Contamination tops food processors’ fears

According to a recent market assessment by the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI), a North American trade association for companies manufacturing packaging and packaging-related converting machinery, commercially-available packaging machinery components, containers and materials, contamination risks are the major fear for food processors, owing to the high-profile but negative attitude that exists with food contamination issues.
 
The Institute’s director of business intelligence Paula Feldman, said: ‘Regulations to implement the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) will move the regulatory environment from responsive to proactive.  As a result, most processors and equipment suppliers are coming to terms with the food contamination dangers inherent in most machinery designs, even in the most hygienic facilities.’
 
Approximately 80 per cent of the machinery sold by its members to food processors is common to the industry, although customized and specialized machinery provides additional safety features, such as improved cleaning and sanitization, alongside other benefits, like greater efficiency, adaptability to changing material sizes and types, and proprietary processes.
 
Feldman said: ‘Data collection can enable food processors to monitor critical points with more accurate, detailed traceability records and help reduce energy use – and therefore, expense.  Vision systems can provide data beyond quality control, helping to identify manufacturing issues and increasing the speed and yield of production in the process.’
 
‘Food processing and packaging often seem distinct, but integrated.   To improve machinery’s interactions, personnel up and down the line need to communicate with each other, and understand the roles each part of the line plays in the manufacturing process,’ he added.
 
Other headlines from the PMMI Food Processing Machinery Market Assessment include: flexible packaging remaining the most used in the US owing to its convenience and environmental benefits; an unexpected growth in canned foods owing to cost-effective packaging; a forecasted growth in the food processing market of four to five per cent over the next five years; and cost pressures impinging equipment investment in certain food segments.