Driven by innovation, the food and beverage manufacturing sector is constantly evolving. This evolution is mainly driven by changing customer expectations creating room for more innovation with new products.
These changes tend to give rise to certain trends related to the sector and understanding these trends can help manufacturers better plan. This blog will walk you through spoke of those food and beverage manufacturing trends for 2024. So, let’s get started!
Push Towards Enhanced Sustainability
Sustainability is a significant concern in every sector and the food and beverage manufacturing sector is no exception. More and more customers are now preferring food and beverage products that ensure sustainable packaging. Even prominent industry giants such as Nestle and Conagra have committed to using recyclable and reusable packaging by 2025.
Manufacturers need to pay close attention to this development and make efforts to enhance the sustainability of their business. You can realize this quality manufacturing goal through several different practices such as reducing packaging waste, leveraging indoor vertical farming, upcycling, and more. This will help your business run sustainable operations and build better credibility in the market for a competitive edge.
Innovation in Products, Packaging and Processes
The food and beverage manufacturing sector is often known for adopting innovations to transform their offerings for good. The use of high-pressure processing (HHP) is one of the latest of these innovations in this sector. The adoption rate of HHP is quite impressive but not surprising considering it helps manufacturers enhance throughput and reduce processing costs.
Another significant development in this front is the rising use of alternative proteins. This means using plant-based and cell-based products that replicate the taste and feel of conventional animal protein. More importantly, the cost of manufacturing alternative protein foods and beverages is relatively the same or even less in certain cases.
Health Claims in Marketing and Packaging
Increasing access to high-speed internet has helped make consumers more informed than they ever were before. This has resulted in a significant push to ensure clean labeling with simpler and fewer ingredients especially those with health claims. Most manufacturers are now choosing to only list functional ingredients such as pre-biotics and pro-biotics.
It is also worth noting that the use of high temperatures can often have an adverse impact on the quality of food. Many food processors are now reconsidering pasteurization for access to better processing technologies such as HHP. Quality manufacturing businesses now must take measures to ensure they are transparent and honest with their labeling.
Enhanced Food and Beverage Manufacturing Automation
Recent technological advancements are playing a pivotal role in making automation technologies more accessible. The food and beverage manufacturing sector is also making the most of this development by using automation to its advantage. This helps manufacturers enhance operational efficiency, and supply chain management, and ensure flexible production.
Automation is helping many food and beverage manufacturers reduce operational costs and drive better profitability. But more importantly, automation has helped manufacturers reduce errors and ensure more effective use of the available resources. This has also helped them meet customer expectations and demand easily.
Ensuring Better Supply Chain Management
Supply Chain Management has become one of the most significant concerns for food and beverage manufacturing businesses in the post-pandemic world. This has triggered many food and beverage manufacturers to invest more in better refrigeration and cold storage facilities.
Besides that, there are also some businesses looking to adopt the eCommerce business model to address these issues more effectively. This makes it important that every food and beverage manufacturer focuses their efforts on enhancing supply chain management. You can even consider using supply chain management solutions to better address these issues with ease.
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