Anuga FoodTec

01/06/2026

The EU's most ambitious packaging regulation is live. And the recycling industry is quietly collapsing.

In 2023, the EU generated 79.7 million tons of packaging waste — 177.8 kg per resident. Of plastic packaging waste, only 42.1% was recycled. The PPWR mandates full recyclability by 2030.

The economic logic works against it. Low crude oil prices make virgin plastic cheaper than recyclate. By end of 2025, Europe had lost nearly a million tons of recycling capacity through insolvencies and closures.

The industry is responding at two levels. MULTIVAC develops mono-material solutions and reduced-thickness films meeting PPWR requirements. SÜDPACK's Multifol® Extreme achieves 30% weight reduction versus conventional structures — without compromising product protection.

Rethinking sustainability means closing cycles and preserving resources — across markets, regulatory frameworks and infrastructure conditions.

Anuga FoodTec 2027 presents systemic solutions for recycling management, decarbonisation and resource preservation that advance measurable sustainability in the industry.

🔎 Research contributed by DLG e.V. - German Agricultural Society.

28/05/2026

Factory expansion in India. New customers in the US. A new supply chain in Thailand.
This is who comes to Anuga FoodTec.

🌏 Swahar flew in from Bangalore — expanding his factory, looking for European machinery as his company makes the shift to automated production.

From Minnesota, a component manufacturer of electric linear actuators visited customers on the show floor and scouted new partnerships in food processing and packaging.

From Thailand, a buyer came specifically to find new suppliers for his food processing line.

Three continents. Three different business goals. One place where it all comes together.

Anuga FoodTec 2027 — Cologne, February 23–26.

27/05/2026

Could your next machine upgrade legally redefine your role in the production chain?

Upgrade your production line software after January 20, 2027 — and you may legally become the machine's manufacturer. With full liability to match.

The EU Machinery Regulation 2023/1230 enters into force on that date. For the first time, it explicitly requires cybersecurity to be part of the safety assessment for machinery — a mandatory condition for CE marking.

For food and beverage manufacturers, this means extending risk analysis to cover attacks on control systems, remote maintenance access, and safety-critical software. "Food and beverage manufacturers that integrate or operate machinery should prepare for the new requirements at an early stage," says Benedikt Pulver, Head of the Machine Safety Department at TÜV SÜD Product Service.

The directive also introduces a concept many operators overlook: substantial modification. Significant hardware or software changes can reclassify the operating company as the legal manufacturer — triggering a new conformity assessment before the machine returns to operation.

🔒 Machine safety and cybersecurity compliance are central to the SAFE pillar at Anuga FoodTec 2027.

📰 Featured in the Anuga FoodTec Magazine by e.V.
👉🏼 https://bit.ly/42YqGqY

22/05/2026

A lot of production floors still rely on periodic lab samples to keep food safety in check.

It works — until the window between sampling and results is exactly when something shifts in the line.

Inline analytics changes that window. Sensors embedded directly in the processing environment register temperature, pH, weight deviation and foreign body presence as the product moves through. The data is there in the moment, not hours later.

Bizerba builds this into end-of-line inspection — AI-supported X-ray, leak detection and label verification running together through their BRAIN2 software so quality and traceability data are connected rather than siloed. Ecolab takes a similar approach to water and membrane monitoring through the ECOLAB3D™ platform and 3D TRASAR™ sensor technology — tracking system behaviour continuously and surfacing deviations before they become performance losses.

Stefan Riest, Marketing Manager Food & Beverage at Ecolab, describes the direction: "The future of CIP and membrane cleaning is data-driven. With CIP IQ and Membrane Insights, we create real-time transparency as the foundation for sustainable, high-performance processes."

From inline analytics and AI-supported quality control to integrated hygiene and prevention concepts — Anuga FoodTec 2027 shows how holistic safety approaches protect food production.

Research contributed by DLG e.V.

20/05/2026

🤖 From cobots to Robotics-as-a-Service: automation in food production is changing fast.

