Food and Drink Directory

Overview

Beckhoff implements open automation systems using PC-based control technology. The product spectrum comprises these main areas: Industrial PCs, I/O and fieldbus components, drive technology and automation software. Product series are available for all areas, which can be used as individual components or function collectively as a complete, harmonized control system. Our New Automation Technology philosophy stands for universal and open control and automation solutions that are used worldwide in a wide variety of applications ranging from CNC machine tools to intelligent building automation systems.

Offering

Food packaging requires high-quality, flexible and resource-saving solutions. In addition to ever smaller production batches and increasing production speed, traceability and complete electronic process documentation and validation are becoming increasingly important. With PC-based Control, Beckhoff offers a control solution for highly efficient, flexible and compact filling and packaging machines. PC-based Control is particularly suitable for applications in which high speed and precision are required or where complex motion connections have to be implemented. Maximum flexibility is guaranteed in situations where packaging systems are to be adapted to changing requirements without high implementation costs or if new functionalities are to be seamlessly integrated.

TwinCAT is the integrated software and engineering platform for all automation processes, including PLC, Motion Control, robotics and Condition Monitoring. All control and drive components are fully scalable in terms of performance and design. Open interfaces in hardware and software ensure continuous communication from the sensor to the cloud. Further advantages include the integrated safety solution and support of common industry standards such as FDA, EHEDG, Weihenstephan standards, OMAC and GPM

IDTs Covered

ML and Data Analytics

Robotics and Automation

Sensors

Case Study

https://www.beckhoff.com/en-gb/industries/process-industry/food-industry/

https://www.beckhoff.com/en-gb/company/news/news-detail_342129.html

Overview

CPI acts as a catalyst bringing together academia, businesses, government and investors to translate bright ideas and research into the marketplace. We do this by giving our customers access to the right experts, equipment, networks, funding and more – connecting the dots for effective innovation.

Offering

At CPI we help companies to develop, prove, prototype and commercialise the next generation of products and processes. We are actively working with companies to enable the manufacture of high volume, low cost, printed and flexible electronic components necessary for industry 4.0 and the internet of things.

These include smart labels, intelligent ticketing, printed switching, printed sensing, smart packaging and also wireless based applications such as Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and Near-Field Communication (NFC). Printable electronics adds another dimension to IoT products: low-cost, flexible electronic circuits that are ultra-thin, and printed sensors which allow collection of a wide range of data. This is then transmitted using wireless communications such as Bluetooth to mobile phones or networks.

IDTs Covered

IIOT and Connectivity

Sensors

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project

SecQual - Secure Quality Assured Logistics for Digital Food Ecosystems

The vision for SecQuAL is a secure, quality assured, digitally enabled food ecosystem that will reduce waste, improve decision-making and provide consumers with confidence in the food they purchase and consume. The next best thing since sliced bread!

SecQuAL's key objective is to overhaul the food supply chain from farm to fork. SecQuAL addresses current bottlenecks and inefficient paper practises, enables remote regulatory oversight and compliance, provides quality assurance throughout all supply chain links, and enables smart decisions to be made to reduce food waste, reduce carbon emissions as a result of unnecessary transport, and increase consumer confidence in the food purchased and consumed.

SecQuAL is innovative because it brings technology to the fore to modernise a complete food ecosystem. It will increase the number of digital technology companies providing solutions for manufacturing industries by bringing together an excellent consortium with partners spanning the full food ecosystem introducing digital technologies to modernise current practises.

SecQuAL will simplify a complex industry.

Case Study

New SecQuAL consortium launches with a mission to bring the… | CPI

Innovate UK funded project

Met2Food

As the global population continues to grow apace (by a further 25% to 2050), the demand for food will increase. Traditional agriculture will struggle to fulfil the demands made upon it. Pressure will come not only from the number of people needing to be fed but from other related issues, such as land use change to accommodate more agriculture, increased water use, chemical use, increased eutrophication of water courses, loss of biodiversity and damage to precious topsoils.

To address this, several approaches which look to change the course of both food (and feed) production and consumer purchasing habits are being explored. One such approach is to use microbial cell factories to produce nutrient-dense, high-quality food/feed ingredients. Microbial food products have the potential to help transform the global food industry away from resource inefficient production, which pollutes and denudes the environment, towards production of highly nutritious food in scalable, fully controlled, contained and monitored, fermentation processes.

