New Food Technology: Standing Out in the Food Industry

New food technology is one of the most critical investments if you want to progress in the food industry. Food technologies cover everything from food safety, food sustainability and improvements to food supply chains. You may want your business to move towards a more sustainable business model.

Or you may want to meet consumer demand and consumer preference better. Whatever your business goals, investing in technologies is the most effective way to reach them. You’ll be using cutting-edge developments in the food industry. And with it, you’ll better appeal to your customer demographic while boosting profit.

Does this all sound good? We bet it does. Taking the step to invest in technologies will be one of your most excellent business decisions. It is important to be progressive and intentional with your business goals. It’s essential to morally invest in things like reducing environmental impact and boosting food sustainability for food industry longevity. The last thing you want is a food industry failing food safety or the consumer demand for food sustainability. Food technology is a case of catching up or getting left behind.

This guide will cover all you need to know about using food technology. When you harness food technologies correctly, you’ll stand out for the right reasons in the food industry. Get ready to take your business to the next level.

Why Should You Care About New Food Technology?

As we’ve briefly touched on, there are so many reasons to care about new technologies for the food industry. To summarize, technologies improve the food industry by meeting consumer demand, food safety standards, food sustainability, and more. Food technology is an umbrella term - covering all sorts of technologies and business goals. It’s a brilliant way to adapt your business and maximize your chance of survival. Know your business goals beforehand to engage with and authentically utilize technology.

So, now you get the gist of food technology benefits, what are the specific benefits of using food technologies? Take a look at these top reasons to care about new technology in the food industry:

• Food technology helps you meet consumer demand.

Firstly, food technology helps you to meet consumer preference standards and demand. This could involve mass-producing more of a product to meet higher demand. This could include making specific products for the food sector, like alternative proteins like plant-based proteins or cultured meat.

• Food technology helps you to stand out against competitors.

Food technology makes you look great. And if you use it smartly, it makes you stand out against competitors. The key is to improve your business and food sector. Will you create more nutritious food? Will you use cellular agriculture? Make it good and make a difference.

• Food technology helps sustainability.

Food sustainability is a huge buzzword. You can use technology to reduce food waste or invest in regenerative agriculture to minimize environmental impact.

• Food technology helps you to resonate better with your brand values.

Using technologies sends out a clear message. If you choose correctly, this technology will resonate with your brand values and improve your image.

New Food Preservation Technology: 3 Top Technology Trends

So, let’s take a look at new food preservation technology. As you know, food preservation is a vital step in gathering sustainability and consumer demand benefits. It means that your food lasts longer - reducing costs and food wastage. It means that food stays safer, with less chance of spoilage and poor food safety. All in all, investing in food preservation is a clear win-win.

• Plastic packaging might not be the evil of all evils, but recycling is key.

A 2022 Swiss study found that plastic wrapping a cucumber has a 1% environmental impact. On the other hand, a single cucumber spoilage was equivalent to 93 plastic cucumber wraps. While there’s a huge no-plastic trend, food preservation technology might be reversing a few steps.

• AI is increasingly used to package and preserve foods.

Packaging is a massive part of preservation, which is increasingly relying on AI assistance. This is an essential technological consideration concerning shelf life. We need to analyze how AI continues developing and impacting our operations in the food industry.

• Edible packaging is on the rise but not quite mainstream yet.

Edible packaging might sound bizarre, but it could soon be on the shelves. In fact, it is already in trial stages all around the world. It is an all-in-one - part snack, part packaging material to cut waste and byproducts. You can eat it, yet it also preserves your food.

As you can see, the main focuses of food preservation are sustainability and AI. The food sector is reevaluating all the trends of previous years - including the say no to plastics movement. Instead, it is harnessing new approaches and technologies to improve food preservation.

New Food Service Technology: 3 Top Trends

A super exciting development in the food industry is new food service technology. These technologies specifically focus on the service aspect - e.g., how we interact with customers. The benefit of this is not only meeting consumer demand and consumer preference. It also makes your business more effective and builds better customer/business relationships. It is one of the best investments to improve customer relations. And as another huge plus, it often creates a novelty aspect perfect for marketing.

