Trends and Preferences in the Food Industry

Technology and sustainability are the key forces transforming the food industry in terms of production, distribution, and consumption.

The industry’s demand for greater efficiency, innovation, and transparency drives the increasing implementation of automation and advanced technologies such as AI, blockchain, and IoT applications. Consequently, ‘dark factories’, also known as ‘lights-out factories’, which operate with minimal or no human intervention, are becoming more common.

The EU legislation known as The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) ensures dedication to sustainability by establishing it as a key performance indicator (KPI) for businesses. In other words, companies must now showcase their commitment to Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and include in their annual reports which actions have been taken to uphold this commitment.

These implementations not only streamline production processes but also offer consumers valuable insights into the entire journey from farm to fork, hence meeting the demand for more transparency.

Retailers are becoming more stringent when selecting suppliers and for good reasons. The food industry is adopting higher food safety standards due to increasing consumer demand for higher-quality food products and tighter national laws and regulations.

For example, The BRCGS Global Food Safety Standard, which provides a framework for ensuring product safety, legality, and quality, is a highly regarded certification that retailers often require food producers to maintain.

Keeping this in mind, automating the inspection process using vision technology, thereby fully automating production and packaging lines, can be a key factor in becoming a preferred supplier to retailers.

Ensured product quality protects a retailer’s brand and sales, therefore food producers that offer reliable automated processes for preventing non-compliant products from reaching supermarket shelves are very appealing to retailers.

TriVision systems help food manufacturers meet BRCGS Food Safety Standard requirements by delivering continuous, reliable quality control on the production line. Beyond detecting and removing defective products, the system also verifies that production conditions and inspection processes are functioning as expected.

Producing zero defects over an extended period may signal a malfunction rather than perfect quality. TriVision systems identify unusual inspection patterns and trigger an alert if no products are rejected within a defined timeframe.

Manufacturers can set tolerance limits, and when these are exceeded, operators are notified immediately. This ensures the vision system and quality control process remain reliable and effective, supporting food safety and ongoing BRCGS compliance.

Vision inspection systems using cameras, sensors, and proven vision technology to reliably inspect food products will enable producers to provide product quality guarantees and documentation, which are exactly what retailers are looking for! Naturally, this allows food producers to gain an edge over retailers when sitting at the negotiating table.

TriVision offers vision solutions with a unique combination of seal and label inspection, which means that the two very common mistakes of label and seal errors can be avoided using a single vision system.

Read the case story on Heemskerk fresh and easy to gain a deeper understanding of how the unique combination of seal and label inspection can benefit your production.