This project will seek to both improve the process efficiency and sustainability of microbial food production and expand the market opportunity by developing new product streams.

The project will develop novel processes for the production of microbial biomass from sustainable feedstocks. Microbial SCP is naturally high in protein and to increase its value as a food ingredient, processes will be developed to generate a soluble protein isolate fraction for use as a food ingredient, with the insoluble fraction for use as an animal feed ingredient. The soluble protein fraction will be assessed for valuable properties such as gelling, foaming and binding, for replacement of animal-derived proteins in meat-free products. The insoluble fraction will be assessed as an animal feed ingredient for farmed fish and piglets.

The outcomes of this project will be the development of new processes and technologies to produce novel, nutrient rich, microbially-derived food and animal feed products. The processes developed will be resource efficient, reducing CO2 emissions, with low water and land usage requirements compared to traditional agriculture. The processes will be highly scalable and non-seasonal, using technology that can be deployed anywhere.

Case Study

https://www.uk-cpi.com/blog/what-if-we-could-make-food-from-co2

Overview

Based in Edinburgh, CHOOSE aims to minimise plastic pollution by offering plastic-free alternatives to everyday products.

Our plastic-free, biodegradable bottle doesn't require fossil fuel derived ingredients like that of traditional PET plastic. The bottle is made with completely naturally occurring, sustainable and non-toxic materials. 

From the beginning, we have been striving for positive change, for this reason we pledge to plant one tree for every bottle we sell. We want to make the simple act of picking up one of our products a choice that helps the environment in more way than one.

Offering

We created our bottle to minimise plastic pollution and begin the journey towards zero impact living. The products we offer utilise our patented paper bottle technology - a paper casing lined with a plant-based waterproof PET free liner. All the materials used to make our bottles are 100% natural, sustainable and vegan-friendly which will take less than a year, instead of a few centuries to degrade.      

IDTs Covered

Additive Manufacturing

Immersive Technologies

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project

Development and scale-up of the Choose Water recycled paper bottle -the world’s first long-shelf life, plastic-replacement bottle made from 100% biodegradable materials

Each year the UK throws away over 13bn plastic bottles and 5bn items of plastic-coated paper packaging such as coffee cups, cartons and salad boxes. Although plastic bottles are relatively easy to recycle, UK recycling rates of 45% (WRAP;2018) mean the majority end up in landfill, or worse the ocean.Plastic-coated paper packaging presents a more complicated problem -- despite using 95% recycled materials the high cost associated with separating the materials means 125,000 tonnes going to landfill every year.

Following 12-months research, we have developed a prototype 500ml bottle made solely out of recycled paper, with unique waterproof lining made out 100% natural, biodegradable materials. The liner represents the holy grail within the packaging industry and the technology has significant potential both in the development of bottles and use in wider packaging for liquids, ready meals and other modified atmosphere packaging- reducing the reliance on plastic and plastic lining for packaging.
We are currently reliant on multiple third-parties for the design and manufacture of the recycled paper bottle, with the lining, filling and capping taking place manually at our production facility. This is inefficient, not scalable and hinders our ability to undertake further R&D.
Having demonstrated the potential of the liner and paper casing, we now need to refine the liner and develop the unique hardware machinery needed exploit the market opportunity.
Internally, the project will;
Enable us to get to market quickly, demonstrate industrial feasibility (EOIs already received from: Sky, Eurostar) a
Produce at volume (100p/d - 1,800 p/d) and reduce our cost per bottle from 60p to 14p through automation, down to ~5p at scale - comparable to PET.
Enable us to undertake further R&D, experimenting with other forms of recycled material packaging (bamboo, wood pulp etc), smaller bottles (down to 50ml - a major source of single-use plastic waste), different structures (ready meal or modified atmosphere trays etc) and act as a platform to develop the unique liner technology.
More widely, the technology will help the UK reduce its plastic bottle usage by 1mi items by Y5, saving over 140,000 kg in CO2 in line with UK GOVs 'Plastic Pact' 2025 commitment.

Overview

Guide farmers from sowing to harvesting, helping them reduce risk and build livelihoods.Create a fairer and sustainable future for global agriculture.

Offering

To make an impact, reaching a farmer isn't enough.
We've curated a team of passionate developers, scientists, user-experience designers and field agents to help farmers adopt your expertise.

