Over the millennia, food has evolved from a simple source of nourishment to an integral part of society and culture. Food reflects who we are, what we believe and what we become. Today, institutions, organisations and companies adopt complex models and innovative methods to develop new products and build circular food economies. This will be discussed in Chicago on 12 February from 11 a.m. at the Institute of Design at Illinois Institute of Technology on Italian Design Day. The event is organised by the Consulate General of Italy in Chicago and the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago in collaboration with the Institute of Design at Illinois Tech and the School of Design of the Milan Polytechnic. Experts from academia and industry will share three types of innovation in the food sector: product innovation, where companies use human-centred approaches to understand human behaviour and develop new recipes and products; system innovation, where researchers study human and social change to design new systems; and platform innovation, where academia and industry collaborate to create platforms for new product development and organisational redesign.