What 1,000 food supply chain leaders are telling us about the cold...

Lineage's Cold Chain Insights Survey reveals how the industry is responding to a changing market.

What happens when demand for your products keeps growing, but your supply chain can't always keep up?

That's the situation many food companies are facing in 2026. In Lineage's Cold Chain Insights Survey, 72% of respondents reported increased demand for their products over the past year. Yet 66% said their supply chains only sometimes keep pace with demand or struggle to keep up.

And that's just one of the challenges food companies are navigating in 2026.

Working with Wakefield Research, Lineage surveyed 1,000 food and beverage supply chain decision-makers across North America to see what's keeping them up at night, where they're investing and what they need most from their logistics partners.

Here's what stood out, and how those findings compare with what's happening across the industry.

Supply chain disruptions aren't going away. Companies are learning to work around them.

What the survey found: Nearly every company surveyed has had to rethink its plans. In fact, 92% reported making strategic adjustments in response to policy shifts, while 73% expected tariffs to hurt their financial performance in 2026.

For many businesses, waiting for things to settle down isn't much of an option.

Take a Canadian frozen food manufacturer facing new U.S. tariffs. With rising costs looming on the horizon, the company worked with Lineage to move inventory across the border, taking advantage of available cold storage and coordinating transportation to get ahead of the changes.

This all-to-common example shows how supply chain planning is shifting in 2026 and beyond. Companies need more than a backup plan. They need the flexibility to change course when circumstances demand it.

Frozen food demand is growing, but supply chains are struggling to keep up.

What the survey found: While demand is strong, capacity isn't always keeping up. Nearly half of respondents (47%) said flexible storage capacity was their greatest need from cold storage partners.

That challenge becomes especially clear during seasonal surges.

That's what happened when a frozen produce manufacturer and distributor projected a record-breaking harvest of more than 105 million pounds. The company had the product, but its existing cold storage network wasn't large enough to handle the volume.

Working together, Lineage and the customer expanded operations from three facilities to 15 in just weeks, selecting locations that aligned with the customer's distribution routes. The expanded network accommodated 64,000 pallets of frozen produce, supported by more than 400 temperature-controlled shipments via temperature-controlled rail and OTR truck.

It's a good example of why having enough space is only part of the equation. That space also needs to be in the right locations, with transportation connections that can get products where they need to go.

As demand grows, food companies need supply chains that can grow with them.

AI is moving beyond the hype and into everyday warehouse operations.

What the survey found: Technology is becoming a bigger part of how food companies operate. Three in five respondents credited investments in data and AI with positively impacting their supply chains, and 24% said their returns on AI had surpassed their investments while a further 62% said returns on AI have matched or come close to matching company investments.

But what does that actually look like inside a cold storage warehouse?

At Lineage, one example is Sybil, a machine learning algorithm designed to predict how long pallets will remain in storage. That information helps warehouse teams make smarter decisions about where products should go, reducing unnecessary movement.

It's a practical solution to an everyday warehouse challenge.

And that's where AI gets interesting. It's not necessarily about reinventing the warehouse. Sometimes it's about using the information already available to make thousands of small decisions better.

Food companies want more from their logistics partners than warehouse space.

What the survey found: Nearly three-quarters of respondents (72%) said their logistics providers didn't meet all their needs in 2025.

When asked what would help, companies pointed to flexible capacity, better communication and more useful data for planning.

But what does that look like in practice?

Take a major U.S. food importer facing capacity bottlenecks in the Northeast. Rather than simply adding warehouse space, Lineage's Data Science team analyzed its distribution network and identified opportunities to expand into four distribution centers, potentially saving $2 million annually in transportation costs.

It's a good example of how logistics partnerships are changing. Sometimes the best solution isn't adding more capacity. It's finding a smarter way to use the network you already have, or rethinking where that network needs to be.

As food supply chains grow more complex, companies need partners who can help them see the bigger picture.

The cold chain's next challenge is staying ready for whatever comes next.

The survey tells a consistent story. Food companies are dealing with more moving parts, more uncertainty and higher expectations. At the same time, they're finding new ways to adapt through technology, flexible networks and closer collaboration with logistics partners.

There's no single solution to every supply chain challenge. But the companies that can respond quickly, make better use of their data and connect more of their operations may be better positioned for whatever comes next.