How food and beverage organisations can maximize the technology advantage

Authored by:

• Marcel Koks | Senior Director, Industry & Solution Strategy for food and beverage at Infor
• Mikael Bengtsson | Director, Industry & Solution Strategy for food and beverage at Infor

Remaining competitive in the food and beverage industry is more difficult than ever, due to evolving consumer perceptions, preferences, and expectations.

A 2024 report from the EIT Food Consumer Observatory found consumers lack trust in food brand operations, with only 53% believing their food is safe to consume. Additionally, scientists have noted that social media is making us think differently about food, with nutrition and wellness trends having an increasing influence over consumers’ buying behaviour. This puts pressure on food and beverage organisations to keep up not only with demand but also rising expectations.

Now, it’s a business imperative to meet or even exceed those expectations to stay ahead in a crowded market. Adding to the complexity, there’s another component to this challenge—meeting new and changing regulations.

Expectation vs. regulation

While consumers demand that organisations should keep up, regulators enforce them to do so.
Yet, when regulations are constantly changing, compliance becomes increasingly challenging. For example, the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) introduced new requirements around traceability record-keeping, allowing for faster identification and removal of potentially contaminated food from the market—resulting in fewer foodborne illnesses and deaths.

Meanwhile, Singapore’s Nutri-Grade labelling expansion to include sodium and fat could impact food shelf-life and prices. The European Union’s new food waste reduction targets are driving food and beverage organisations to reach a 30% reduction in food waste in the next five years.

To secure a strong foothold in this evolving market, success lies within finding ways to ride the wave of changing demands and ubiquitous regulations—and that involves taking a step toward innovation.

The technology advantage

Research from our latest industry report notes 78% of food and beverage organisations agree that success in their industry will depend on adoption and use of new technologies. With compliance and sustainability as key priorities, it’s clear that how that technology is applied will have a critical impact.

Although there is no one-size-fits-all solution, combining the capabilities of different systems covers more ground; giving food and beverage organisations a significant helping hand in not only meeting regulations, but positioning themselves ahead of competitors.

• Product lifestyle management (PLM) can ensure compliance with labelling laws—including ingredient declarations, allergen statements, and nutritional information—serving as a useful tool for label expansions such as the Nutri-Grade requirement. PLM also delivers greater flexibility. When developing new products and taking them to market, it can integrate databases of global and regional regulations, ensuring products meet compliance standards for different markets.
• Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems, coupled with AI capabilities, help to efficiently manage raw materials, reducing waste and increasing yield. This allows food and beverage organisations to comply with evolving regulations such as the food waste reduction targets. The ability to track raw materials and finished products through the supply chain also enables compliance with regulations such as FSMA through delivering traceability and supply chain transparency. Reducing energy and resource waste also supports environmental standards, which are increasingly important to eco-conscious consumers.
• A manufacturing execution system (MES) embeds quality control checkpoints into production workflows, playing a crucial role in production efficiencies and ensuring compliance with food safety standards. What’s more, it logs and tracks safety or quality incidents for compliance with regulatory reporting requirements, while enabling quick identification should there be an affected batch, providing detailed traceability data to streamline recalls. Fast action around product recalls can positively impact consumer perception.
• Trade promotion management (TPM) systems help organisations plan, execute, and analyse trade promotions based on real-time insights. Understanding which promotions are working and what products are selling provides clear return on investment around sales promotions that are designed to address and capitalise on changing consumer preferences.

Making possible happen

Leveraging technology to set up bullet-proof processes not only gives food and beverage organisations like yours the tools to meet regulations now, but also for the future—securing a competitive advantage over those slower to the uptake and helping to meet rising consumer expectations.

To explore this idea further, we’ve undertaken global research with 500 food and beverage decision-makers. The results revealed four Vectors to Value, providing a blueprint for how the most productive food and beverage organisations are using the technology advantage to unlock new value streams.

To understand how your organisation can secure its place as an industry leader, download our report today.

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