The document discusses the role of automation and robotics in enhancing food manufacturing and packaging efficiency within the fast-moving consumer goods sector, particularly under economic pressures. It highlights the various robotic applications in food processing, packaging, and the benefits of automation in terms of safety and speed, especially in light of challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. The demand for robotic solutions in both primary and secondary food processing is expected to grow, with a significant impact on food safety and hygiene standards.

1. FOOD AUTOMATION AND ROBOTICS: FOR IMPROVED FOOD
MANUFACTURING AND PACKAGING
Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Retail

2. Food Automation and Robotics
The systematic implementation and incorporation of automation
and robotic systems will significantly enhance food manufacturing
efficiency during unsustainable economic pressures. Food
manufacturing has evolved as a vastly complex process, where it
covers preparing, cooking, sorting, packaging, and palletizing. To
increase production at the facilities, industrial robots are widely
adopted to save time, space, cleanliness, and safety.
In the food manufacturing units, the robots are usually used in
the process of dispensing, feed placement, cutting, packaging, or
casing of food, pick-and-placing products into sorting and
containers. The advanced developments in food robots result in
the remote order of food for picking and sorting to save
employees' energy by automatically filling that specific order.
Considering the food items' packaging, where consistency, speed,
or repetitive productions are concerned, the food robots win over
humans in operational and productional efficiency. Automation
and robots are installed with great care, such as robots primarily
equipped with intelligent vision systems,
Allowing them to take care of precise product placement on a
sorting belt with the highest accuracy. These vision system robots
can also be utilized to sort in terms of color, shape, or size.
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3. Need of Robots to Improve Individual Manufacturing Process
The robots are incorporated in the food sector to initiate the manufacturing proactively and have a clear understanding of
various units such as payload, speed, accuracy, and work envelope. To execute the process, the robots carry hold on various
operations to meet cleanroom specification, such as robots include –
▪ Dispensing Robots
▪ Pick & Place Robots
▪ Palletizing Robots
▪ Sorting Robots
▪ Order Selection Robots
▪ Clean Room Robots
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and-packaging
There has also been further developed in the vacuum and grippers tools used in food robots. The airflow vacuum tool is ideal
for handling goods with damageable surfaces because it can pick up products without touching them. The suction cup is
perfect for controlling many kinds of products, especially those with an uneven surface, such as biscuits and frozen pizzas.
Using pressure difference, the vacuum gripper holds the product by using, which allows for fast pick up. Finger grippers are
best used for products that cannot be handled by suction, such as cakes with loose particles on top. All gripper and suction
tools should be easy to clean, change over, and made from materials suitable for the application.

4. Annual Supply of Industrial Food Robots Worldwide (Source: IFR Statistical Department)
2016 – 8,000
2017 – 9,000
2018 – 12,000
Considering the food industry's robot applications, most of them are used for packaging and end-of-line product casing and
palletization. Therefore, this creates untapped potential in primary and secondary processing stages of food manufacturing, where
primary processing includes operations on raw food (i.e., cleaning, inspecting, sorting, measuring, preparing, and transporting),
and secondary processing consists of the processes needed to combine ingredients and produce food products, (i.e., cooking,
blending, chilling, and assembling).

5. Covid-19 Impact on the Food Automation and Robotics
The current automation trend has witnessed the new technology developments capable of providing end-to-end automation
production of diversified processed foods. Reducing worker presence across the manufacturing process could help minimize
potential rapid contamination and help companies reduce costs in terms of safety and other measures for personnel.
The food industry has emerged as an essential aspect in the current COVID-19 pandemic environment, which is primarily driven
by various factors, including safety and hygiene, which have resulted in growing discussions concerning the element of
automation across food manufacturing.
Robotics will Change the Food Industry 2021
During the pandemic outbreak, the robots introduce new ways to process and packaged food considering the highest food safety
and sanitation level. Simultaneously, it also provides an opportunity for job delegations that are ergonomically difficult and
harmful to human workers.
Food Manufacture
Autonomous food production is the primary factor expected to address the current need for rising food consumption. In the next
five years, the global food automation industry value is expected to be double by 2022 from 2019. The Asia-Pacific regional
market will witness the most significant contributing driving factor in the world due to the growing popularity of ready-to-eat
foods.
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6. I. Primary Processing — Initial, the procurement of raw food products are cleaned, sorted, blended, and transported. Robotic
applications include slaughtering and sorting.
II. Secondary Processing — Later, the ingredients are mixed to form new food products by cooking, baking, chilling, and
others. Robotic applications include product sorting, mixing, and defect removal.
III. Robotic applications are most suitable for secondary processing, as the food is more standardized by then. However, it is
expected to witness a tremendous demand for robotics in primary processing.
Food Packaging
Currently, food packaging robots have been incorporated into the entire food supply chain. However, the latest development
makes it possible to automate the packaging process as a whole.
Food packaging has been segmented into three phases:
• Primary Packaging — Individual foods are packaged. For instance, a pick-and-place robot puts sweets into plastic tubs.
• Secondary Packaging — Individual packages are gathered together to finalize the shipping of the final products. For instance,
another pick-and-place robot stacks those plastic tubs into a larger box.
• Tertiary Packaging — Secondary packages are gathered together for shipping. For instance, a palletizing robot puts many
boxes onto a pallet.
• It seems possible that robotic packaging will highlight as one of the leading applications in the food industry.

7. Food Safety :- Although the interest in automation and robot technology is partly driven by labor costs and the availability of
skilled laborers, more companies focus on food safety and hygiene. The rising awareness for the clean and non-contaminating
manufacturing areas and the increasing demand for food products in the global market will significantly enhance the demand
and consumption of automation and robots across the food supply chain. According to the CDC, an estimated 48 million
Americans (1 in 6) are sick, where around 128,000 are hospitalized and 3,000 die each year due to foodborne disease.
Robots tested successfully reduce the contamination risk that can increase the foodborne disease cases, limiting the human and
food processing contact. The Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) has further restricted and imposed strict regulations on
processors and packagers regarding their sanitary requirements. This increases the focus of the food companies to follow these
two major megatrends, FSMA, and processing. Companies are simultaneously trying to resolve both, in which automation and
robotics can lend a hand to them.
Food Delivery :- Recently, robotic food delivery is in the limelight across the globe. In 2020, Dominos Pizza declared that it would
incorporate autonomous ground vehicles for food delivery after their initial successful drone delivery in late 2019.
Although autonomous food supply may sound similar to "the latest fad," this meets a growing market trend. Over the last few
years, home-grown ready-to-eat food and demand for restaurant-quality, has grown enormously. It is doubtful whether or not
autonomous delivery will become widespread, but the food industry's taste changes.
Therefore, the food industry trends and outbreak of COVID-19 has defiantly changed the supply chain and create awarenss for
food safety and hygiene, which is further estimated to make the opportunistic scope for automation and robotics in the global
market in the coming two years.

8. How We Are :-
Pukka Partners provide customized intelligence solutions to C-
suite executives and functional growth leaders, along with other
key offerings including market & competitive intelligence,
management & strategy consulting, pre-investment advisory,
real-time business intelligence, and data analytics services
across sectors, globally and locally, on new & emerging
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We offer advisory and actionable insights around public
policies, investment tracking along with the obstacles faced by
investors, innovation and strategy impact monitoring,
identification of industry potential, and technology mapping
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methodology and tools. We deploy our solutions to solve
prioritized and critical business challenges by leveraging our in-
house expertise and continuous engagement with industry
thought leaders in the business ecosystem.
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