LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks for Food & Beverages (2026)

Key Takeaways

In food and beverage, the average LinkedIn connection acceptance rate is 27.5%. Replies to the connection note average 2.0%, and replies to a message after the connection is accepted average 13.9%. Those numbers come from 60,269 connection requests sent by 63 food and beverage accounts between May 2025 and April 2026. Against the cross-industry averages of 28.5%, 3.0% and 10.4%, food and beverage is above on message replies and below on acceptance and note replies.

Food & Beverages vs. the platform average

Metric	Food & Beverages	All industries	Difference	Rank
Connection acceptance	27.5%	28.5%	-1.0 pts	23rd of 38
Connection-note reply	2.0%	3.0%	-1.0 pts	35th of 38
Message reply after acceptance	13.9%	10.4%	+3.5 pts	3rd of 38

Across the 38 industries with at least 50 sending accounts, acceptance runs from 21.8% (telecommunications) to 36.5% (staffing & recruiting). Note replies run from 1.8% to 6.6%, and message replies from 7.2% to 18.9%.

What the numbers say about food and beverage outreach

Once a connection is accepted, food and beverage senders get replies at a rate that only staffing and recruiting and retail beat. Message replies of 13.9% rank 3rd of 38, 3.5 points above the cross-industry 10.4%. The connection note is the opposite story: 2.0% replies, 35th of 38, with only computer and network security, media production and telecommunications lower.

End to end that conversation carries the sector to about 3.8 replies per 100 recipients, 5th of 38 against a cross-industry 3.0. No industry with acceptance below the platform average converts better end to end than food and beverage. Acceptance of 27.5% is only a point under the 28.5% line, so the sector loses little at the door and earns its whole advantage in the follow-up. Logistics and supply chain reaches the same rounded 3.8 mostly the other way, by being accepted at 32.3%.

Its closest matches are renewables and environment, consumer goods and real estate, all of which pair below-platform acceptance with an above-average conversation. Food and beverage takes that pattern furthest on the message side, drawing more replies after acceptance than all three. Across 63 accounts and 60,269 requests, 3rd of 38 is a small-sample result and is better read as near the top than as a fixed position.

If your numbers sit below these

The dataset says where an account sits, not why. From what we see in campaigns, three gaps come up most often in this sector, and they point at different problems.

Message replies under 13.9%. This is the sector’s defining strength at 3rd of 38 and the source of its whole end-to-end lead. A food and beverage account at the sector’s acceptance rate that replied at the platform’s 10.4% after acceptance would fall below the cross-industry result. That makes this the most expensive gap on the page.

Acceptance under 27.5%. The sector sits only a point under the platform here. Because the conversation is so strong, each lost acceptance costs more in this sector than it would in an average one: the best step in the sequence starts with fewer people to talk to. When acceptance slips while replies hold, the list has usually grown past the buyers the product is for into adjacent titles that accept less.

Note replies under 2.0%. At 35th of 38 the note does very little for this sector, and food and beverage finishes 5th of 38 end to end regardless. The useful question is whether the note helps acceptance at all. Sending a share of requests without one and comparing acceptance answers that faster than a rewrite.

Further reading:

• Improving your LinkedIn Sales Navigator targeting
• How many LinkedIn invites can you send a week?
• Personalising a LinkedIn message request without tripping limits
• The LinkedIn message follow-up formula
• Tips for building a LinkedIn content strategy for B2B sales
• The best AI lead generation software to add to your stack

Frequently asked questions

What is a good LinkedIn acceptance rate in food and beverage?

27.5% is the sector average, a point below the 28.5% cross-industry figure and 23rd of 38 reported industries. Above 27.5% beats the sector, and reaching 28.5% matches the platform. Acceptance matters less here than the follow-up, where the sector ranks 3rd of 38.

What is a good LinkedIn reply rate for food and beverage companies?

It depends which reply. Food and beverage senders average 13.9% replies to the message after acceptance, 3rd of 38 and well above the 10.4% platform figure, but only 2.0% replies to the connection note, 35th of 38. Above 13.9% on messages is good. The note is not where the sector earns its result.

How does food and beverage compare with other industries?

Acceptance ranks 23rd of 38, note replies 35th and message replies 3rd. End to end about 3.8 in 100 recipients reply to a follow-up, 5th of 38 and the best of any industry with acceptance below the 28.5% platform average.

How this data was collected

Food & Beverages is reported from 63 accounts and 60,269 connection requests sent between May 2025 and April 2026, drawn from the LinkedIn Outreach Benchmarks 2026 dataset of 13.2 million requests across 13,302 accounts. That report carries the full methodology, along with the breakdowns by sender seniority, company size and month that are not repeated here.

Two things to hold in mind while reading any of these figures. The industry is the sender’s, taken from their company profile, not the recipient’s. And only industries with at least 50 sending accounts are reported at all: below that, a single unusual account moves the average by several points, which is why some of the most extreme numbers in the full appendix are not published here.

Related industry benchmarks

• Renewables & Environment, 26.3% acceptance and 12.5% message replies
• Real Estate, 28.4% acceptance and 11.8% message replies
• Construction, 26.9% acceptance and 11.4% message replies
• All industry benchmarks

Grade your own outreach against these numbers

Enter your own acceptance and reply rates and grade your outreach against the food and beverage benchmark, plus see where you sit among all 38 reported industries. No signup.

Ready to improve & scale your LinkedIn outreach? Sign up for a 7-day free trial and put our LinkedIn automation tool to the test!

Data updated 19 August 2026. Refreshed quarterly against the source report.