According to the Sustainable Development Goals Report 2023, In 2021, around 13% of the world’s food waste was lost along the supply chain from farm to fork. This figure has remained nearly unchanged since 2016, falling short of the 2030 goal to reduce post-harvest food losses significantly.

Food producers must take new initiatives and make investments that will reduce this figure to reach the goal of 2030. But food producers are not the only ones who need to change their ways.

In 2019, the world’s food waste in households, food services, and retail was 17%, which is equal to 120 kg. of food wasted per capita. Even though high-income countries leave a much larger environmental impact than low-income countries, all regional groups are similar in terms of household food waste per capita, which highlights the importance of all countries taking action.

Food loss and waste data are still scarce even though the reduction of food loss is considered high on the environmental agenda. To improve our efforts in waste reduction, we need to continue implementing new policies informed by data and invest in new technologies that will help monitor food production.

Legislation such as The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) makes it a legal requirement for companies to showcase their commitment to the SDGs. Consequently, companies are increasingly reporting on their efforts to improve sustainability, which of course is a step in the right direction. According to the SDGs Report, around 70% of monitored companies published sustainability reports in 2021 – triple the percentage since 2016.

‘Dark factory’ is a known term in relation to automation, describing how factories can ‘go dark’ when fully automated as there is no need for any light. And the major benefits of automation and increased capacity are also known – producers gain a stable and more efficient production.

In the process of automating, food producers should be aware of the potential gaps and opportunities related to product quality. To keep up with retailer demands today, which are driven by consumers’ increasing quality demands and the increasingly stringent laws and regulations, producers must not only automate processing and packaging processes, but also the inspection processes.

The robots need eyes. And vision inspection systems are the eyes of the robots that can perform reliable inspections at high speeds.

The food industry knows that automation is key to the industry’s challenges, and producers are looking to automate and upgrade processing and packaging processes in the future.

By automating the inspection processes as well, producers can gain an edge by providing retailers guarantees for product quality and hence additional value. Machine vision is widely used for quality control in many industries today, and are increasingly being implemented in the food industry, as more and more foods producers see the opportunity to gain an edge on competition and exceed retailer demands.

It is just a matter of time before vision inspection becomes the new normal and standard in the food industry – and a requirement from retailers.

Because food producers know that retailers are becoming more stringent when selecting suppliers. And they are for a good reason. More consumers are increasingly demanding higher quality in food products due to a growing middle class, and national laws and regulations regarding food safety evolve, becoming more elaborating and stringent. Additionally, there are food safety standards, and the BRC standard is one example of a certification that more and more retailers demand that food producers hold.

Keeping that in mind, automating the inspection process using vision and hence automate production and packaging lines fully can be a crucial element in being an attractive supplier in the eyes of the retailers.

Retailers benefit of course from how the food industry increases efficiency through automation, benefitting from stable deliveries and obtaining better prices and agreements due to the producers’ improved margins. However, all food producers have their eyes on automation, now or later.

By already now recognizing and acting on the fact that retailers value and in the future will demand solutions to guarantee a high level of quality, can give producers an edge and improve their position towards retailers.

Implementing such solutions can hence help food producers becoming a more attractive alternative in a market where retailers face many alternatives and therefore naturally holds a high bargaining power.  Automating and upgrading the inspection processes moves some of the focus away from the cost aspect to the product quality aspect.

If food producers can offer retailers reliable processes for preventing non-compliant products reaching the stores, they can offer something of high value. Because ensured product quality protects a retailer’s brand and sales.

Consumers demand higher quality in food products, and different alternatives exists for consumers as well, in terms of different retailers and brands. Retailers want to protect their brand and reputation from bad customer experiences, recalls and fines from authorities. The brand is put on the spot if products in the store are not meeting customer expectations or complying with the quality standards or regulations.
The damage can be even more severe if this happens to retailers’ own private label products, where any incompliance and bad customer experience are tied directly to the retailer brand.

So, naturally, retailers want that all products on their shelves to comply with regulations and the set quality level, which again is why more and more of the large retailers choose suppliers with specific certifications – and why they hand over big fines to producers when incompliance and recalls occur.

Vision inspection systems that work reliably and efficiently, enabling producers to provide product quality guarantees and documentation while facilitating an efficient production, will set a new standard and act as a door opener to new retailer collaborations – and in the end benefit food producers when they sit at the negotiation table with retailers.