By working with service providers all over the world, we have developed a deep expertise in understanding what makes services successful.Our user-experience designers continually test and refine digital channels, to communicate insights, to maximise adoption rates and to create the most impact.

IDTs Covered

IIOT and Connectivity

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project

Improving irrigation management to increase the productivity and livelihoods of smallholder banana growers in the post-conflict region of Magdalena, Colombia

Improving the agricultural productivity and livelihoods for banana producers in the Magdalena Department (region) of Colombia is a national economic priority. Through implementation of a suite of innovative remote and ground based environmental data collection techniques to increase the efficacy of existing management approaches, coupled with introduction of novel management options for smallholders and producer organisations, this project constitutes a late-stage case study to demonstrate the agronomic and socio-economic benefits of using novel EO observation and weather station sampling methodologies to improve the financial returns for the Colombian banana association ASBAMA, and exporter Tecbaco. Specifically, this project will seek to improve the cost-benefit of existing irrigation scheduling advice provided to producers by Tecbaco, with a view to improving and extending this advice at low cost to smallholder and female banana producers who belong to the ASBAMA network. The project will also provide prospecting support to Tecbaco to help the business evaluate the technical feasibility for establishing new production sites in the Santa Marta region to increase export revenues from bananas and other high-value agricultural produce. These are intended to represent two exemplars of how greater and smarter access to low-cost environmental data can be beneficially used by businesses to increase profits for agricultural producers in low-income nations, and areas exposed to instability through recent conflict. This project specifically focuses on the Colombian banana export market; however, the technologies being implemented could bereadily extended and commercially applied to other regions and crops in the future.

Case Study

https://www.climate-edge.com/customer-stories/cranfield-university.html

Overview

DCI Group is an award-winning refrigeration, air-conditioning, ventilation and electrical contractor. An industry leader in the south of England, DCI is at the forefront of designing, building and maintaining innovative temperature control solutions for clients throughout the UK.

Offering

With over 25 years of expertise and experience DCI helps a wide range of businesses achieve cost savings and improved environmental responsibility – from supermarkets, cold storage distribution and office blocks to plant nurseries and wine cellars.

The company’s extensive team of directly employed reactive service & maintenance engineers provides fast, efficient repairs to the most valued assets within clients’ estates, giving them the peace of mind to focus on their core business while staying cool about their systems, whatever the climate.

In addition, DCI’s electrical division provides installation and testing services as well as LED lighting solutions to deliver further significant reductions in both running costs and carbon emissions.

IDTs Covered

Engineering

Manufacturing

Case Study

https://www.dcigroup.uk.com/2019/11/refrigeration-and-hvac-for-midcounties-co-op-bletchingdon/

https://www.dcigroup.uk.com/2018/03/quattro-foods-electrical-case-study/

Overview

Dext Heat Recovery was created in 2009. Since then the team has grown to comprise mechanical engineers with an innovative approach to waste heat recovery. This combination of innovative thinking people from different mechanical engineering heritages allows us to offer a complete design process for heat recovery technology.  Our approach has always been to push the boundaries on current technology to deliver solutions and to create new technology.

Offering

We aim to build long term relationships with our clients to provide them with innovative heat recovery design and engineering solutions. Our approach is to push the boundaries on current technology to deliver solutions and to create new technology to overcome design problems.

Part of our approach has been teaming up with Materials & Engineering Research Institute where a partnership between the Dext team and academics collectively delivers and achieves advancement in reach and development.

IDTs Covered

Engineering

Innovate UK Project

Advanced heat recovery systems for the food manufacturing industry, DEXT

Dext heat recovery (DHR) specialise in the design, manufacture and installation of bespoke heat recovery systems, which enable their clients to significantly reduce energy costs and improve their profitability, environmental impact, and security of supply chain. Exhaust gases from industrial food manufacture can be dirty, corrosive, and contain particles that will build-up and coat the surfaces of heat recovery systems. In this type of application traditional heat recovery heat exchangers can easily become clogged or damaged. DEXT have succeeded in bringing a product to market for which is used with great success in commercial kitchens. This project is focused on developing the innovations to extend their heat recovery systems for application in the food manufacturing industry, working with the supply-chain and end-users to enable the food industry to benefit from the advantages this brings.

