PRESS RELEASE
Comunicato n. 5 del 09/02/2026 ( download download )
- 20% of Beer&Food Attraction exhibitors will be presenting the food world’s latest innovations
- A packed programme of talks on trends, consumption and innovations in the out-of-home sector
- High-level competitions, such as the renowned Italian Cuisine Championships organised by the Italian Chefs Federation, and Burger Battle Italia
https://www.beerandfoodattraction.it/
Rimini, 9th February 2026 - Beer&Food Attraction, the Italian Exhibition Group event (15-17 February, Rimini Expo Centre) specifically for the Eating Out experience, will offer a format that takes an all-round look at the entire Horeca sector. The Beverage & Bar Industry will be accompanied by a large number of companies specialising in the food sector offering a complete range of products and technological solutions for casual dining, quick service restaurants and aperitifs. This year, companies in the food sector will account for about 20% of the entire exhibition, confirming this segment’s importance for the event and for the out-of-home market.
COMPANIES INVOLVED IN FOOD AND FOODSERVICE TECHNOLOGIES
Beer&Food Attraction confirms its status as the ideal showcase for the food sector with a varied and innovative range of exhibits. Products on display will include pizza bases, hamburger buns, frozen foods, appetisers, sauces, ready-to-eat products, oils, fillings, a strong presence of meat and cold cuts, as well as gluten-free products for the Horeca channel.
The sector’s top companies, including: Ab Mauri, Baldi, Barilla, Dallagiovanna Holding, Demetra, Ferrarini, Menù, Molini Agugiaro & Figna, Mowi Italia and Surgital, together with METRO Italia and Top Single Service (the latter two specialise in organised catering and casual dining), will be presenting their latest products. Also noteworthy in this context is Dolcitalia, which will be bringing the confectionery world to Beer&Food Attraction with “The Hub” format, designed to foster contact between the confectionery sector and the bar and out-of-home sectors. The area will feature Ferrero, Perfetti, Loacker, Zaini, Caramella Mania and Foodness alongside Di Marco Pinsa, together with Stefano Bottega and Cantine Scolari for beverages. The exhibition will also feature collective stands representing companies from the Calabria and Sicily regions. Leading Italian companies will be flanked by a significant presence of international players such as Bonduelle, Develey, Farm Frites, Lantmännen Unibake, Vion Food Service Italy, Danish Crown Italy, Farm Frites, Heinz Italia, Aviko, Colona S.A. and LWM International.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
The 2026 edition will be further enriched with new special areas designed to favour the encounter between supply and demand, such as “Aperitivo Land” (Hall B1), Beer&Food Attraction’s new themed area specifically for the those operating in the aperitif world, to promote food companies with a particular focus on fast food. Brands will be able to present their products not only through traditional displays, but also in an area for live demonstrations and experiential moments. Show cooking, guided tastings and demo activity areas will be provided for professionals. The aim is to favour concrete meetings between food and beverage distribution buyers and qualified operators in the Ho.re.ca channel, creating useful connections between supply and demand.
TRENDS AND PROFESSIONAL UPDATES ON THE OUT-OF-HOME MARKET
The Beer&Food Attraction 2026 programme will feature a series of talks designed to explore the evolution of food and beverages in the out-of-home sector with a focus on major market trends and practical combinations. On Saturday 15th February, from 2.30 to 3.30 pm, Italgrob will be presenting “Food & Beverage and ecological transition: are we really ready?”, a meeting on environmental and social sustainability applied to the out-of-home sector with success stories and corporate responsibility strategies to harmonise profit and the planet. Also on Saturday, at 4.30 pm in the FIC Arena, AssoBirra and the Italian Chefs Federation will be staging a show cooking in which beer sommelier Fabio Mondini and chef Antonio Danise will give a live demonstration of how beer can enhance the flavours of dishes, thus offering concrete ideas for food pairing.
On Monday 16th February, at 10.30 am, the Beer&Tech Arena will be staging a talk entitled “What has 2025 taught us? Habits, trends and expectations in out-of-home beer and food consumption”, organised by Circana with Matteo Figura, executive foodservice director, who will analyse the out-of-home consumption trend recorded in 2025 and the future prospects for beer and food based on consumption habit monitoring data.
