Where do you find automation in the food industry?

Automation can be found in every phase of food harvesting, processing, preparation, and transportation.

Fast food restaurants leverage automation to create efficiency and improve productivity for everything from flipping hamburgers to frying chicken. Older automation merely helped workers by alerting them for cook times and temperatures. Improvements in robotics and sensors have made it possible to use machinery to take over more of the manual labor.

Innovations like smart ovens can combine several appliances like a convection oven, dehydrator, air fryer, warming drawer, broiler, slow cooker, and toaster. Smart ovens can even have cameras inside for monitoring food as well as remote activation and even automatic temperature setting based on what’s placed inside of it.

Food processing plants and warehouses are using more automatic guided vehicles for transporting raw materials and finished products in place of forklifts. These vehicles have reduced product damage and reinforced workforce discipline.

Modern food processing and packaging continues to add automated ovens, cutting and forming machines, mixers and blenders, sorting equipment, filling and wrapping equipment, and other machinery to the assembly line. Instead of sitting at the line, workers stay in a control room to ensure everything continues to flow smoothly, make modifications in processes, and troubleshoot problems.

Even grocery stores are getting into the game, using automated machinery to pick and fill e-commerce orders in their warehouses. Now days more of automation is done in the production based food industries.

What are the considerations for selecting automation?

Hygienic design and strategic inventory planning are two areas to keep top of mind when selecting automation in food manufacturing.

Meeting FSSAI safeguards require machinery with specific characteristics such as impervious surface finishes, non-corrosive parts, no cracks or crevices, toxin-free materials, and high durability. Everything from conveyor belts to stuffers must maintain hygienic standards.

Going back to the ever-shifting consumer, the ability to implement lightweight and flexible technology can help determine inventory needs without shortages or excess materials.

Automation in the food industry increases competitiveness by eliminating errors and waste, improving efficiency and productivity, and expanding profit margins. Cost savings can be diverted to R&D and other business improvements. Businesses can keep up with regulatory changes with less effort, decrease labor costs, and eliminate injury.

Food Automation Market by Application

• Packaging and Repacking
• Palletizing
• Grading and Sorting
• Pick and Place
• Processing
• Others

Food Automation Market by Industry Verticals

• Beverages and Distilleries
• Dairy Processing
• Bakery and Confectionery
• Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Products
• Meat, Poultry, and Seafood Products
• Fruits and Vegetables
• Others

Consistent Quality

The implementation of modern technology is inevitable when it comes to producing high-quality products consistently. Automated processing and packaging gives operator greater control over consistency, which means a producer, can deliver quality products time after time. Since automation makes it easy to monitor equipment performance parameters, the process to locate and resolve issues becomes hazard-freThe implementation of modern technology is inevitable when it comes to producing high-quality products consistently. Automated processing and packaging gives operator greater control over consistency, which means a producer, can deliver quality products time after time. Since automation makes it easy to monitor equipment performance parameters, the process to locate and resolve issues becomes hazard-free.

Improved traceability

The element of traceability has gained considerable attention as it allows quickly recalling products and tracking production. It is important to trace the history of products at any stage in the chain and to track down product information: raw material intake, packaging data, processing procedures, distributions channels, etc. By adopting automation and streamlining traceability, a manufacturer can cut down on regulatory compliance costs and improve key operations.

Improved safety

When machine vision and automated systems work together, managers get a more granular view of every step in the process. The process to modify safety standards becomes smooth as a change in one process does not affect other areas.

Conclusively speaking, automation brings about safety, error-free production, transparency, and consistent quality which are critical to maintaining a brand’s good reputation and keeping both consumer and retailer satisfied. If you are still relying on manual food processing, it’s high time to implement automation and improve your bottom line.