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Advancements in food automation will help shape the future of the industry, particularly in frozen food, where the technology has the potential to revolutionize processing and manufacturing.
The U.S. food automation market is estimated at $2.6 billion and growing, driven by efficiency, labor markets and food safety. The market is projected to grow globally at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 6.6%, through 2030, according to the Global Food Automation Strategic Industry Report 2024 by Research and Markets, a market research and data firm. Noteworthy markets outside the U.S. include China, Canada, Japan and Germany, according to the report.
Food plants across the globe are implementing next-generation technologies, like robotics, data processing, automated control systems and others.
BAK Food Equipment was among the 1,400 exhibitors showcasing automation at the record-setting 2024 International Production and Processing Expo (IPPE) – theirs in the form of the Protech Automated Spiral Cooking/Smoking/Freezing system, a patent-pending system capable of processing up to 8,800 pounds of product per hour with only two staffers. Spiral oven technology is not new to the meat-processing industry but Protech is the only company to offer fully automated spiral oven cooking, smoking, and freezing technology specifically for bacon and other smoked meats using liquid smoke, natural smoke, or a combination.
“Today, an overwhelming number of processors have both segmented sections of automation and extremely manual processes within their plant. The requests and inquiries we are seeing are addressing the manual processes first, then integrating complete lines into the already automated parts of the plant,” said Zack Olson, lead sales and marketing specialist at BAK Food Equipment. “Outside of extremely manual processes, like hanging and combing pork bellies, manufacturers are automating the thermal processes within the plant. In addition, we have seen an increased interest in automated defrosting technology, something that is newer to the industry.”
Factors including inflation, tight labor markets and post-COVID demand help demonstrate automation’s potential ROI.
Automation allows manufacturers to dictate how the product looks and, also, how it tastes and feels, ensuring the same level of ingredients goes into a product every single time.
For example, Afia, a Texas-based Mediterranean frozen food manufacturer uses automation to scale its falafel and kibbeh production – turning a painstakingly slow handmade process into an automated powerhouse.
“My mother-in-law was always the one that was asked to make kibbeh and she would sit down and it would take her an hour to make 50 kibbehs. That's just making it and forming it without the prep work of doing the dough and the stuffing. So, our first machine wasn't made for kibbeh. We had to adapt it and we had to, you know, change certain parts and add different types of molds and cutters and hoppers, and things for it to be able to make the kibbeh. At the time I think that was probably the happiest day of my mother-in-law's life. I mean, this machine … could do 6,000 (kibbeh) an hour,” Farrah Moussallati Sibai, co-founder and president of Afia, said on a recent episode of R&FF’s From the Cold Corner podcast.
Packaging is often where food processors and manufacturers start adding automation, giving them a level of comfort with the technology.
JLS Automation focuses on automating primary and secondary food contacts, functions like loading finished products into packaging or case packing. At IPPE, the company displayed its Talon and Osprey automated systems, loading sausages into MAP trays and MAP trays into cases, respectively.
“Everything we do is vision-guided and robotic,” said Mike Newcome, vice president of Sales at JLS Automation. “Customers right now are asking ‘How do you help us automate these repetitive processes where we can’t find the labor?’ Unemployment is where it’s at and it doesn’t appear a base of labor is coming back anytime soon to the food chain. We get a lot of inquiries about that – things that are done manually and high-turnover positions and things like that where we get into the collaborative partnerships with our customers.”
In the fast-paced world of frozen food logistics, automation employed by cold storage providers and distributors benefits F&B companies by reducing damages and shrinkage and giving them more visibility into their product, said Anita Nanda, senior vice president of Global Development and Automation at Americold.
The company’s new facilities in Georgia, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Arkansas and Australia all employ some level of automation, like fully automated AS/RS, layer pick solutions and robotic palletizing and offers value-added automation applications for packaging, blast freezing, trailer unloading and product tempering.
Americold has a “highly automated development strategy,” Nanda said, and this year is piloting automated guided vehicles (AGVs) and other semi-autonomous solutions with the goal of implementing them by 2025. Self-driving trucks, all electric fleets, automated yard hostlers and AI-powered centralized operations support are among the ways Nanda sees automation influencing the industry over the next decade.
“We continually evaluate new vendors and AS/RS technologies to augment our best practices. We also partner with several name brand robotics vendors to provide testing facilities in our network that aid in their application design for cold storage. This approach gives us early access to new robotics platforms in the market that are capable of operating at -20 degrees Fahrenheit,” she said. “Americold sees additional automation coming that is outside of our four walls in the near future that will impact how we operate and interface with our customers. We are constantly evaluating our business to see where automation helps us to increase density, reduce labor, increase quality, and reduce energy. Every year more automation vendors are moving into the cold storage space. This new focus is driving potential opportunities that we have not yet imagined."