Lastly, also on Monday, from 11.30 am to 12 noon in the Beer&Tech Arena, the talk organised by FOOD magazine “Food pairing & restaurant chains: beer with pizza, hamburgers, street food and ethnic cuisine”, will explore how the right pairing between beer and food can help improve the customer experience and positively influence average spend and margins in the main organised catering formulas.
The programme will continue on Tuesday 17th February at 12.10 pm in the FIC Arena with the meeting “Italian cuisine becomes Unesco World Heritage”, a focus on technique, creativity and contemporary vision in cuisine.
COOKERY COMPETITIONS
Beer&Food Attraction will also host some of the most famous culinary competitions, where talent and passion find their utmost expression.
The Italian Cuisine Championships, promoted by the Italian Chefs Federation as part of Beer&Food Attraction and now at their 10th edition, are the most important national cuisine contests and are scheduled to take place from 15th to 17th February 2026 at Rimini Expo Centre. More than 500 competitors will be competing in the FIC Arena in Hall B3 in the main competition categories, including team hot cooking, individual hot cooking (K1), restaurant pastry (K2), vegan hot cooking (K3), “special kids” contest, “best professional lady chef” contest, “best catering school student” trophy, “mystery box” contest and “street food” contest. Each category foresees technical and creative tests that will put skills, speed of execution and the ability to interpret mandatory ingredients in recipes to the test, with chefs from all over Italy ready to compete under the auspices of Worldchefs.
And Beer&Food Attraction would not be the same without Lantmännen's Burger Battle, the only Italian competition specifically for gourmet burgers, which takes the form of a national selection tour that stopped off in three major Italian cities: Rome, Venice and Naples. The final will take place from 15th to 17th February 2026 at the Lantmännen stand in Hall B1, where the qualified competitors will challenge each other by presenting the winning burgers from the local contests to the jury and, in the final stage, by creating a hamburger invented on the spot with mandatory ingredients and surprise combinations. A distinctive feature of the competition is the dual interpretation of the recipe, which must work with both beef and salmon burgers without making any changes to the other ingredients. Each competitor must make a total of six burgers, three for each version, which will then be evaluated comparatively by the jury. The six Burger Battle Italia 2026 finalists are: Pietro Diodato and Lorenzo Gauzzi from Rome, Antonino Contino and Tatiana Maccacaro from Venice, Edoardo Coroni and Francesco Agrusta from Naples. The event involves leading partners in the food supply chain, such as Lantmännen Unibake with the Pastridor brand for bread, Develey, a leader in the world of sauces, Farm Frites for chips, MOWI for the salmon-based proposal, and Ceres for beer.
PRESS CONTACT ITALIAN EXHIBITION GROUP:
Head of media relation & corporate communication: Elisabetta Vitali; press office manager: Marco Forcellini, Pierfrancesco Bellini; press office coordinator: Luca Paganin; international press office coordinator: Silvia Giorgi; press office specialist: Nicoletta Evangelisti, Mirko Malgieri; media@iegexpo.it
MEDIA AGENCY BEER&FOOD ATTRACTION - BBTECH EXPO:
Mind the Pop - Martina Vacca: martina@mindthepop.it, mob. +39 339 748 5994; Fabrizio Raimondi: fabrizio@mindthepop.it, mob. +39 335 389 848; Stefano Chiossi: stefano@mindthepop.it, mob. + 39 388 739 4358.
This press release contains forecast elements and estimates that reflect the management´s current opinions (´forward-looking statements´), particularly regarding future management performance, realization of investments, cash flow trends and the evolution of the financial structure. For their very nature, forward-looking statements have a component of risk and uncertainty, as they depend on the occurrence of future events. The effective results may differ (even significantly) from those announced, due to numerous factors, including, only by way of example: food service market and tourist flow trends in Italy, gold and jewellery market trends, green economy market trends; the evolution of raw material prices; general macroeconomic conditions; geopolitical factors and evolutions in the legislative framework. Moreover, the information contained in this release, does not claim to be complete, and has not been verified by independent third parties. Forecasts, estimates and objectives contained herein are based on the information available to the Company as at the date of this release.