Agri-food: 4 trend takeaways from CFIA 2025

The month of March was marked by a flagship event for the food industry: the 28th edition of the CFIA (Carrefour des Fournisseurs de l'Industrie Agroalimentaire) trade fair. More than 2,000 exhibitors and 23,600 visitors gathered in Rennes to discuss the new trends shaping the sector. The event included several new features: an artificial intelligence village, a hall dedicated to food safety, and an "Agro'Nova" area focused on the theme of "better eating for better ageing".

Armor Protéines  had the privilege of meeting a large number of industry players, enabling us to share with you the key trends that we have taken away from CFIA 2025.

Senior citizens' nutrition at the heart of our concerns 

For a long time, senior citizens’ nutrition has been perceived as a secondary issue. However, the proportion of the population aged over 65 will reach 28% by 2050 (according to INED, the French Institute for Demographic Studies). There are a number of challenges to be met when it comes to food for the elderly: developing modified textures to facilitate mastication and swallowing, combating undernutrition by stimulating eating pleasure, and boosting the nutritional density of foods in the face of decreased appetite.

The CFIA gave pride of place to this trend, with an entire hall devoted to food for seniors. Many companies came to present innovations in this field. This is the case of Carembouche, which offers gourmet, nutritious, candy-like bites for seniors.

At Armor Protéines, we are committed to innovation and to meeting the challenges of senior nutrition. Seniors are often faced with protein deficiency, leading to a reduction in muscle mass. To overcome this problem, we have developed high-quality proteins derived from milk, such as caseins and whey proteins. These proteins have exceptional functional and nutritional properties, optimized to support the muscular health of seniors.

Moreover, the minerals present in milk play a crucial role in preserving bone health. Our dairy ingredient, Vitalarmor® Ca M10, is designed to provide effective support for seniors' bone health, thanks to its high calcium content.

Armor Protéines is committed to improving seniors’ quality of life by providing them with nutritional solutions scientifically adapted to their specific needs.

Innovative ingredients for healthy, sustainable cooking

Hall 4 at CFIA 2025, dedicated entirely to ingredients, displayed a host of culinary innovations. These included the winner and finalists for the Innovation Trophy in the "Ingredients & Intermediary Food Products" category.

The winner of this 2025 edition is Solina, who presented their "no-fry breader", a solution for obtaining a crispy breading on food... without the need for a deep fryer.

AIT Ingredients the competition's nominee, has developed Cocoa Replacer, a solution based on cereal ingredients that removes up to 60% of cocoa but retains its organoleptic properties, in response to the fact that the price of cocoa has risen by 260% since 2021.

Finally, another nominee in this category, Jean Hénaff has come up with a slow-cooked pulled pork product packaged in a one-kilogram roll, which can be stored at room temperature.

At Armor Protéines, we stand out for the ease with which our products can be used in industrial processes. Vitalarmor® Ca M10 is a versatile solution, ideal for powders, beverages and bakery products. Thanks to its anti-caking and anti-lumping properties, Vitalarmor® Ca M10 improves the fluidity of powder mixtures, simplifying your manufacturing processes and preventing the formation of lumps, whether during storage or in the finished product. This characteristic prevents the appearance of lumps, guaranteeing superior quality products that are in line with a Clean Label approach.

Moreover, natural colorants are often sensitive to pH variations. The use of Vitalarmor® Ca M10 in your formulations acts as a buffer, preserving color and supporting your commitment to the Clean Label.

 🎬 Nicolas Erabit discusses the benefits and applications of this innovation in a video 🎬

Solutions for energy efficiency 

81% of Breton agri-food companies identify decarbonization as a strategic priority, according to a study presented exclusively by the ABEA. At CFIA 2025, a number of energy-saving features were highlighted. Elodys presented its Opticlean sensor, which enables real-time monitoring of the quality of in-place machine cleaning. Used by Agro Mousquetaires in their bottling plant, this sensor reduces annual washing time by over 1,000 hours, increases equipment availability, and saves 35,000 m³ of water and 20 MWh of energy. Another striking innovation presented by the 17 players in attendance at the Haut Montigné business park: the creation of an electricity production and sharing company to serve the area's factories. Notably, a collective self-consumption loop has been set up to offset rising energy prices. For example, heat from the cooling of one frozen food plant is recovered and used by another, optimizing energy use.

At Armor Protéines, controlling energy consumption is at the heart of our CSR commitments. We are focusing on two key levers: sobriety, which involves using energy more rationally and efficiently, and conversion, which entails switching to more sustainable, less polluting energy sources. These approaches enable us to reduce our carbon footprint while optimizing our energy resources.

Artificial intelligence, a pillar of agri-food industrial performance

The agri-food sector has not escaped the AI craze, and at in the AI Village at CFIA, 25 technology companies presented use cases for artificial intelligence designed to boost agri-food industrial performance.

Among these, RMAN Sync presented RENOVATIO, a SaaS solution that uses AI to align purchasing and supply departments through demand forecasting. The tool can thus offer a 10% to 15% reduction in working capital requirements, and up to a 28% reduction in carrying costs. The startup Dametis offers energy consumption optimization software, capable of analyzing energy data to suggest optimizations and detect anomalies and drifts. In another field, the company Adventiel presented a predictive maintenance solution for industrial equipment.

CFIA 2025 was therefore particularly rich in news and information, confirming the ability of food companies to respond to new environmental, nutritional and performance challenges. Our warmest thanks to the many visitors who came to see us at the Armor Protéines stand.