3 Current Trends in the Food and Beverage Industry

Several aspects of the industry are ripe for further refinement in 2019 and beyond.

With globalization has come the production, transport, and distribution of foods from a vast array of sources. Although products are now available to an increasingly diverse global market, these foods retain certain requirements to ensure consumer safety and to address environmental impact. Modern technologies are needed more than ever in order to chart the origin, chain-of-custody, farm-to-table timeline, and other important details of food processing. Technology and consumer preferences are dynamic as well, and food and beverage products and services must stay current with modern trends.

Food safety

• Food safety and testing continues to be critical, particularly as routes of importing and processing become increasing complex. The USDA constantly monitors and periodically updates strategies and regulations. Domestic surveillance, particularly of perishable produce and other agricultural crops, will continue to be critical. Crop damage due to drought, pests, and invasive species will be main sources of food production concerns in the near future.

• Pesticide use continues to be an area of focus, with defined testing guidelines administered by state and federal regulatory bodies. Technologies such as LC-MS/MS and GC-MS will gain in use as more potential reservoirs of pesticides are examined e.g. water sheds and drainage areas. Mass spectrometry will gain in use as a remote testing device type. Such instruments will be become present, not just in testing labs, but in field points of processing. Beyond pesticides, rapid IDing of bacterial contaminants may be enabled by built-for-purpose MALDI-TOF and direct inject MS devices such as DESI, DART, and other technologies.

• Points-of-entry into the US, as well as other countries, will likely have a stronger presence in advancing testing technology development. As domestic crops and livestock are shipped to foreign countries and shipped back post-processing, the need for stronger methods for tracking and testing for foreign substances is paramount. The appearance of invasive species is a growing threat as well - both domestically and abroad - a global issue and another offshoot of globalization.

Customer preferences

• Dietary guidelines are defined yet the science behind areas like salt and sugar intake is fluid and constantly under scrutiny. Humans are notoriously bad testing subjects, particularly for dietary studies – they don’t adhere and self report accurately and the timelines of longitudinal studies are challenging. The impact of competing interests has had a profound impact in certain areas as well.

• As consumers take closer interests in dietary habits, locally sourced foods, and organically grown products, the testing behind accuracy and authenticity has become increasingly important. Farm shares and community gardens may not experience the same regulatory scrutiny as commercial growers. Consumer understanding and accurate reporting by producers will be important.

• The growing presence of organic foods require evolving tests for accuracy as well. These will include testing lab involvement and government oversight. Accurate tests for fraudulent or contaminated foods and beverages will gain in relevance, as both past cases and emerging trends indicate.

 Technology

• Safety and legitimacy of foods and beverages at points of harvest, processing, and import will benefit from advances in many technologies. Pesticides, contaminants, and authenticity will be addressed by increasingly capable analytical methods such as MS, LC-MS/MS, GC-MS, ICP-MS, and other techniques.

• Other technologies may serve the interests of the consumer, personally. Blockchain and other security measures may increase the presence of transparency in food production and processing. Digitalized chain-of-custody systems and integrated platforms like the internet of things (IoT) will offer the means to track the source, location, transit, tests, storage conditions, dates of expiration, and even consumer use of products – empowering consumers, but also feeding back to producers in order to optimize and streamline processing.

• Another increasingly important subject is sustainability. Population growth, resource depletion, and climate issues are constant burdens on the entire system of food and beverage production. Continuing trends will aim to address critical points such as efficiency in food production by way of optimized land use and genetically modified crops. Greater foresight and better predictive technologies for climate dynamics, appearance of invasive species and crop disease, and resource availability will arise. Both producer and consumer education will be vital to conserving the very elements needed to sustain life.

The food and beverage processing industry will benefit significantly by staying ahead of continuing trends. While safety remains an area of top priority, technology and consumer habits will undoubtedly be drivers for industrial efficiency and long-term success.

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