DETROIT – The food industry has experienced some turbulent times in the last few years. It suffered the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic to a greater degree than in other sectors due to the restrictions placed on public movement during lockdowns.
This understandably took a significant toll on the restaurant sector. In America alone, 2020 saw a drop in restaurant sales by $240 billion as a direct result of the pandemic. Thankfully, as restrictions are less commonplace in 2022, the food industry is once again in a period of growth with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 2.9% predicted throughout the year.
This is great news for the sector, and most analysts show a positive outlook in their future forecasts for the food industry. It is important to consider the effect that technology has on the food industry. Yet this is out of reach for home-based farmers. Pests in particular can be a challenge, and low tech methods are also beneficial for things like hawks attacking chickens. This article explores three key pieces of tech that help the food industry to produce high-quality products efficiently on an industrial scale.
The Use of Air Dryers
In many factories that produce food products, air drying technology is a crucial part of the production process. This is because the use of compressed air in the manufacturing of food is a common process. Compressed air in food manufacturing processes needs to be free of any contaminants, including moisture.
This is because contaminants or excessively humid air can cause corrosion of pipework and can also result in the failure of manufacturing tools and equipment over time. In some food manufacturing plants, production takes place in cold environments and by having moisture in some of the key production equipment, it can cause the freezing of pipes and subsequent malfunctions that can stop the production line.
As a direct result, many food production plants use an instrument air dryer package as part of their manufacturing processes. Therefore, installing an instrument air package is something for these new businesses in this field to consider to avoid unnecessary downtime.
The Rise of Robotics
Many people are familiar with the idea of robotics in such industries as car manufacturing or aerospace design processes, but today, this technology plays a key role in food manufacturing. As an example, there has been a rise in the use of robotics to cut large sections of fresh meat in the butchering industry. Previously, some larger sections of meat needed to be cut by a human workforce.
This required the manual use of potentially dangerous cutting equipment that could cause injury to the workforce. Today, in many meat processing industries, robots are used to cut difficult sections of meat and, as a result, safety in these plants has been improved significantly along with gains in efficiency of the cutting processes.
Eco-Friendly Packaging
Today’s consumers expect their food producers to operate in an environmentally responsible manner and to ensure that production processes sustainably take place. As a direct result of this, many food manufacturing companies have invested heavily in the research and development of packaging. Less plastic is used as this takes immense amounts of time to biodegrade. Some manufacturers have also used technology to produce edible packaging which removes all waste packaging from the final products.
Bio: James Daniels is a freelance writer, business enthusiast, a bit of a tech buff, and an overall geek. He is also an avid reader, who can while away hours reading and knowing about the latest gadgets and tech, whilst offering views and opinions on these topics.
