Wayne Labs

Increasing production speed while keeping rejects low and quality consistent—and maintaining food safety—is the goal of every food and beverage processor. Today, many food processors look toward automation to provide the solutions needed to attain the necessary throughput to be competitive.

We in the trade press have been extolling the virtues of automation for a long time, and you’re probably sick of hearing us ramble on about it. Nevertheless, if there were any other reason to take a hard look at implementing automation—at least partially—in your facility, it would be now. COVID-19 has certainly created some practical problems: Short-staff due to people at home sick with coronavirus, social distancing impossible on cutting/protein lines, changeover time killing production output…and the list goes on.

Recent trends caused mostly by the COVID-19 pandemic have put the squeeze on food processors and the supply chain to get food where it needs to go. Now as some states and cities are “opening up,” restaurants and other food service establishments are beginning to see their business increasing, which will mean a gradual shift in the supply chain—something that most processors and logistics providers will be able to handle, compared to a year ago when supply chains broke everywhere.

If you have old equipment, there is hope that you can keep what works and modernize it by pulling worthwhile information from it with instrumentation and controls.

An issue food processors won’t talk about openly is whether they’ve been the victim of a cyberattack.

The same technology that was able to provide microscopic tags to track and trace food has been applied to finding E. coli and Listeria

Water. We can’t live without it, and you can’t run a food or beverage plant without it. However, having it available for all earth’s inhabitants worldwide in the next 20 to 30 years will be a challenge—as already two-billion of the planet’s population live in areas where water is scarce. Unsurprisingly, the food and beverage industry is one of the largest water users, so it’s well worthwhile to minimize waste wherever possible. Water treatment companies are only too aware of the importance of conserving this precious resource, which in some areas can be more valuable than oil.

The FDA has recently taken the heat from the U.S. House of Representatives, which released a report finding several baby food companies to have high toxic levels of heavy metals in their products.

Technology companies are employing AI/ML techniques to deter nefarious actors, but users still need to exercise common sense in defending their industrial control systems.

Aquacycl used bacteria to clean up a wastewater stream and generate enough electricity to run the system and produce clean water.