STÄUBLI demonstrated this at Kaufland Fleischwaren in Heilbronn: a hygiene-compatible six-axis robot loading an automatic slicer. 21 sausage varieties. Four packaging formats. One automated system.

"Applications like these show that robotics in the food industry are noticeably increasing in breadth", says Carola K. Herbst, DLG e.V. - German Agricultural Society.

KUKA cobots in hygienic design: sensors assess cut quality, two six-axis robots grip, turn and package 50–60 sandwiches per minute. ⚡

AI-based movement planning delivers an estimated 20% performance gain on a four-axle pick-and-place robot, according to Ralf Schubert, Gerhard Schubert GmbH Verpackungsmaschinen. "When AI makes robotics faster, the design of the machinery must progress consistently with this process."

"For small and medium-sized food manufacturers, this can significantly simplify entry into automation, because robotics can be used more flexibly and with less investment of capital", says Roland Thiemann, Director of Anuga FoodTec.

RaaS models bundle maintenance, updates and service into usage-based contracts. New formats trained via tablet.

Anuga FoodTec 2027 — Navigate Complexity. Smart. Safe. Sustainable.

19/05/2026

1.3 billion tonnes of food are wasted every year — much of it during processing.

Grape pomace. Apple press cake. Okara from tofu production. Spent grain from brewing. These by-product streams are rich in pectin, polyphenols, protein, and dietary fibre — and for too long, they have been treated as disposal problems rather than production inputs.
The technology to change that already exists. 🔄

Drying and milling extend shelf life. Fractionation concentrates proteins and fibres. Fermentation and enzymatic processes improve functionality. Membrane technology handles liquid streams. Companies like Herbafood Ingredients GmbH are converting apple pomace into functional fruit fibres used in baked goods and meat alternatives. Kern Tec has processed over 2,500 tonnes of stone fruit kernels from the juice industry into ingredients for dairy alternatives. Steinecker, a Krones AG subsidiary, is extracting protein hydrolysates from spent grain for food and supplement applications — work recognised with the German Sustainability Award.

As Dr. Ralph Schneid, Head of Product Development at Steinecker, puts it: "We demonstrate how residues like spent grain can first be used as material — for example to obtain protein hydrolysates for food or dietary supplements."

At Anuga FoodTec 2027, circular economy moves from sustainability debate to industrial efficiency strategy — with direct impact on costs, product development and market positioning.

Anuga FoodTec 2027 — February 23–26 in Cologne.

Research contributed by DLG e.V.

15/05/2026

Everyone is talking about AI in the food industry.
Very few are actually implementing it.

Hendrik Haase and Frank Schroedter surveyed 30 German food companies — primarily managing directors and owners — across 25 questions on how AI is actually being used along the value chain. The findings are specific: in core areas like quality management and R&D, AI remains the exception. Less than 10% of processes across most companies have seen meaningful integration. The barriers are well-documented — missing in-house expertise, tools that don't fit production realities and investment decisions that stall before they start.

What the monitor also surfaces: companies that start small, involve teams early and build internal translation capacity tend to move faster than those waiting for the right moment.

Hendrik Haase, who co-authored the monitor, moderated sessions at Anuga FoodTec 2024 — known for making technically dense topics accessible without flattening them and for connecting the right people in the room.

📰 Read the full article in the Anuga FoodTec Magazine: bit.ly/4n9Hzbm

Research contributed by DLG e.V.

13/05/2026

Plant-based proteins and meat don't share the same process requirements. The difference sits in texture, water retention, and thermal behaviour — and it changes how you configure the entire line.

🔄 Extrusion is where this becomes concrete. Twin-screw technology allows precise control over temperature, pressure, and mechanical shear — producing fibrous, meat-like textures from plant-based inputs. What manufacturers like Coperion, Bühler Group, Clextral and ANDRITZ are demonstrating is that adaptable screw configurations and segmented temperature zones can cover multiple raw materials and product modes within a single system.

