The food factory of the future is automated, flexible and adaptive

No matter how bad things are economically in a country: people will (have to) keep eating. In this respect, the food industry is sure of its existence, but how! After all, the food factory of the future has to deal with strict laws and regulations, with a consumer who constantly wants something different but also with labor costs, working conditions and product quality. Among other things, AI will play an important role in the future.

The food industry differs from the "ordinary" industry in specific ways. For example, hygiene is a heavy issue related to public health. This affects the use of materials in machinery. In most cases, stainless steel is used, but developments within the world of plastics are not standing still either. Among other things, both materials are suitable for the aggressive cleaning methods that are common and involve working with high pressures, high temperatures and specific cleaning agents.

Variation

Furthermore, this industry is subject to robust variations in several areas. For example, new foods are introduced regularly. Not only in terms of ingredients and composition but also, for example, as newly grown vegetables or fruits. These developments affect the methods of storage, handling and processing, among others. This has led, among other things, to pumps that can automatically convey very fragile products especially for the food industry without the manufacturer having to compromise on quality. For example, special impellers allow cherry pits or ensure that additives to yogurt or cottage cheese are not smashed during transport.

In doing so, machine builders are also increasingly focusing on modular machines that are relatively easy to build and adjust. For example, to process a new package, to bring different foods together in one package or to efficiently combine specific processes. In that respect, it is good that machines and components are increasingly able to communicate with each other and the higher-level control system (Industrie 4.0).

Inspections

Quality is also a factor under "variation. To get the highest possible price for your products, it is important to be able to 100% control quality. In this regard, the food industry has also been dealing with sustainability and preventing food waste for some time. This means that the processor of fruit, for example, wants to know the quality of each piece of fruit. A perfect piece of fruit yields the most; when there are deviations, it depends entirely on the deviation whether the fruit is still edible or not. All these different assessments are increasingly possible with vision and intelligent software. Cameras, sensors and image recognition ensure that the lots that eventually go toward the consumer have a predetermined quality.

Finally, in addition to developments within vision and analysis software or image processing, AI is increasingly coming to the fore. It is becoming a real hype that is clearly highlighted at trade shows, lectures and seminars. On the one hand, it is emphasized that people should not regard AI as the holy grail, but on the other hand, explicit reference is made to the possibilities of AI for precisely the food industry. 

Exactly what that will look like in the future is certainly not yet crystallized. What is clear, however, is that AI is especially suitable for logically processing large amounts of information and drawing conclusions based on that information. Applications can thus lie in the area of energy management in an entire factory, for example, but also in the quality of products, human perception of new products, predictions for off-take based on various factors and so on. In this respect, technology will take over more and more actions and, increasingly, "thinking tasks" from people. This will free up more time for us to be creative, pick up signals that AI does not recognize and thus keep the food industry an innovative and adaptive sector.