Challenges & Thematic priorities

The core value of food processing companies is to produce high quality products that are fit for human consumption. In doing so, they are facing several challenges: increasing quality demands, a larger product variety that needs to be produced in a flexible way, traceability of origin, a constant pressure on costs and delivery times, personnel costs, difficulties to attracting specialised personnel etc.

Technologies that are closely linked to the field of digital transformation offer a high potential for promising solutions. The integration of modern, cost-effective sensors in connection with novel computer-aided systems for information fusion and use of digital twins of the individual products opens up new possibilities for comprehensive, continuous quality control in the manufacturing processes, for example. Particularly in the areas of quality, traceability and transparent networking of production chains from raw material production in the field or barn to distribution and consumers, digital technologies offer promising tools (sensor fusion, big data management, machine learning, artificial intelligence) for the development of practical and cost-effective solution concepts to improve process efficiency and transparency in the agri-food industry.

The combination of concrete challenges and thematic, technical priorities form the central theme of all activities rolled out in the framework of the HIGHFIVE project.

Thematic priority 1: Sensors to monitor real time critical control parameters

To ensure real time monitoring of the quality of the food products during processing, it is of crucial importance that not only the machine parameters but also the characteristic of the products itself can be measured.

Thematic priority 2: Sensor integration and implementation

The companies in the food processing industry do not need sensor systems, they need integrated solutions. This means that technology providers and digital solution providers will have to work together to understand and grasp the needs of the agri-food companies and develop smart systems accordingly.

Thematic priority 3: Smart data management and analysis – from data to information to action

Capturing data via sensors is only a first step. Data are only the facts and figures that you measure. By ordering, analysing and adding context to them, data can be transformed to information. By understanding patterns in information, we can attain knowledge.

Industry 4 0 Factory of the future roadmap

Thematic priority 4: Interoperability between food companies and in the food value chain

Capturing and monitoring data from one machine or system is one thing, but it becomes much more interesting if the data from different machines, different plants and between companies can be exchanged, aggregated, and used.

Barriers for implementation of innovative digital solutions

The increasing opportunities of gaining more insight in process and product characteristics via innovative digital solutions in in stark contrast with the rate at which they are being integrated in the food industry.

Current challenges the agri-food companies and opportunities for digital solutions and data driven processing

The core value of food processing companies is to produce high quality products that are fit for human consumption. Food processing companies are facing several challenges: increasing quality demands, a larger product variety that needs to be produced in a flexible way, traceability of origin, a constant pressure on costs and delivery times, personnel costs, difficulties to attracting specialised personnel etc. Awareness in food companies of the ‘need to’ and ‘benefits of’ digitalisation is increasing.