News for the Beverage and Liquid Food Industry
Today, there’s a lot of interest in innovative cleaning systems in the beverage industry. Resource and cost-saving production processes are highly sought after. Self-learning programs are now able to use machine learning to create intelligent cleaning processes. But how does it work? And how effective are these new systems?
Sustainability remains at the forefront of the development of glass and PET bottles, drink cartons and cans. The demands placed on packaging by consumers and legislators vary depending on material, but all fall under this overarching, dominant topic. Caps that are firmly attached to the bottle or carton (for single-use plastics), reduced use of material (lightweight glass bottles) and increased use of recycled material (rPET) are important goals, and will continue to be in future. Let’s take a look at current projects.
Like so many other trends, hard seltzer also originated in the USA, where it has been breaking one sales record after another. No wonder that the beverage industry in Germany sensed a big chance here after being greatly shaken up by the coronavirus. Hard seltzer, a new boom that can be brought across the Atlantic to Europe with ease, or just a brief tremor in the market like Fassbrause?
The global pandemic has spotlighted the food and beverage sector. In particular because fluctuating customer requirements and closed borders strained supply chains to their limits. Reda Mostafa, Business Development Director at PTC, explains here how the digital transformation of the food and beverage industry can help it operate successfully, even in such unpredictable times.
It is practically impossible to operate bottling plants efficiently without the appropriate IT systems. Until now, smartwatches have played almost no role in this. Christian Diederich, founder of SubLine Solutions, highlights their immense potential in beverage production.
Sustainability is currently dominating beverage carton development. This appears in changes to material quality, novel cap solutions and design modifications. But also filling beverage cartons and using digital possibilities are to be improved.
When it comes to stacking the current crates and bottle cases, a lot of space is left in between. The available transport and storage volumes could be put to significantly better use. Tim Siebels, from the Office for Logistics Research in Dortmund, presents a new development that utilizes the narrower bottleneck diameter for optimized packing density.
The lockdown in March/April 2020 and the (partial) lockdown in place since November 2020 have led to great losses in the beverage industry. The evaluations of GEDAT Getränkedaten show the extent of these losses. The data was collected based on the number of companies supplied by beverage wholesalers each month in the out-of-house market.
“Health is the greatest wealth” is a saying that has gained in meaning for many people due to Covid-19. Interest in healthy beverages, which are designed to boost both mental and physical well-being, is rising sharply, too.