Overview

FOSS creates end-to-end solutions that secure and improve food quality. From raw material to finished product. Our analysis instruments refine measurements into information management that enables businesses to run intelligent data-driven productions with less waste and bigger yields. Controlling cost and quality across all sectors and value chains, we help food and agricultural producers limit the number of human errors, scale their business faster and reduce manual labour as well as labour costs. We call it analytics beyond measure.

Offering

We cover these food and agricultural industries: Dairy, Feed and Forage, Grain, Flour Milling & Oilseed Processing, Laboratories, Meat, Raw Milk Testing and Wine.

Over the last 60 years, we have made it our business to define the standard of analytical solutions for the food and agricultural industry. We pioneered advanced analysis for the challenging production environments in the 1960’s, and we were the first to integrate chemical composition analysis in process lines. Now our resolve and ambition have also made us the international benchmark in the field of chemometrics and real time analytics.

FOSS Digital Services can help you reduce your production costs and secure the quality of your products regardless of where they are produced. FOSS Digital Services will ensure you have peace of mind knowing that your data is backed-up and protected for whenever you need it.

IDTs Covered

Manufacturing

Digital Analytics

Case Study

https://www.fossanalytics.com/en-gb/news-articles/newsforum/global/2020/beerfoss-ft-go-press-release

Overview

Grundfos is one of the world’s leading water technology companies. We are committed to pioneering solutions to the world’s water and climate challenges and improving the quality of life for people.

Offering

Innovation has always been a driving force behind Grundfos’ success, and the pioneering spirit has dominated our professional soul from the very start back in 1945. Today innovation remains more important than ever for taking us into the future and delivering on our purpose: "We pioneer solutions to the world's water and climate challenges and improve quality of life for people"

Case Study

https://www.grundfos.com/stories

Overview

The HARTING Technology Group is skilled in the fields of electrical, electronic and optical connection, transmission and networking.

Offering

Machines and interfaces for the packaging and food industry must be resistant to water, dust and aggressive environmental impacts. We offer a broad portfolio of solutions for the transmission of power, signal and data specifically in such environments - solutions that fit your requirements exactly, be it a product combination or a pre-assembled solution.

IDTs Covered

Additive Manufacturing

Immersive Technologies

Robotics and Automation

Overview

iQluster connects your network members and provides value-added services to drive engagement and generate real-time network intelligence

As an industry network, you’re always looking for ways to improve cluster competitiveness and generate greater value to your members.

A dynamic clustering platform that powers industry networks, and connects cluster members, iQluster effortlessly captures intelligence, and promotes collaboration to increase competitiveness.

Offering

Your members are at the heart of your activities; whether it’s creating opportunities for growth, educating them about market developments, or upskilling employees.

But how are you bringing these opportunities to members?

Also, how are you engaging companies to collaborate on the opportunities you provide them?

iQluster streamlines communication throughout your cluster; providing a digital platform to deliver opportunities to members, and for members to form collaborative partnerships. 

IDTs Covered

IIOT and Connectivity

Innovate UK Project

Food Intelligent Trading Ecosystem (FITE)

Covid-19 is significantly disrupting food supply chains across all sectors:* stockpiling impact on food supply chains
* operational pressures due to extreme peaks (on-line supermarkets) or troughs of demand (local food markets)
* lockdown impact on food manufacturing workforce capacity
* acute cashflow challenges on food manufacturing SME sub-tiers
To prevent disruption to these important supply chains it is critical that Government and Industry bodies as well as primes / supermarket chains can visualise potential future risks and mitigate accordingly.
However, multi-tier visibility and collaboration is minimal, (especially for SMEs) mainly due to a lack of supply chain intelligence and digital technologies that simplify how companies can find each other, engage (especially during lockdown) and start trading.
This project will mitigate these immediate Covid-19 related challenges by deploying our supply chain intelligence and collaboration platform, and building on successful supply chain mapping pilots for BEIS, Made Smarter and Sheffield LEP, and supply chain clustering pilots with the MTC, West of England Aerospace Forum and North East Automotive Alliance.
FITE will combine big data analytics and machine learning with social networking and e-commerce technology to establish intelligent and collaborative ecosystems for food manufacturing in the UK.
UK citizens will experience less disruption as improved visibility will enable proactive mitigation actions.
Food manufacturing SMEs will be able to raise their profiles.
Government can view consolidated data to support food supply chain policy decisions

Overview

We’re a company with a worldwide reputation within the Food & Beverage industry that we serve. We supply bespoke process systems, as well as maintenance and servicing of existing equipment from various suppliers.

