Feeding a growing world sustainably

The global food and beverage industry stands at a critical inflection point as manufacturers face growing demands to increase output while navigating supply vulnerabilities, regulations, and resource constraints. In the food and drink sector ABB provides integrated automation, electrification, and digital technologies that help industries outperform.

Web Story

6min

2025-04-02

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Food production must increase output by 60 percent by 2050 to feed a growing population

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The industry also faces critical challenges, including supply chain vulnerabilities, regulatory compliance, labor shortages, and rising costs

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ABB's integrated electrification, automation and digital solutions enable the food and beverage industry to outperform

Key trends reshaping the food and beverage industry

The global food and beverage sector is a massive, essential industry, and a cornerstone of the global economy. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), there is increasing demand for better and more diverse food. This is based on the world population predicted to grow from 7.2 billion in 2010 to more than 9 billion in 2050 boosting food demand by 60 percent¹.

Nearly 1.3 billion people - or 39.2 percent of the global workforce - were employed in agrifood systems in 2021² . Its growth is driven by fundamental factors like a rising population, increasing disposable incomes (especially in emerging markets), and evolving consumer preferences.

Agrifood systems: key drivers, activities, outcomes and priority triggers for transformation

Critical challenges facing the industry

The challenge of meeting increasing demand sustainably over the coming decades falls on the food and beverage industry – from the plough to the plate - including agriculture, raw materials handling, through global supply chains to production and processing, and retail and food service. Regulatory requirements continue to evolve, demanding constant adaptation and investment compliance.

Greenhouse gas emissions

Food systems contributed up to 30 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, totaling around 16 billion tons of CO2 equivalent – slightly less than the combined CO2 emissions of China and the United States in 2023.

Fragile system

The sector faces significant operational hurdles that threaten resilience and growth. The prospect of interruption in supplies of raw materials and ingredients due to climate-related disruption, geopolitical tensions, and health crises expose the fundamental fragility of global food security systems.

Labor shortage and Inflation

Chronic labor shortages undermine operational capacity. Compounding these challenges, persistent inflation across ingredients, energy, labor, and logistics squeezes margins while raising concerns about food affordability and access for vulnerable populations.

Transforming food and beverage operations for future success and resilience

Click on the interactive chart below to view some of ABBs Food & Beverage electrification, automation and digitalization technologies.

If the food and beverage industry is to remain competitive, it needs to focus on flawless optimization and the application of energy efficiency in food production and systems. This helps to manage challenges - and take advantage of the opportunities - in this dynamic sector. From maximizing uptime and safety to minimizing waste and risk, this is where ABB’s expertise and technology makes the difference.

Digitalization

Automation and process control within a modern food and beverage plant must become an interconnected ecosystem where production processes communicate transparently with operators. This smart factory approach enables real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and data-driven decision making. By implementing IoT (Internet of Things) sensors, manufacturing execution systems (MES), and advanced analytics, companies can achieve unprecedented visibility into operations, allowing for rapid adjustments, reduced waste, and optimized resource allocation e.g. ABB Ability™ BeerMaker and the ABB Ability™ Sugar Library.

ABB Ability™ BeerMaker intelligent process control solution

Safety

Excellence in food safety requires perfecting processes that systematically protect worker safety and product integrity. Advanced contamination detection systems, automated cleaning processes, and comprehensive track-and-trace capabilities are essential. As an example - Baldor-Reliance® Food Safe motors and washdown motors are built to withstand high-pressure cleaning, while drives with IP55 and IP66 ratings ensure reliability in harsh, hygienic environments. As many F&B facilities expand to meet demand for production of high quality food, legacy installations with insufficient or outdated electrical protections can put personnel safety and system reliability and uptime at risk.

Read more on reducing financial risk and raising the bar on productivity and safety in the Food & Beverage Industry sector.

Quality and reliability

Proactive maintenance and precise process control provide critical competitive advantages in high-volume production environments. Companies implementing condition-based monitoring, predictive maintenance, and strategic redundancy can dramatically improve uptime while extending asset lifetimes. This reliability-centered approach combines advanced technologies with skilled maintenance teams.

High-quality motors and drives further ensure both consistency and reliability throughout the production process.

Sustainable food production

Responsible energy and waste management is now imperative. Energy-efficient equipment - including high-efficiency motors with variable speed drives - heat recovery systems, and smart resource management reduce environmental impact and lowering costs. For example, chocolate production and packaging segments can boost energy efficiency by deploying the new liquid-cooled IE5 synchronous reluctance (SynRM) motor that offers up to 40 percent lower energy losses than commonly used IE3 motors.

The liquid-cooled IE5 synchronous reluctance (SynRM) motor that offers up to 40 percent lower energy losses

Key case studies for the food industry across the world

Egypt

ABB reduces power consumption at a world-class factory in Egypt When Canal Sugar set out to build the world's largest beet sugar factory in Minya, Egypt, they partnered with ABB to power their centrifuge operations with energy-efficient drive and motor technology. ABB's solution was engineered for regenerative operation, allowing energy generated during braking to be redistributed across the system — directly supporting Canal Sugar's target of reducing energy consumption by 25 percent per tonne compared to traditional machines.

