Consumers want foods that suit healthy, fast-paced lifestyles. They want nutritious options that take little or no preparation before eating, and increasing numbers want plant-based foods. These are meals that entail intensive processing, so manufacturers must innovate to stay ahead.
“If you take one of the big trends, like vegan, plant-based foods – the products look like meat but the process behind them is more complicated,” says Dr. Ana Lucia Vasquez-Caicedo, Global Technical Manager, Food & Beverage, at Trelleborg. “Often food processors need to adapt their equipment to handle a wider range of ingredients with different physical properties, mostly containing particles or fibers that are more abrasive to equipment surfaces.”
The rise of convenience and plant-based foods are not the only trends driving change in the food processing industry. Consumers also want to know that their meals are ethically sourced and sustainably produced with minimal waste. At the same time, surging population growth and the rise of the middle class in emerging markets are pushing manufacturers to produce an ever-changing array of products to suit local tastes.
And it is not just consumers who are more demanding. Regulators in the EU, the US and China are introducing stricter rules governing materials used for food processing to ensure both consumers and the environment are protected – rules that do not always overlap.
“If a food contact material is compliant in the European Union, in many cases that will also work for the US Food and Drug Administration, but then Chinese regulations might present an additional challenge,” says Dr. Petra Hilt, Global Manager Compliance Food Contact Materials at Trelleborg. “We must find a good solution for rubber and plastic materials that works well technically but is still compliant. This is challenging because there is a limited number of ingredients from which we can choose.”