Upstream mixing and downstream shaping decisions directly influence what comes out the other end. The same applies to filling, grinders, and cutter systems — all of which require greater flexibility when processing plant-based masses versus conventional meat.

🏭 Companies like Handtmann Processing, GEA Group, Marel, Maschinenfabrik Seydelmann KG and VEMAG have adapted their systems accordingly — extending what their existing platforms can handle rather than building parallel lines.

"The challenge lies in further developing established technologies and at the same time integrating new process approaches with the aim of being able to master the increasing variety of raw materials," says Carola K. Herbst from the German Agricultural Society (DLG e.V. - German Agricultural Society).

⚙️ How well these processes interlock in practice is a central focus of the supporting programme at Anuga FoodTec 2027 — February 23–26, Cologne.

07/05/2026

Up to 50% less energy consumption — from a drive redesign.

The food industry runs on drive technology. Literally. And that's exactly why it accounts for roughly two-thirds of industrial electricity consumption.

In food production, that number carries extra weight — because every motor also has to withstand daily wash-down cycles, aggressive cleaning agents, and strict hygiene requirements.

Joerg Niermann, Head of Marketing at NORD Drivesystems Pvt. Ltd., makes the case that drive technology is one of the most underestimated levers for energy reduction — and explains why the surface of an aluminium component can be just as decisive as the motor class.

⚙️ IE5+ motors combined with frequency converters allow speed and torque to be matched to actual demand — cutting consumption without sacrificing output.

The integrated DuoDrive system, which combines motor and gearbox as a single unit, has demonstrated energy savings of up to 50% compared to conventional IE3 solutions in material handling applications.

🌱 For hygienically demanding environments, NORD's NXD tupH® surface treatment addresses both corrosion resistance and thermal performance — keeping efficiency consistent across the full lifecycle of the drive system.

"Energy efficiency must always be viewed as a systemic challenge," says Niermann. "The motor, gearbox, converter and even the surface finish of the components all work together to influence the overall performance of a drive system."

Featured in the Anuga FoodTec Expert Talk series on Environment & Energy – by DLG e.V. - German Agricultural Society.

🔗 Full Article:

Welche Rolle moderne Antriebssysteme beim Energiesparen in der Lebensmittelindustrie spielen, erläutert Jörg Niermann von NORD DRIVESYSTEMS.

05/05/2026

From fixed schedules to predictive cleaning — dairy is evolving fast.

Somewhere in Denmark, a plant processes 650 million kg of milk every year.
Until recently, its cleaning cycles ran on gut feel and a fixed 6–7 hour production window — because no one could prove the milk could safely run longer.

For most of the industry, that's still the operating standard.

Arla Foods, SPX FLOW, and FORCE Technology set out to change it. The approach: a digital twin of the plate heat exchanger at Arla's Taulov facility, combined with a real-time biofilm growth model — designed to predict when cleaning is actually needed, not just when it was historically scheduled.

The target: some runs that default to 6–7 hours could safely extend to 12 or more. Less downtime. Lower water and energy consumption. Higher output from the same line.

Frits Mogensen, Senior Operations Manager at Arla Foods in Taulov:
"A digital twin will give us better knowledge of our production in real time — and help us see how we can monitor and schedule cleaning based on actual biofilm development."

The collaboration launched in 2023. It points to where the entire sector is heading. As Roland Thiemann, Director Anuga FoodTec, puts it: "In many companies there are historically developed system structures with differing automation systems and sometimes still analogue measurement and control technologies. Even smaller steps can achieve clear effects here."

Carola K. Herbst, Deputy Managing Director, DLG Center for Agriculture and Food: "The technological changes in milk processing are enormous — and this is exactly where the expert program of Anuga FoodTec comes in."

Day 1 of the Innovation Stage at Anuga FoodTec 2027 is dedicated to Processing of Dairy and Alternatives — from IIoT integration and smart sensor systems to predictive maintenance and energy management.

📍 February 23–26, 2027 | Cologne