Innovation Trends

The pandemic and the supply chain disruptions that followed have highlighted how important it is for many consumer goods - particularly perishable foods - to be delivered intact and on time. At the same time, the attention paid by customers to food waste and food safety has risen to unprecedented levels. Innovative technologies are now helping the sector to extend the shelf-life of food products while improving food quality and safety. Among them, high pressure processing (HPP) is still the most popular. HPP is a unique food preservation method that utilizes cold water and extreme pressure to inactivate foodborne pathogens…

If the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the global supply chain, the conflict in Ukraine is putting it under a serious strain. According to a recent report, just over 600.000 businesses worldwide rely on Ukrainian and Russian suppliers. With such a high number in mind, it is easy to understand how the ongoing war is creating barriers in the market that damage the flow of commodities: mainly wheat, corn, sunflower seed but also oil, gas and semi-finished iron products. Despite the long-term effort to make the whole logistics system more efficient by implementing integrated supply chain management solutions, it seems that now…

When it comes to food, packaging plays a fundamental role in keeping it fresh, preserving its quality to reduce food-borne diseases as well as extending its shelf-life to minimize loss and waste. Although a plastic-free attitude is a linear approach to the green question, a circular one may be more efficient. If we take into consideration the negative impact that producing food which remains uneaten or distributing inedible food has on our environment and economy, food loss and food waste call for new packaging solutions. One of the latest trends entails converting agri-food residues into innovative bio-packaging. In this perspective,…

When innovative technologies are mentioned, chances are that the food and beverage industry does not come to mind. Yet our sector is one of the most affected by the ongoing digital transformation which is rapidly reshaping the way that many businesses are run. As a matter of fact, new technologies and the rise of Industry 4.0 are creating a vast range of brand-new opportunities for everybody, food and beverage companies included. These technologies - such as, for example, advanced data analytics, clouds, Internet of Things (IoT) and smart sensors – are proving to have the potential to lead a sustainable…

The digital era we live in entails an ongoing digital revolution that changes technology rapidly. The interesting part of these fast changes is the versatility shown by technological innovations that seem to develop new potential when applied to different sectors. Take blockchain, for example. Initially created to regulate the transactions made in cryptocurrency, it now stands as the most revolutionary way to innovate the food sector and its supply chain. We all know by now that a blockchain is a digital distributed ledger, maintained by a network of multiple computers that store data in the form of blocks which are…

The concept of industry 4.0 is strictly linked to the so-called Fourth Industrial Revolution that has its origins in 2011, when the digitization of industrial processes began the transformation that eventually lead to enhanced business productivity and flexibility. In this context, in order to respond to an increasingly efficient production, logistics 4.0 became an essential asset. Despite not having an official definition yet, we could state that every activity encompassing the planning, the storage flow of raw materials, semi-finished and finished products, in order to meet customer requirements via the use of enabling technologies, is part of this recent approach…

As we all know by now, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the ability of machines - especially computer systems - to perform tasks commonly associated with human intelligence. Since the term was coined, back in 1956 at a conference in New Hampshire, AI has become a trending topic spanning various sectors. Many are its applications but what mostly interests us is its implementation within the supply chain. The capabilities of AI are already significantly increasing companies’ efficiency in the areas of predictive demand, warehouse management and operations costs. Intelligent systems can rapidly process and analyze a huge number of data thus…

High pressure processing (HPP) is a non-thermal technique that allows food preservation by inactivating harmful pathogens and vegetative spoilage microorganisms that cause food-borne diseases. With this system, most foods can be efficiently preserved while minimizing the impact on taste, texture and nutritional value. HPP utilizes intense pressure (about 400–600 MPa or 58,000–87,000 psi) at a process temperature of less than 45°C. Products in flexible and water-proof packages are conveyed within plastic baskets into a vessel which gets filled with water; this, in turn, gets pressurized at 6,000 bar. Acting uniformly, isostatic pressure inactivates food-borne microorganisms and spoilage enzymes in a…

Food packaging is a global industry that has experienced a constant growth in recent years: plus 6.8% in value terms since 2013, a figure that confirms packaging as an essential element in modern trade. Due to the growing interest that consumers are showing in fresh products with extended shelf life, the biggest challenge that the food packaging industry is currently facing concerns continuous innovation in concepts and technology to satisfy and somewhat anticipate their needs. Starting from the visual appeal that significantly influences the consumers’ choices, one of the most interesting innovations is vacuum skin packaging. With its clear, attractive…

Frozen food has earned a negative reputation over the years for being highly processed and less nutritious than fresh food. You may be surprised to learn that this is far from the truth. Frozen food can be just as healthy, if not healthier, than its fresh counterpart: it all depends on how quickly and efficiently the food has been frozen and also on how professionally the supply chain has been managed before that frozen food reaches our kitchens. Freezing food to avoid spoilage is a practice that has been popular since 3000 BC when the ancient Chinese used ice cellars…

The COVID‐19 pandemic significantly disrupted the food supply chain: think of all the food normally going to restaurants that had to be diverted to other outlets to avoid its waste or all those gaps in the supermarket shelves due to the absence of common items whose availability has always been taken for granted. In this context, having a system in place that allowed distributors to extend the shelf life of foods proved to be essential: it was not just about being able to meet the unforeseeable peaks and falls in demand but also - and above all - about preserving…

As governments all over the world began the distribution of Covid-19 vaccine, cold chain management has emerged as a crucial factor for ensuring the effectiveness of the vaccine itself. An efficient management of the vaccine cold chain requires several degrees of coordination among multiple stakeholders such as - just to name a few - pharmaceutical manufacturers, specialized laboratories for storage and logistics providers who can ensure climate-controlled transportation and distribution. Even if for a completely different range of products, this process is not dissimilar to the one we experience on a daily basis in our business. The cold chain and…