With over 20 years of industry experience, we provide reliable, high quality machinery that you can rely on.

Offering

We design, produce, and deliver world class liquid filling and chocolate handling equipment to solve your process problems and to streamline your process.

JJA Pack can help you in most aspects of electrical engineering including control system design, preliminary load calculations, system layout and control system architecture.

Automating processes have been at the core of our business for many years now, from simple bottle filling machines to an entire production line. The engineers at JJA Pack have the experience and knowledge to help you achieve your goals.

Our in-house control panel building department not only manufacture panels for our filling machines and chocolate tanks but also subcontract build for other OEM’s.

As part of the design consultancy the engineers will provide installation and commissioning documentation for the installation team to work to.

Typically, the installation will consist of containment, panel fitting, cable routing, terminations, inspection, testing and handover to the commissioning engineers.

IDTs Covered

Manufacturing

Engineering

Automation

Overview

Koolmill are an expanding, diverse and international team made up of experienced senior staff, non-executive directors and innovative driven engineers. As a growing SME company with a flat structure, we can adapt and pivot rapidly to respond to events and opportunities.

Offering

Koolmill technology leads the world in delivering a modern, ultra-low power, simplified and sustainable approach to cereal milling. Our vision is to transform a globally significant industry, move it to a sustainable future and lift millions from poverty.

​Many people live daily with food and fuel poverty and for 3.3 billion people, rice is life. Traditional rice milling is both wasteful and power hungry. Koolmill has developed a truly innovative milling process, a radical superefficient displacement technology that will make a positive impact on the lives of many.

Koolmill is a step change that delivers power savings of up to 90% and maximises the return of food from a valuable resource by avoiding wasted rice and power. The low power simpler Koolmill process brings, for the first time, potentially zero emission state of the art milling to all millers regardless of size and location.

IDTs Covered

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project

Efficient Husking of cereals to improve Bran Purity, value and utilisation

Koolmill and the National Centre of Excellence for Food Engineering (NCEFE) collaborated to develop an improved rice milling system and valorise the by-products of rice milling (102755/105862). Specifically, these projects target SME millers in Rural communities: the objective is to create and retain added value in rural communities transforming smallholder growers/SME Millers, from low value commodity producers to market leading added value food processors.

Traditional rice milling comprises two processes: husking and bran removal. Husking is achieved by passing the paddy (raw rice) between two rotating rubber rolls being pushed together under pressure. Think old-style mangle for squeezing water from washing: that's a 'modern' husker. Bran is 'milled' from the brown rice in multiple processes (typically up to 5) producing finished white rice.

The two processes are fundamentally different. Husking is a 'one-shot' operation to remove the fibrous husk and bran removal is a gradual process through multiple contacts within the milling chambers of abrasive or frictional machines.

Traditional huskers are a pain for millers, requiring regular maintenance and repair. Husking rolls have a relatively short life at around 24 hours. Setting huskers is a compromise between husking efficiency and broken brown rice. Higher closing pressures increase the husking efficiency but result in higher levels of broken rice. Reducing closing pressures reduces broken rice but with poor husking efficiency.

102755/105862 improved bran milling performance, increasing the power saving from 80% to over 90% and milling chamber capacity from 60 to 150kg/hr/chamber. Milling from brown to white, the bran removed is pure, very fine and will generate significant new revenue streams for rice millers. This value is dependent on the purity of the bran.

Koolmill has previously demonstrated the capability of coated abrasives to be an effective husking medium. The loss in capacity from paddy to white compared to brown to white milling was only 4%, with a relatively high husking efficiency, over 80% power savings and reducing white broken rice from 30% to less than 5%.

The downside of this increased bran milling performance is a reduction in husking efficiency, and the combination of husk and bran discharged together reducing the purity and potential value of the bran. With over 75 million tonnes of rice bran produced the opportunity is to take bran from a low-value waste, used for oil extraction and animal feed, to a valuable and nutritional beneficial human food ingredient.

There are many nutrition bioactives stored naturally within cereal brans including a range of biotechnology approaches for improving fibre, phytosterols, polyphenols, phenolic acids, antioxidants. These can be enhanced or made more bio-available through secondary processing.

