Foam is a serious issue in industrial processes of the chemical and food industry leading to significant performance and efficiency reductions of process plants. Common foam management solutions however lack efficiency and practicality, have unwanted side effects and are mostly not convenient in their application. To provide an overview of foam in industrial processes of the chemical and food industry and currently applied foam management solutions, a survey was conducted among operators and manufactures of industrial process plants. The survey is an ongoing research project, whilst this paper presents the latest results. Hence, future participants are welcomed to answer the online questionnaire at www.foarrnsurvesde. The survey confirms and quantifies the typical characteristics, impacts, causes and conditions of foam in industrial processes. Foam affected equipment such as columns and vessels are discussed in detail presenting different issues with foaming. Applied foam management solutions are rated. The results of the survey allow to create ideas of future advanced foam management solutions including improvement of the equipment design, the implementation of foam sensors and advanced foam controlling methods including adaptive model predictive control as well as further development of foam destruction methods. (C) 2020 Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.