Food products have always been designed, but usually not consciously. Even when design has been part of the process, it has often been restricted to considerations of packaging, logos, fonts and colors.

But now design is impacting more dramatically on the complex web that makes up our food supply, and beginning to make it better. Ways of thinking about design have broad applications and are becoming central to how companies compete. To succeed, food designers need to understand consumers and envision what they want, and to use technology and systems to show they can deliver what has been...