ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the complex and evolving relationship between innovation and consumer preferences in food production. The combination of new tastes and tendencies on the demand side with new and partially unprecedented technological opportunities on the supply side makes this relationship particularly relevant in reshaping the agri-food sector. These changes are often considered controversial, as they apparently entail incompatible consumer attitudes. New technologies would seem incongruent with emerging consumer claims. This chapter stresses how this combination can bring about production modularity in the agri-food business, increasing opportunities for targeting production to very specific consumer needs while still maintaining the large-scale (mass) character of most food processes (mass-customization), together with substantial changes to key managerial strategies and practices.
