GERMANY | The meat and protein processing industry has been facing significant challenges. Pressure on prices, a range of products and the ongoing shortage of skilled labour have called for efficient working practices.
Under the motto ‘Maximum Performance’, the world's leading trade fair for the meat and protein processing industry, IFFA - Technology for Meat and Alternative Proteins, will show what is already possible and demonstrate the course the industry needs to take.
Automation has improved the performance of machines and systems, helped avoid production interruptions, and saved energy and materials. Increasing automation and innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence and robotics represent potential solutions to boost productivity and cut operating costs.
In the food industry, automatic product control and traceability have become virtually mandatory to ensure a consistently high level of quality and meet strict legal requirements.
Process automation ranges from raw material preparation with mixing and grinding via processing with portioning, filling and moulding, as well as thermal processes such as cooking and cooling, to automatic packaging and intelligent logistics.
The foundation of many automatic processes has been real-time data collection and analysis. Modern sensors supply precise information regarding temperature, humidity, weight and pressure.
The introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) has also transformed the meat and protein industry and taken it to a new level by enabling machines to collect data from the various stages of production and analyse and deduce potential improvements from it.
AI can identify cause-and-effect relationships and rectify problems without stopping the production process or preventing them from occurring in the future. This has boosted efficiency and increased the levels of certainty for consumers and companies.
Industrial image recognition and processing have also been based on AI models trained for the application, reducing the employee's workload while increasing precision. If used to identify quality criteria, such as grain or fat content, it can significantly increase the selling price of individual items.
Using historical image data, they have been trained to inspect the entire production process in real time and detect any irregularities such as colour anomalies, foreign objects or defective packaging.
Predictive maintenance is another area of application. AI-aided systems monitor machine status and predict downtimes, so maintenance work is only carried out when required.
Today, industrial robots have become an established feature in the food industry, especially in larger companies. Operating around the clock, they can bring about considerable gains in efficiency and productivity. However, the dividing line between conventional machines and those with integrated robot technology is unclear.
AI has taken robotics to a new level of development. Generative AI can use machine learning to adapt independently to new circumstances and situations, enabling industrial robots to act more autonomously and agilely.
A good example of this is autonomous mobile robots (AMR). Equipped with cameras and sensors, they can independently assess and analyse their surroundings. They look for new paths when obstacles block the planned route and act independently in abnormal situations.
Accordingly, they are perfect helpers in unstructured production settings and warehouses or logistics centres where packaging and palletising are involved. Despite the multitude of items in such distribution centres, AI-aided industrial robots can select and retrieve the right articles, reject faulty or deformed ones, and detect packaging formats and weights.
Multifunctional robotic work cells promise an enormous increase in flexibility and are set to replace traditional line production in the meat industry. Different products can be processed in parallel, enabling an optimum product mix without the restrictions of line production. At the same time, the robotic work cells form autonomous networks with the AMRs, which react independently when faced with changing requirements.
The meat and protein processing industry is on the cusp of radical change, driven by new technologies such as AI, robotics and sensor technology. IFFA - Technology for Meat and Alternative Proteins will present the latest technological developments in Frankfurt am Main from the 3rd to the 8th of May 2025.
