Spoonshot

Menu AIFree / Custom pricing

About

AI food & beverage intelligence platform predicting emerging trends up to 12 months ahead using food science and 28,000+ data sources.

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Key Features

Trend Watch - data-backed food trend predictions with ~12-month forecasts, designed to surface emerging market opportunities before they mainstream.

Concepts Generator - creates on-trend food product concepts 'with a single click' based on user inputs, for rapid ideation in NPD pipelines.

Ingredient Networks with Novelty and Flavor scores - proprietary ingredient-pairing engine grounded in food science research that suggests novel combinations (e.g. banana + aloe vera juice) and ingredient substitutes.

F&B Explorer - competitive landscape tracking that shows product lines competitors recently launched, including a startup-innovation tracker.

Large proprietary dataset - 28,000+ data sources spanning 11K ingredients, 600K products, 5.2M menu dishes, 2M recipes and 850K consumer reviews, across 113 product categories.

Source transparency and personalization - the platform exposes the methodology and data sources behind each conclusion, and a personalization algorithm tailors recommendations per organization so different companies get different insights.

Access to in-house food scientists for consultation, plus API access for data teams.

Pricing

Free / Custom pricing

Contact Spoonshot directly for detailed pricing information, custom plans, and enterprise quotes.

What is Spoonshot?

Spoonshot is an AI-powered food intelligence platform that predicts emerging food and beverage trends up to 12 months ahead by combining food science with data from 28,000+ sources (menus, recipes, scientific papers, chef forums, product reviews, social media). It is built for F&B manufacturers, CPG innovation and R&D teams, ingredient companies and consumer-insights professionals - clients have included PepsiCo, Kraft, Fonterra, Suntory and Puratos - rather than for individual restaurant operators. The company started as consumer app dishq before pivoting to B2B, and was acquired by consumer research firm Target Research Group in August 2023 in an all-cash deal.

Spoonshot pricing

Plan	Price	Notes
Free (freemium tier)	$0	Officially confirmed on vendor FAQ ('a freemium tier of our platform' to test before committing). Free tier first launched January 2021 (thespoon.tech). As of July 2026.
Startup Program	Discounted Pro plan - price disclosed only after qualification	Full PRO plan 'at a fraction of the regular price', rolling 30-day plan with no long-term commitment; price sent via 'secret link' after Spoonshot verifies the company qualifies as a startup. As of July 2026.
Custom pricing (paid plans)	Quote-based; directories list 'from $299/month'	Vendor does not publish paid-plan prices. Official FAQ: billed annually, 1-year contract with 60-day cancellation notice, preferential rates for 5+ licenses, dedicated account manager on Enterprise plan only. SourceForge

Pricing verified July 2026 from the vendor website and public sources; plans and rates can change - confirm with the vendor before purchase.

Spoonshot pros and cons

Pros

+Enterprise-grade client validation: vendor names PepsiCo, Kraft, Fonterra, Suntory, Puratos and states six of the top 20 US F&B manufacturers use it - NOTE: vendor claim, no independent G2/Capterra reviews exist to corroborate.
+Food-science grounding instead of pure social listening: ingredient combinations are scored for novelty and predicted flavor fit based on food science research, which differentiates it from social-signal-only trend tools.
+Methodology transparency: the platform reveals the data sources and reasoning behind each trend conclusion, addressing the 'black box AI' objection common in this category.

Cons

−Zero independent user reviews anywhere: no G2 listing accessible, and SourceForge and Slashdot listings explicitly state 'This software hasn't been reviewed yet' / 'No User Reviews' (both visited July 2026) - buyers cannot independently verify vendor claims.
−Opaque pricing with contractual lock-in: no public price list; official FAQ confirms annual-only billing, a one-year contract and a 60-day cancellation notice before renewal, with dedicated account managers reserved for Enterprise only.
−Continuity risk after acquisition: the team shrank from 42 employees to just the 2 co-founders before the August 2023 sale to Target Research Group, and the About page copyright still showed 2024 when visited in July 2026, raising questions about maintenance cadence.

Top Spoonshot alternatives

Tastewise

GenAI consumer intelligence platform analyzing real-time F&B signals across menus, delivery platforms, recipes, social and eRetail in 32 markets - better when you need real-time consumption data and a larger, actively developed platform.

Datassential

The foodservice-industry standard (used by 90%+ of the biggest foodservice names incl. Starbucks, General Mills, Burger King) with menu trends, consumer insights and sales intelligence unified in Datassential One - better for restaurant/menu-driven trend research and US foodservice.

Innova Market Insights

Global new-product-launch tracking database covering ingredient claims and positioning - better for CPG teams that need systematic monitoring of competitor product launches and label claims worldwide rather than predictive ideation.

Compare all Spoonshot alternatives

Spoonshot FAQ

How much does Spoonshot cost?

Spoonshot does not publish pricing. There is an official freemium tier, paid plans are billed annually on a one-year contract (60-day cancellation notice), and volume discounts apply from 5+ licenses. Software directories list it 'from $299/month' (self-reported, as of July 2026), and qualifying startups can get the Pro plan at a discounted rolling 30-day rate. Historically (2021) paid plans started at $99/month, with reported Plus ($199/user/mo) and Pro ($399/user/mo) tiers - current quotes require contacting sales.

What is Spoonshot used for?

Predicting food and beverage trends up to 12 months ahead, generating new product concepts, discovering novel ingredient pairings scored for novelty and flavor fit, and tracking competitor product launches. Typical use cases are NPD/R&D ideation, consumer-insights benchmarking and innovation pipeline planning at food manufacturers.

What are the best Spoonshot alternatives?

Tastewise (real-time GenAI consumer intelligence across menus, delivery and social), Datassential (foodservice and menu trend intelligence used by most major US foodservice brands) and Innova Market Insights (global product launch and claims tracking). Mintel GNPD is another common enterprise option in the same stack.

Is Spoonshot for restaurants?

Not primarily. Spoonshot targets F&B manufacturers, CPG innovation teams, ingredient suppliers and insights professionals - clients like PepsiCo, Kraft and Fonterra. A single restaurant looking for menu inspiration will find it oversized and priced for enterprise; restaurant groups doing serious menu R&D or private-label CPG development are the closer fit, and food startups can apply for a discounted program.

Pricing and feature details verified July 2026from vendor websites and public review platforms. Adoption figures come from RestaurantTools.ai's scan of US restaurant websites and reflect detectable integrations only.