The Food and Beverage (F&B) industry has a unique role in all countries’ economies because it is essential to people lives. In this paper, the focus will be on the Italian food industry, one of the main food producer. This study will present the first results of a wider research that has as main aim to understand how PLM is adopted in the food industry, its limits and its challenges. Indeed, the first results show the level of knowledge of PLM systems in this sector, both from the literature and from the market point of view. Furthermore, the paper shows the results of a preliminary empirical research, made through several case studies, on the role of PLM in the product development process of the food industry.