What are the Popular Trends at Food and Beverage Events?
Food and beverage events showcase a range of cutting-edge processing technologies and innovative solutions to meet ever-changing consumer demands.
These events also identify key trends and common themes transforming the food and beverage landscape. Common themes that have emerged so far this year include the importance of flexibility, production efficiency, automation innovation plus many more.
Increased Flexibility is a Must for Food and Beverage Manufacturers
One of the key trends that everyone is talking about is the importance of increased flexibility in production.
From ‘high protein’, ‘low sugar’, and ‘plant-based’, to ‘healthy’, ‘dairy-alternatives’ and ‘organic’, customer demands are constantly changing.
This has forced food and beverage manufacturers to introduce more customised products that are extremely high-quality yet are produced within the shortest possible time.
To achieve this and meet ever-changing customer requirements and demands, plant systems must constantly evolve. For food and beverage manufacturers, this means upgrading existing processing equipment or purchasing new technologies.
Processing Equipment and Technologies Must Transform Food and Beverage Processing Operations
Food and beverage manufacturers are not only demanding processing equipment and technologies that deliver greater performance, but they must provide the flexibility needed to be more agile in the production process.
What’s more, they want processing equipment that has minimal downtime, ensures food hygiene and customer safety and is equipped to meet future production needs.
In addition, these technologies need to be as efficient, sustainable and profitable as possible. They must help them to cut costs, increase yields, reduce waste and minimise energy and water usage.
Improving Production Efficiency Key Trend Impacting Food and Beverage Industry
Another key trend identified at food and beverage events is the need for improving production efficiency. So, why is this trend important?
To begin with, the food and beverage sector is a highly competitive industry and faces many complex challenges, for instance, raw material price fluctuations. Manufacturers must also deal with narrow margins which have been getting increasingly squeezed over the years.
As such, this has made efficient production critical for food and beverage manufacturers in driving ROI and ensuring the long-term viability of their business.
Improvements in Efficiency to Meet Growing Demand
The demand for food and beverages is also driving the need for improvements in efficiency.
The world’s population is increasing at an alarming rate. Since 1950, it has increased from 2.5 billion people to 7.6 billion and is expected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050. This growth, combined with rising incomes in developing countries, has increased the demand for food globally.
With more consumers able to spend a disposable income, food production needs to be increased. However, the majority of budgets for production aren’t being increased. In fact, some are even declining. This has forced manufacturers to look at ways to improve their efficiency and optimise their operations.
After all, by optimising the production process and focusing on efficiency, food and beverage manufacturers can drive down costs and work towards improving profitability.
Automating Processing Operations Becoming Essential
Automation is another key trend that is often showcased at food and beverage trade show events.
The pressure on food and beverage manufacturers has never been greater. They must manage many complexities in parallel ensuring they produce high quality, safe and healthy foods with real-time traceability.
Because of the huge pressure facing food and beverage manufacturers, many realise that it is becoming essential to automate their processing operations.
Not only does automation help improve product quality and productivity, but it also allows manufacturers to remain ahead of the ever-increasing expectations of customers – with competitiveness and agility.
At the same time, automating production processes helps operational efficiencies, cuts waste and reduces production costs. Find out more about automation in the food and beverage industries.
Where Does Pigging Fit in?
Many food and beverage manufacturers are implementing sustainable technologies such as product recovery (‘pigging’) systems into their production plants.
Hygienic (sanitary) pigging reclaims residual liquid from process pipelines. This liquid would otherwise be sent to waste.
Pigging is one of the most effective ways for food and beverage manufacturers to increase yields, reduce waste and improve operating efficiency. And because pigging saves so much product, as well as resources and water, it has a positive impact on the environment.
Pigging Systems Enable Production Flexibility
With the need for more frequent changeovers, food and beverage manufacturers are demanding processing equipment that is flexible and can handle multiple products.
That’s why technologies such as pigging systems are advantageous to food and beverage companies, as they increase the flexibility of operations.
Because pigging recovers the majority of product from pipelines, it means that the same line can be used for different formulations of product. In this way, pigging improves manufacturing production capacity while increasing efficiency and reducing downtime.
Many food and beverage manufacturers are also choosing automatic pigging systems to increase process speed and productivity, improve safety and to reduce the chances of human error.
Find Out More
For further information about pigging systems, then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with HPS.