Food and Beverage Manufacturing Top Stories

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Bakeries that view bearing selection through the lens of heat stability, contamination control and energy efficiency will reduce disruption and protect both product integrity and margin.

Operator safety is becoming a critical lever for performance in food and beverage manufacturing. As workforce challenges intensify, processors are investing in automation, advanced HMI design and safer equipment to improve both retention and productivity.

In an industry where product quality increasingly determines competitive advantage, the ability to see what you're processing isn't a luxury — it's a fundamental requirement for profitable operation.

A synthetic dye that was once stable across wide pH ranges, heat loads and storage conditions may be replaced with a pigment that behaves very differently under shear, thermal cycling or light exposure.

There are two key points in the lifecycle of food packaging where sustainability gains can be made: end-of-line and end-of-life. At first glance, these terms may appear interchangeable, but they describe distinct stages of food packaging manufacturing.

Black & Veatch’s Kim Lovan and Carrie Woehler discuss how food and beverage manufacturers are implementing automation, considerations for vetting solution providers, and how automation projects have evolved.

Fermentation has evolved into precision fermentation, utilizing biotechnology to engineer microorganisms that produce high-value food ingredients. These "cell factories" create proteins and compounds, enhancing quality and reducing environmental impact.

By integrating modern pump technology, hygienic design principles, clean-in-place (CIP)-ready systems and energy-efficient components into the plant layout from the start, manufacturers can reduce waste, secure lower long-term operating costs and meet stringent food safety requirements.

It used to be that if you used one particular vendor’s automation products or sensors, you were locked in forever. With today’s open standards-based networks, users are no longer locked in and can shop around for sensors, industrial PCs, PLCs and industrial network devices.

While OEE is a must-have for troubleshooting line problems, contextualized OEE data with its time signatures is a key input in analyzing when and what went wrong with a plant’s total production process, including wasted product and utilities. And it can even aid in the track-and-trace process.