In recent times, IoT has played a pivotal role in maximizing productivity, enhancing operational efficiencies, and streamlining the process. The term IoT expands to the Internet of Things. Simply put, IoT refers to the system of devices connected with sensors that can collect, process, and transmit data and instructions over a network.
A Brief Introduction to the Food Industry
There is no formal definition however, in simpler terms, Food Industry is a global network of farmers and a group of diverse businesses supplying different kinds of foods consumed by the world’s population.
Types of Food Industries
Food industries can be classified into three types:
- Primary
- Secondary
- Tertiary
Primary Food Industry: Primary Food industry consists of transforming agricultural produce into consumable material. This consist of cleaning and processing food materials.
Secondary Food Industry: In this stage, consumable food items are converted into edible food items.
Tertiary: Basically, it consists of preserved and frozen food items. For example, frozen snacks and food items.
IoT in Food Industry
Over the last few years, IoT has tremendously grown in a variety of fields like healthcare, manufacturing, transportation, and supply chain. If we look into the food industry, IoT has greatly aided in decreasing costs, increasing the quality of food, and reducing food wastage.
Importance of IoT in the Food Industry:
Due to the exponential growth in the world’s population, there is one sector that the world needs to become prosperous using modern technologies, it is Agriculture. With the help of IoT, the food industries can significantly enhance themselves to ensure a better quality of food production, safety, logistics and keep an eye on manufacturing costs, waste reductions, and risk management.
Benefits of IoT:
As the trends are changing and the population is increasing, the implementation of IoT technologies can help the food industry to strive for better quality and compliance. The automation of processes and gathering data from different sources can significantly improve the workforce, maintenance, and machinery and can reach its full farm-to-fork potential.
The data generated by the IoT devices can be sent to the dashboard also known as the interface. This is where real-time information can be accessed to make informed decisions. Also, this enables the monitoring of day-to-day operations to maximize production, make the operations efficient, and keep track of inventory management.
IoT Applications in Food Industry:
There are a variety of applications of IoT in the food industry
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Enhancing Operational Efficiency
The integration of different systems and sensors connected over the networks can help in streamlining and automating the process. With IoT, manufacturers can capture data to optimize their operations, save time and become cost-effective.
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Production
The use of various sensors can be used to keep a track of the different production stages. IoTs come in handy as they can predict the state of machinery and initiate alters for any kind of disruption.
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Processing
With the help of temperature sensors, real-time updates can give much better visibility to maintain food quality and ensure safety.
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Inventory Management
IoT can come in handy to identify potential hazards in the food products that will be shipped, transferred, or sold out. The IoT sensors can give real-time updates to allow food storage in warehouses. For additional details about the Crop Management Software, you can check out the blog here.
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Smart Refrigerators
A particular temperature is needed to store different types of foods. With the help of IoT, temperature sensors can be used to monitor the freshness of food products, preserve nutrients, and keep flavors intact. IoT can be used to change the temperature depending on the type of food stored in a refrigerator.
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Less Energy Consumption
IoT can certainly help in automating the process to reduce the usage of energy. The predefined temperature with the help of smart sensors can help in maintaining the temperature levels that are required.
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Visibility and Traceability
Visibility and Traceability are considered to be the most important factors in the industry. IoT technology can help companies to track their supplies throughout the entire supply chain, thus, preserving and monitoring the levels of food freshness.
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Food Safety
With a technology-driven approach through IoT, different kinds of sensors can be used to monitor production stages, food temperature, storage conditions, and shipping time.
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Authenticity
IoTs have provided their worth in combatting counterfeit food companies. The use of Unique Identifiers (ID) can help with tracking and traceability. By assigning any food product a digital identification mark, businesses can identify fraudulent products and keep consumers trust.
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Waste Reduction
Implementation of IoT during the production stages can keep a track of raw materials, inventory, food supplies, or ingredients. The data can be used to place orders based on needs rather than estimates. Thus, extensive usage of IoT can lead to the automation of these operations.
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Monitoring of Livestock
Farm owners and ranchers can collect meaningful data through wireless IoT applications. This can help to track the location and keep a check on the well-being of their cattle. The information can be used to prevent disease and pesticides.
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Agricultural Drones
With the help of ground and ariel-based drones, the IoT can help in keeping checking on the crop’s health and assessment, irrigation, planting, soil, and crop monitoring. This can reduce the labor efforts which leads to exhaustion and automatically foresee any occurrences.
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Data Reporting and Predictive Analytics
The IoT would enable keeping track of data and records. This can help in future planning regarding production, storage facilities, inventory management, and risk management. The information gathers through different sources with the help of the sensors can help with a better decision-making process.
You can check out the importance of record-keeping here.
Conclusion:
IoTs are proving their worth in every field day by day, however, with the change in current trends, the food industry can benefit from IoT applications. Leveraging the use of IoT technology can significantly transform the trends in food management. With the rapidly growing population, IoT technology can increase competitiveness and sustainable food requirements.