These are the top three trends in service technology that you should take note of:

• Mobile apps are here and here to stay.

Mobile apps came in during COVID-19 as a way to minimize contact. But they also benefit businesses long-term, so they are here to stay. Mobile apps are a brilliant way to overcome staff shortages and reduce workload. Take note of this as a sign of a trend towards independent ordering and digitally accessible information.

• Online reservation systems are a hot must-have.

Again, this indicates a trend of independent customers and digital information. Online reservation systems remain in hot demand and are a brilliant way of reducing phone calls. Your system automates bookings and slots them in without needing brain power or energy.

• Food delivery is getting robotic.

More and more businesses are investing in robotic deliveries, especially in suburban areas. Dominos is even trialing self-driving cars. This is a fantastic way of minimizing the impact of staff shortages.

4 Ways To Incorporate New Food Technologies in Your Business Plan

If this sounds fantastic, but you are unsure about where it fits in, don’t worry. There are some easy areas where you can incorporate new technologies into your business plan. This section will show exactly what technologies you can integrate seamlessly into your business. Knowing your next step and how you will execute a new business strategy is essential. Sit tight and enjoy the most practical section in this guide.

1. Analyze Your Food Preservation

Food preservation is one of the most important things to consider in the food industry. Preservation is the key to food sustainability - reducing food waste due to spoilage. It is also crucial to food safety, making food better and healthier. And finally, it helps you meet consumer demand. When you lose food, you have the stock you can’t account for but likely need to meet consumer demands.

As you can see, food preservation is important. You can look into cutting-edge ways of making food last longer. This is especially good if you report high food wastage and spoilage levels.

2. Analyze Alternative Proteins

A huge 2021 trend was alternative proteins, which are going strong. Investing in alternative proteins is one way to incorporate food technologies into your business. This could be in one of two ways: alternative meat-free protein or alternative meat proteins. There is a growing trend in alternating meat products, with some even using insect protein. It shows that creativity is critical.

Global warming, climate change, and sustainability will continue to be buzzwords. And if you can get ahead of the game by introducing more sustainable proteins, you’ll effectively meet consumer demand.

3. Analyze How You Serve Customers

How you actually serve customers is a great way to introduce food technology and shape your business. Food technology doesn’t just have to relate to the food itself, it can also relate to the serving aspect. How do you connect with and serve customers? Could technology improve their experience? This could involve anything from new menu technology to robots and AI-assisted deliveries.

For instance, delivery trends are interesting to consider, especially with the rise of robots and AI. There are already robot delivery machines. This is worth considering, given restaurant worker shortages and high staff turnover being chronic issues in the food sector.

4. Examine Where You Source Food From

Finally, sourcing is another hugely important thing to consider when implementing food technologies. Where exactly do you source your food from? Knowing the ins and outs of your food supply chains is vital when making a difference to your business. You can choose to invest in food technology from a distance just by being more mindful of food supply chains.

If you don’t have the budget for food technology upgrades right now, this is the best way to invest. Look out for suppliers who use technology you admire and work with them. This could include things like regenerative agriculture or plant-based proteins.

Final Thoughts: What’s New in Food Technology?

So, what’s new in food technology? Most new food technologies involve an element of sustainability, AI, and unique processing. You’ve got to be quick to catch ‘new’ trends, though, as the ball is always moving so fast. Many people are constantly predicting technology developments; the answer is continually evolving. You can read many trend predictions online, and keeping your eyes open for emerging patterns is wise.

Investing in food technologies is undoubtedly one of the best things to boost your business in the food industry. You’ll love seeing the progress you make after investing in technology. More than anything, it gives you a sense of forward movement and aspirations. Asking ‘What’s new in food technology’ can be the stepping stone that pushes you further towards business success. It’s great that you are taking this step. You’ll see the benefits if you start today in as little as just a week or two.

Beambox provides a highly-developed WiFi platform so businesses can use the latest digital food technologies. Are you ready to use multi-avenue strategies to make the most of new food technology? Start your Beambox free trial today. We’ll help you start to develop your food sector business with technology.

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