Powering up Egypt’s largest processing factory To build resilience in the supply chain and ensure food gets to where it’s needed, Egypt’s largest potato processing factory has installed <a href="https://new.abb.com/low-voltage/products/switchgear?utm_campaign=Electrical-Distribution-Low-Voltage-Switch-Gear&Motor-Control-Centers%20&utm_medium=Our-offering&utm_source=Low-Voltage-Home-Page">ABB MNS Low Voltage (LV) switchgear</a> to guarantee reliable, high-quality power to its two production lines, which process 10 tons of fried potatoes and two tons of mashed potato per hour for export into neighboring African markets.

Increasing sustainable aquaculture in Chile

The Owurkan is a clinical vessel on the Calle Calle river in Valdivia Chile. It’s specially designed to improve the therapeutic treatment of salmon. The vessel uses ABB variable speed drives and high-efficiency motors to control the operation of the propulsion system onboard the Owurkan, which has resulted in an energy reduction of 20 percent, ensuring sustainable aquaculture.

Producing Mexico’s #1 dish with ABB

Grupo Celorio, a leader in tortilla-making machines, uses premium NEMA motors to produce Mexico’s #1 dish with high performance and low energy waste. A perfect example of how tradition and technology can go hand in hand.

Optimizing frozen food production through transparent energy efficiency data ABB enables one of Asia’s leading frozen food producer Tee Yih Jia (TYJ) to monitor and track energy systematically. <a href="https://new.abb.com/low-voltage/products/smart-power-digital-solutions/abb-ability-energy-manager">The ABB Ability™ Energy Manager</a> solution provides transparent energy data from the shopfloor to the boardroom, giving access to clear, actionable information needed to monitor and optimize operating expenditure, capital investments, and carbon footprint.

Helping one of Switzerland's largest retail and wholesale companies get energy efficient

Coop - one of Switzerland’s largest retail and wholesale companies, reduces carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by 10,000 tons per year at their logistics center for the country’s largest bakery. ABB and Johnson Controls contribute to this success by delivering energy efficient motors and variable speed drives (VSDs) to the ultra-modern refrigeration system.

ABB Drives optimize food production

Innovative Refrigeration Systems, a design build engineering firm that offers solutions to ensure a safe environment for a variety of food and beverage facilities utilizes ABB's ACS580 and ACS880 drives to keep food safe. Using data from our drives, the company monitors the system in real time to look for energy anomalies, troubleshoot and increase energy efficiency.

ABB helped MPS Egg Farms one of the top 10 egg producers in the US enhance efficiency and sustainability by providing 84 units of its general-purpose ACS580 variable frequency drives. These drives precisely control the speed and torque of motors operating fans and conveyors, optimizing energy efficiency and improving operational reliability.

Key case studies for the beverage industry across the world

USA

USA
Brazil
Austria
Sweden
Switzerland

Drive technology bringing award winning beer to your glass

To keep good beer brewing, Troegs Independent Brewing turned to ABB's ACS355 Washdown drives. These are designed for simple and visual sequence programming to make independent and repeatable operation sequences that meet the needs of washdown applications. They are also used to ensure accurate pressure in critical lines such as the Hot Liquor Tank and Centrifuge Feed - both critically essential in producing great tasting beer.

Precise and consistent roasting control delivers superior Brazilian coffee In Brazil, coffee industry leaders are turning to advanced technology for a competitive edge. Atilla, the country's largest midsize coffee roaster, <a href="https://new.abb.com/drives/highlights-and-references/ensuring-reliable-and-user-friendly-coffee-roasting-in-brazil-with-abb-drives-and-hmi%27s">implements ABB drives</a> and automation hardware to achieve millisecond-precise roasting control, resulting in superior coffee quality.

Winemakers learn lessons from industrial technology

With the help of ABB’s innovative technology, winemakers in Styria, Austria, have been able to modernize their traditional practices while preserving their rich heritage. By installing the award-winning RVG200 data recorder and a Coriolis flow meter, one winemaking family gained unprecedented insight into their harvest, allowing for more precise monitoring and control of production.

ABB Ability™ Smart Sensors keep production running at Absolut Vodka <a href="https://new.abb.com/motors-generators/case-studies/smart-sensors-taste-success-for-one-the-world-s-premium-vodkas">ABB helped Absolut Vodka enhance its production reliability</a> by implementing ABB Ability™ Smart Sensors for condition-based monitoring. These wireless sensors provided continuous monitoring at a fraction of the cost of traditional vibration equipment, allowing the distillery to detect issues early. By leveraging ABB’s technology, Absolut Vodka improved efficiency, reduced maintenance costs, and set the stage for expanding sensor usage across its operations.

Boosting order accuracy for IDL and enhancing productivity for Nespresso

Swiss coffee brand Nespresso, needed an automation system which could accurately handle complex orders and provide the flexibility to meet fluctuations in demand. ABB has designed and supplied, through Nespresso’s 3rd party Logistics partner ID Logistics, an innovative automated system incorporating robots, software material management and SCADA systems, for depalletization, picking and packing orders.

Source:
1. United Nations Environment Program – Food & Food Waste
2. Food and Agricultural organization of the United Nations

A sustainable future

ABB has a reputation for working with global customers to optimize their food and beverage operations with integrated process control, robotic and electrification solutions. By leveraging our expertise, companies can optimize their processes, reduce waste, and stay competitive in a rapidly evolving market, ensuring a sustainable future for the sector. In this way we help the food and beverage industry outrun - leaner and cleaner.