IDM ¦ Technology/IT
How robots guarantee
freshness
Automation solutions for healthy convenience food
At the Dutch company Heemskerk Fresh & Easy, a total of ten ABB robots help to pick the food deliveries as quickly as possible.
Whether it's a ready-to-eat salad including dressing,
pre-packaged cheese bites or the yoghurt
muesli cup to go: from the consumer's point of
view, today’s convenience food has not only to
be nutritious and quick to consume, but also
fresh, healthy and sustainable. The demand for healthy convenience
food places high demands on the entire value chain in the food industry
– and thus on the dairy industry, especially since dairy products
are a central part of many healthy nutrition trends. The challenge
ranges from the sustainable sourcing of raw materials to the
gentle processing of fresh ingredients in compliance with the highest
hygiene standards to resource-saving packaging and just-in-time delivery.
The latter is often necessary to keep the promise of freshness
due to the fact that many convenience products often only have a
shelf life of a few days. Therefore the timespan needed for products
to hit the refrigerated shelves should be kept as short as possible
in order to prevent food waste. Last but not least, competition is
increasing: The growing market of plant-based milk substitutes is
competing with traditional dairies.
Efficiency advantage through automation
In order to address these diverse requirements in an economical
way and thus secure their competitiveness in times of changing nutritional
trends, many food manufacturers rely on digitization and
22 · November/December 2021 ¦ international-dairy.com
/international-dairy.com
