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.

 As soon as the critical control parameters are identified, the search for the best suited sensor system can start. For some quality characteristics no suitable sensor system is commercially available yet. Examples are the inline monitoring of consistency and crystallisation degree of margarine, the viscosity of dough, structure and functionality of the final product. In this case the potential of innovative sensor developments need to be explored. Another way is the soft sensor approach where via data-analysis and modelling a parameter that cannot be measured directly is predicted based on a set of measurable parameters for which sensor systems are available.