Dairy Dialog podcast 20: ProFood Tech 2019 and Food Forward
We also have our weekly look at the dairy markets with Liam Fenton, from INTL FCStone.
Where the processing industry convenes
Registration is now open for ProFood Tech 2019 (March 26–28, 2019; McCormick Place, Chicago), the only event in North America focused exclusively on all food and beverage sectors, featuring 7,000 processing professionals and 450 of the world’s top suppliers with booths covering 150,000 net square feet of exhibit floor.
Jim Pittas, president and CEO of PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, and owner and producer of the PACK EXPO portfolio of trade shows, said, “The success of the inaugural ProFood Tech confirmed that the industry required an all-inclusive, one-stop shop for its food and beverage processing needs.”
Produced by PACK EXPO, Koelnmesse - organizer of Anuga, and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA), the three-day event will showcase crossover technologies and solutions for professionals involved in dairy, beverage, baking and snack, meat/poultry/seafood, confectionery, grain/mill/cereal, fruits and vegetables, pet food/pet care and ingredients.
Moran said, “The inaugural event in 2017 set just the right tone for the show, and we’re building on that foundation.
"Based on conversations with attendees and exhibitors, we heard that the new show provides countless growth opportunities for companies willing to employ new technology and techniques to boost production, efficiency and profits.”
Attendee comments
“[PACK EXPO, Anuga and IDFA] clearly identified a much-needed trade show and hit the sweet spot right out of the box with this first event,” said Charles Harlfinger, CEO, Harpak-ULMA Packaging, LLC.
“[We] went into ProFood Tech on blind faith in [the partners] and it was a huge success for us, resulting in many opportunities to follow up.”
Events within the show
ProFood Tech is also a food and beverage processing industry gathering place for educational offerings, networking events and award ceremonies.
IDFA develops and delivers educational and technical programming for the food and beverage industry, including the new ProFood Tech Knowledge Hub. The educational line-up will address business challenges with ideas and strategies from leaders in the food and beverage industry, discussions on best practices and deep dives into consumer trends that are changing the food and beverage landscape.
This free programming will feature learning experiences from industry thought leaders in three separate venues on the show floor.
The Impact Zone will encourage interactive discussions and offer opportunities to learn from the experiences and successes of industry colleagues.
The Innovation Zone will feature breakthrough technologies, ideas and formulations designed to spark creativity, help find solutions and uncover fresh opportunities.
The Disruption Zone will deliver a line-up of sessions for professionals to learn more about implementing disruptive technologies to meet consumer demands.
Cold Pressure Council Annual Conference – (March 26-27) Convened by PMMI, the conference is dedicated to high-pressure processing (HPP) and will feature insights from leading food processors, service providers and supplier experts on HPP best practices, the latest market trends and tips for packaging HPP products.
Emerging Leaders Network (ELN) Event –The ELN connects rising leaders in packaging and processing through networking events at the PACK EXPO portfolio of tradeshows while offering resources including leadership development training, a quarterly e-newsletter and the On the Rise Awards program.
Packaging & Processing Women’s Leadership Network (PPWLN) Event – The PPWLN will host a networking event continuing its mission to recruit, retain and advance women's careers in packaging and processing.
Register online at www.profoodtech.com.
ProFood Tech is produced in partnership by PMMI, Koelnmesse (organizer of Anuga) and the International Dairy Foods Association (IDFA).
Food Forward and partners receive funding for UK dairy manufacturers’ data portal
UK green technology company Food Forward Ltd, supported by researchers at the University of Surrey, has been awarded £60,000 ($79,000) of funding from Innovate UK to build out its data platform for the UK dairy industry.
The London-based company aims to be the UK’s leading green tech business for the food sector. Its new tool, Dairy Forward, will match UK manufacturers of dairy foods with sustainable energy, food waste and water management technologies.
Dairy Forward is able to compare producers of cheese, butter, yogurt and other dairy products with each other in terms of energy consumed and waste produced. It can also match sites with sustainable solutions like solar power purchase agreements, anaerobic digesters and energy storage technologies. Companies adopting these technologies increase their protection, long term, against volatile input costs and help them make better use of wasted resources.
Dairy Forward's collected data will match variables like location and energy and water usage with solutions drawn from Food Forward’s network of clean tech providers.
Conrad Young, managing director of Food Forward, said, “Our web tool collects data from a typical medium sized factory – say a yogurt manufacturer, processing 50,000 tonnes of milk per year – and can calculate its energy costs, roof space and the cost of solar panel installation. It then matches them with a solar company which can install and operate panels and sell the cheap renewable energy back to the factory.
“In this example, by cutting their imported energy resource costs, the factory can use savings of £500,000 ($658,000) to reduce the price of their yogurts over 25 years. Even better, they’ll be cutting the equivalent carbon emissions of 700 dairy cows.”
Helping companies
The Dairy Forward project aims to demonstrate that helping companies to visualize their resource footprint and the long-term benefits of specific clean technologies, while amplifying that demand to the technology providers, will speed up adoption.
In its initial phase thanks to funding from the UK Government’s Business Basics program, it is able to offer places to 36 small and medium sized manufacturers. For more information on being involved, contact Conrad Young by email.