Realising that value is dependent on fine clean bran driving the need for a separate husker. The industry is ready for new more efficient husking option and this would confirm Koolmill and NCEFE as global thought leaders in cereal milling, offering a unique ultra-low power paddy to white milling solution set to transform a global market projected to purchase $4 billion of rice milling equipment over the next 5-years.

Case Study

https://www.koolmill.com/efficient-husking

Overview

An innovative family business, our success is underpinned by our founder, Harry Norman’s passion for technology and enthusiasm for change. We’re using automation and robotics to shake up the food industry and improve how our food is made.

Offering

With our digital developments at both ends of the production line, we’re getting closer to a lights out food factory - bringing safety, profitability and environmental benefits across the board. And with the cost of robotics and automation falling, we can’t wait to see how we can change the food industry for the better together.

IDTs Covered

ML and Data Analytics

Robotics and Automation

Sensors

Innovate UK Project

Advanced Mixing and Cooking Technology (AMACT)

The innovative new “PDX” patented steam injection technology offers a major opportunity for revolutionary advances in food processing. It has already made an initial impact through salt and fat reduction and faster more efficient processing, but this has been achieved without full scientific understanding, largely by trial and error. Olympus Automation Ltd, together with its leading academic and industry partners, plan to realise the following objectives through this project: i) To gain a full scientific understanding of the operating envelope of the technology and to optimise its operation based on the ingredients or type of ingredients used to gain nutritional advantage, e.g. salt and fat reduction, and to minimise production time; ii) Research and develop methodology that identifies the parameters that drive key product characteristics and resultant nutritional impact; iii) Use knowledge gained to rank existing products in terms of potential nutritional benefits and monetary savings; iv) Use knowledge gained to model and develop a new generation of products and processes to unlock exciting new food opportunities not possible utilising current food process technologies

Case Study

https://www.oalgroup.com/case-study/major-dry-materials-handling-project-increase-production-capacity-at-large-doughnut-manufacturer

Overview

Food & drink manufacturing is a core strategic focus here at Omron. We have a dedicated team of professionals working collaboratively with customers to improve competitiveness, globalisation, product diversification, supply-chain traceability and needs-orientated production.

Offering

Information management

Ensuring a production facility runs at optimum capacity and quality levels requires a lot of information. At line level, data must be gathered in real time from multiple devices onto one platform, and directly communicated to the manufacturer’s information network, thereby saving additional hardware costs and complexity. Our Sysmac controller delivers plant wide monitoring and control capabilities, and with in-built database functionality provides a secure, robust and easy to implement system

Robotic product handling

Robots are playing an ever increasingly important role in the Food and Beverage sector. They provide a safer, more flexible, efficient and hygienic solution to a growing number of diverse projects. Our solution is based on our Sysmac automation platform, offering Delta type robots that are integrated into the hardware and software environments, along with vision, safety and motion. This significantly reduces design, build and commissioning tasks and hence costs

IDTs Covered

Robotics and Automation

Case Study

https://assets.omron.eu/downloads/brochure/en/v6/food_beverage_manufacturing_brochure_en.pdf. 

Overview

PragmatIC Semiconductor is a world leader in ultra-low-cost flexible electronics. 

Offering

Our flexible integrated circuits (FlexICs) are thinner than a human hair and can be invisibly embedded in objects, enabling innovators to create novel solutions to everyday problems that are not practical with conventional electronics.

Designers can create their own application-specific flexible devices using our FlexIC Foundry® service at a fraction of the cost and time required for traditional silicon circuits, opening up multiple new markets.

We also offer standard FlexIC products: our ConnectIC® family extends proven applications such as RFID and NFC into mass market use cases, enabling the potential for trillions of smart objects that can engage with consumers and their environments.

All FlexICs are manufactured on our revolutionary FlexLogIC® production system, a highly scalable manufacturing model for cost-effective high-volume production, achieved with orders of magnitude lower capital investment and operating cost compared to a traditional silicon IC fab.

Our novel, differentiated technology is being adopted by a growing base of global companies across diverse markets, including consumer goods, retail, healthcare, pharmaceutical, gaming and security.

