and production troubleshooting, we manage the path from bench to shelf.
Labeling, Regulatory & Food Safety
Compliance is not optional, and getting it wrong is expensive. We provide FDA and USDA compliant nutrition facts panels, ingredient statements, and label review, as well as food safety planning including HACCP, FSMA, and SQF audit preparation. This is technical work that requires precision. We do it as part of a complete engagement, not as a separate checklist.
Our core clients are mid-size food and beverage brands, roughly $15M to $500M in revenue, facing high-stakes product decisions, often without dedicated internal resources to evaluate every opportunity with rigor. We also work with founders developing a first product, and with Fortune 500 and billion-dollar companies that need senior-level judgment fast.
Trusted by brands from startup to Fortune 500.
Food Forward has worked with emerging brands launching their first product and established companies navigating complex innovation challenges. The common thread is a need for experienced judgment at critical decision points.
Decision architecture in practice.
The Protein Decision
Regional snack brand · Major national retailer launch
The team entered production trials with a clear target, a defined process control framework, and decision criteria that removed ambiguity from every step. The launch timeline was maintained. The label claim held.
The Redirect
Investor-backed multi-brand food company · Innovation governance
The company now evaluates commercial intent before committing R&D resources. Misaligned development projects are caught at intake rather than at delivery. The CEO gained a structured process she could demonstrate to investors as evidence of operational discipline.
The Innovation Pipeline
National snack brand · Innovation strategy and pipeline development
Several concepts from the intelligence-driven pipeline were selected for development and moved into commercialization. The process gave the innovation team a replicable model for generating and evaluating ideas, shifting the conversation from 'what should we build?' to 'what does the market tell us is worth building?'
The Production Problem
Sunnie Snacks · Fresh, organic kid-focused snack platform
Sunnie Snacks successfully launched its product line using its own manufacturing capability. The operational foundation supported retail traction including a Target launch in Southern California followed by national expansion, along with placement in Costco, Sprouts, and regional grocery chains.
About the Advisor
David Foerstner
Founder & Lead Advisor
David Foerstner, Founder and Lead Advisor, brings over 30 years of applied food science and commercialization experience. He works directly with clients as senior advisor, supported by a consistent execution team covering product development, formulation, market and consumer intelligence, and commercialization. He helps companies make the right product decision first, then ensures they build it right: on time, on spec, and ready for market. Food Forward is based in Los Angeles and works with food and beverage brands across the United States.
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions
Most engagements start with one of two questions.
"Is this worth building?"
"We have been trying to solve this and cannot figure out why it is not working."
If either sounds familiar, tell us about your project.
Tell Us About Your ProjectReady to talk about your project?
Whether you're developing something new, extending the capacity of your R&D team, solving a commercialization problem, or determining whether an opportunity is worth pursuing, tell us what you're working on.
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