5 Reasons for Innovation in Meat Industry Automation

The processing of meat, from slaughtering to the packaging of the final products, offers great potential for innovative automation solutions.

This blog will provide five reasons why the meat industry needs innovative approaches for a higher automation density.

*Disclaimer: This article is not intended to become the basis of any meat-eating discussion, but rather to draw attention to opportunities for innovation in the field of automation processes for the meat industry. Even if the consumption of meat (especially beef and pork) has been declining in recent years, it is still at a high level.

1st reason: labor shortage + working conditions

The working conditions in the meat industry are not desirable for many people because dealing with animals can be too stressful both physically and mentally.

2nd reason: Important economic sector

Meat processing is one of the most important economic sectors in the German consumer goods industry. The slaughterhouse and meat processing industry in Germany had a total turnover of around 44 billion euros last year with more than 1,400 meat processing companies in operation nationwide.

3rd Reason: Consumers demand higher product quality

Consuming high-quality food has become more important for many consumers in the last several years. Even in the meat sector, people are paying more attention to improving product quality. To meet these requirements, automated processing steps are necessary to ensure that high quality can be achieved. Standardized procedures, including continuous hygiene controls, can help to increase the quality of the end products.

4th reason: Challenging development environment

The area of ​​industrial meat processing, which has been heavily reliant on human work steps, offers great potential for the development of new approaches to automation. However, many special factors need to be overcome. For example, every animal slaughtered is individual and unique, which necessitates an adapted procedure, thus a highly standardized procedure cannot be used. The individuality of the animals also determines point five.

5th reason: Plenty of room for innovation

Future solutions must consider the individuality of animals to be sufficiently innovative. The topic of artificial intelligence has become increasingly important in recent years and can also become an interesting factor in the meat processing sector. Further, the field of robotics has also gained importance with new technologies that enable robots to imitate human gripping, opening many new fields of application. The whole area offers many great opportunities to bring new innovations to the meat industry.

Innovations with EurA

As an international consulting company for innovation and technology, EurA supports companies, research institutions and public-sector clients in developing and implementing technical innovations.

EurA has built up extensive expertise in the field of automation and innovative technologies for meat processing, including through the former AutoMeAt innovation network. The network focused on developing innovative technologies to sustainably improve production conditions along the entire value chain of industrial meat processing. Key topics included automation, robotics, artificial intelligence, sensor technologies and innovative processing solutions.

Although the AutoMeAt network is no longer active, the expertise, industry knowledge and experience gained from the network remain part of EurA’s consulting activities. We continue to support companies in identifying technological development opportunities, initiating research and development projects, finding suitable cooperation partners and exploring potential funding opportunities.

Are you developing an innovative solution for meat processing, food production or automation? EurA would be happy to discuss your project with you and identify suitable opportunities for its further development and implementation.

Get in touch with our experts to discuss your innovation project.                                           

Author: Lukas Trunck