IDTs Covered

Additive Manufacturing

Immersive Technologies

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project 

SORT-IT: Increase plastic food and drink packaging recycling rates for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) and Deposit Return Schemes (DRS)

"Food and Drink (F&D) packaging manufacturers struggle to secure enough high-quality affordable recyclate to meet statutory targets for recycled content, and mass re-use schemes are not feasible with existing technologies. Manufacturers who fail to reduce environmental impact face major financial penalties and delisting by buyers. 

The current F&D packaging supply-chain is well connected and tracked from feedstock to retailer outlets due to the need for food safety and stock control. However, beyond the retailer, the packaging supply-chain through the consumer, waste collection, recovery and recycling is very limited. Many challenges exist in separating recyclable, non-recyclables, compostables, and contaminates in F&D waste streams.

This SORT-IT feasibility-study would analyse and evaluate the feasibility of digitalisation and intelligent automation in the F&D packaging supply-chain for waste-management through tagging technology to facilitate the tracking and sorting of packaging waste. 

Our vision is that, following later industrial-research, SORT-IT would increase the environmental and economic sustainability of the F&D packaging manufacturing supply-chain, by enabling transition to a circular economy, dramatically increasing recycling rates for food-grade plastics, and enabling packaging re-use. 

Implementing tagging technology should enable:

• Increased rate of recycling and output of high-quality feedstock (including food-grade plastic) from waste.
• Re-use.
• Brand-owners to track packaging and recycling rates for Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR)
• Low-cost Deposit Return Schemes (DRS) linked to consumer accounts through reverse vending machines and identification at materials recovery facilities (MRFs).
• Greater consumer engagement with brands through transparency of green credentials.

Reduction of plastics going to landfill or entering land or aquatic environments.

The research would build on the unique technology for the manufacture of low-cost electronics in very high volumes (billions p.a.) by PragmatIC and link with the growing technologies of collaborative automation, Industry 4.0 and machine learning to tag and track packaging with unique identifiers. 

The tags would provide individual items with unique identifiers readable by RFID and NFC equipment, including smartphones; information would be exchanged via internet-enabled systems to cloud storage to facilitate supply-chain tracking and consumer engagement. 

This feasibility-study would be led by PragmatIC working with Sheffield University's Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC-Cymru) guided by an Industrial Advisory Board. “

Case Study

https://www.pragmaticsemi.com/news/pragmatic-semiconductor-leads-project-to-increase-the-value-of-plastic-waste

Overview

Quality Systems Solutions specialise in supplying best in class inspection and packaging machinery that helps to safeguard product quality within the food manufacturing, confectionery, pharmaceutical, hardware and other industries.

The team – which has over 100 years’ combined experience in the weighing and packaging sector – appreciates and understands the challenges faced by their customers and uses their expertise to supply them with machinery which is the perfect fit for their production line.

Offering

From simple bench scales and weighing equipment, single machines to full turnkey solutions and entire production lines, Quality Systems Solutions offer a comprehensive range of high-quality packing machines and equipment to ensure that product quality is maintained and compliance with industry is achieved.

Overview

Steam can heat or sterilise almost any industrial process. That’s why it’s often the first choice in so many applications around the world. From food producing to oil refining, beer making, and drug manufacturing companies, Steam is well known for delivering safe, sustainable and efficient energy.

Offering

Blanching, peeling, cooking, coating, distillation, evaporation, pasteurisation, dehydration, extrusion, shrink wrapping - steam plays a part in a large number of food processes, from preparation and processing to preservation and packaging.

Few familiar food brands reach the consumer without steam playing some part in their manufacture.

Our engineers are uniquely able to combine our products with a working knowledge of production processes and industry standards to help food producers and OEMs in the following areas: 

• Higher production capacities
• Process reliability and downtime
• Improving product quality; reducing scrap
• Reducing energy consumption
• Energy recovery

Regulatory compliance and health and safety e.g. 3-A, EHEDG, FDA, EC hygiene

IDTs Covered

Manufacturing

Engineering

Case Study

https://www.spiraxsarco.com/global/en-GB/case-studies/drink-ingredients-manufacturer

Overview

Trusted, driven by industry experts who bring a fresh approach to consultancy.  We help you solve your most complex problems by driving positive change through a seamless fusion of strategy, transformation and innovation.

Offering

We are trusted, results-driven industry experts, who can bring insight and innovation to help you achieve your business goals faster and ahead of your competition. Our careers have been founded in the UK fresh food industry and we have years of practical, hands-on experience, so you can be confident that we are conditioned to the pace & pressures of the job.

