In a retrospective look at
FoodBev.com in 2015, at what is driving investment for food and drink
manufacturers – what they are looking for in terms of technology solutions; and
what the prevailing challenges are for them – I uncovered a great deal of
compelling coverage of the most interesting developments that amply illustrate
the main processing technology trends in the industry.
Waste
management
In every industry, reducing
waste and optimising production is vital to survival as costs spiral. The
food and beverage industry is no different.
Examples
Energy
Saving
The environmentally sound
focus on waste reduction extends into the industry-wide scramble to reduce
energy consumption and therefore fuel bills.
Examples
Safety
As ever, there is no point
in producing good food if it is not safe to eat, and with food scares
proliferating, food and beverage companies are facing extra pressure to ensure
the safety of their production and their supply chains.
Some solutions and actions
taken to ensure product safety:
Quality
Once safety is assured,
manufacturers are driven to create products of the utmost quality drawing on
technologies that are designed to optimise the consumer acceptance of the
finished products.
Novel
processing technologies
The constant improvement of
quality relies on the pursuit of novel technologies that overcome the
shortcomings of existing processing methods, and stimulate the opportunity for
greater innovation in the industry – something that is a constant driver. To
this end, the Foodbev Media editorial team covered many of the most exciting
projects ongoing in the industry.
Examples
Lowering
TCO
Whatever the technology, as
margins are squeezed, food and beverage manufacturers are all looking to ensure
the lowest total cost of ownership (TCO – the calculation of initial purchase
price plus ongoing maintenance and running costs).
Examples
Automation
TCO is often a driver for
investment in automation, which is one of the main trends in the industry,
which has traditionally been slow to adopt automation due to the intricacies of
handling food products. Technology improves and cost savings are to be made,
particularly in the area of end-of-line packaging as well as increasingly
further up the line.
Examples
Flexibility
With automation comes
flexibility as robots and automated lines can be programmed to switch from one
task to another more rapidly than ever before, which taps into another industry
driver – that of flexibility: the need to switch from one product to another
and the capacity to handle multiple products on the one line.
Speed and efficiency
As always, speed is of the
essence with no room for downtime or production losses in today’s high
throughput manufacturing plants, as is evident in many of the stories that
appeared on FoodBev.com last year.
Capacity
expansion
In order to compete,
manufacturers are investing fast and furiously to increase and improve their
production capacity, and expand into new lucrative markets with
state-of-the-art technology.