Ultimately, we turn your problems and frustrations into opportunities and solutions. We are here to give you… Food For Thought!

As an extension of your team, we provide high-calibre skills and expertise exactly when you need it most, bringing a fresh perspective and energy to your projects. We help solve the most complex problems by driving positive change through a seamless fusion of strategy, transformation & innovation.

IDTs Covered

IIOT and Connectivity

IT and Automation

Manufacturing Made Smarter Project

Coldchain 4.0 Feasibility Study

This project aims to undertake a feasibility study into the improved use of digital technology, robotics, and automation to improve food traceability and increase the capacity and utilisation of cold store infrastructure in the UK.

Covid-19 has placed tremendous pressure on the cold chain and has exposed limitations on the UKs capacity and capability to store food supplies during a crisis. The supply chain is fragmented, with many organisations involved and virtually no common digital infrastructure in place. Uptake of digital technology, automation and robotics has been slow to date resulting in low value manual processes and bottlenecks in the food supply chain, with businesses operating with high labour costs and low productivity in a market with growing labour availability issues.

This project proposes to support all stakeholders in the cold chain, by undertaking a feasibility study into the development of a cloud-based digitally enabled supply chain that integrates processors, coldstores, and end customers with an end-to-end fully traceability, optimised, real-time inventory management platform.

If successful, this project will lead to further work to research the development of a nation-wide solution that will aim to deliver a single digital supply chain for the UK food industry.

Overview

FIS is a creative consultancy of innovation strategists, development chefs, product developers and researchers working from our state-of-the-art development kitchen in London.

Offering

Bespoke, End-to-End Product Design and Development

Bring your ideas to life and ensure a successful product launch when you choose FIS. We’ll transform your concepts into creations that gain momentum within your target market.

Accelerate Your Product Development Processes While Maximising Impact and Profitability

At FIS, we’re known for our fresh and exciting ideas, especially within the food and beverage industry. We’ve worked with leading brands to create all kinds of consumer goods and retail products, from Wagamama’s “grab and go” food offering to Hillfarm’s cold-pressed rapeseed oil.

We’re able to develop a huge range of different products. And when you choose us, product development becomes a faster and more cost-effective process.

You’ll also gain access to a wider sweep of skills than if you kept things in-house. We have access to a range of specialists who can help to fine-tune your positioning and create the best version of your product.

With us, you’ll benefit from a thorough and thoughtful development process. But despite our in-depth approach, we’re able to develop products with speed.

We’ll make sure your product hits the market as quickly as possible and gets the attention it deserves when it does.

Innovate UK Project

Transforming wet perishable food waste streams for high value human consumption

The processing of food materials for the consumer market results a variety of surplus or waste streams, which currently have low value uses, for example for animal feed, or for anaerobic digestion. The project will focus on the innovative recovery and transformation of wet perishable process streams, such as peel, stalk, grain, and fruit waste, into higher value functional and textural ingredients for incorporation into food products. Outcomes will demonstrate exploitation rather than simple management of food waste, of strategic importance for security of food supply, also delivering direct commercial benefit. Technological solutions will be developed for stabilisation and manipulation of biproduct materials from key selected feedstocks, supported by a consortium with synergistic skills, representing the full supply chain.  Investigations will involve innovative coupling of process steps and novel combination of transformed materials from different sources.

Overview

Scottish Enterprise is Scotland's national economic development agency and a non-departmental public body of the Scottish Government. To deliver a significant, lasting effect on the Scottish economy, we work with partners in the public and private sectors to find and exploit the best opportunities.  We run the Scottish Manufacturing Advisory Service (SMAS) working intensively with businesses across all sectors and of all sizes in Scotland, from Shetland to the Borders, across the whole manufacturing supply chain.

Offering

Technology, automation and global supply chain opportunities mean the business world is changing fast. To maintain future competitiveness, it’s increasingly vital you engage your entire workforce in supporting innovation and the adoption of new processes and technology.

We can help your manufacturing business plot a course to take advantage of new opportunities, such as efficiency and cost saving measures, that will increase productivity and boost competitiveness.

Business innovation – product and service development support

Innovating means introducing new ideas and ways of working that drive efficiency, productivity and growth for your business. Whether you’re looking to adopt new tools and processes, secure your intellectual assets, transform the workplace, or access finance, networks and digital solutions – we can help.