Food production is an important global market and one that is worth trillions of dollars worldwide. As such, it’s no surprise that many business leaders choose to enter the sector and offer new foods to consumers.

Entering into this fast-paced and highly competitive market can be a challenge, especially if your specific niche is already saturated.

Food production start-ups that want to succeed need to ensure that they are streamlined and efficient from the beginning to save money and offer the highest possible standard of products to consumers.

To achieve this aim, new food production companies need to be using the right tools and technologies to ensure efficiency and reduce costs.

Here are some essential technology solutions and digital tools that every start-up food production company needs.

Temperature Control Tech

Most ingredients and foods need to be stored and cooked to specific temperatures, depending on their status- before and after cooking, items will need to be kept at different temperatures. Managing and checking all of these temperatures can be a logistical challenge, particularly if you have many stages to go through before you achieve the finished product. Temperature control technology can help you to monitor the temperature of each ingredient and change the temperature of ovens or fridges accordingly to ensure that items are always fresh and fit for consumption.

Case Packing And Tray Loading Solutions

Getting your naked food product into your packaging can be challenging if you do it manually, particularly as your business grows. If you use your hands, then you need to make sure that you use gloves and focus on hygiene, while manually using tools can be equally time-consuming. Tools like BPA’s case packing machine can save your team’s time and reduce wastage, which makes it a great solution for scaling up your food production company. It will be easier to load trays and pack containers then easily get them labeled and shipped to the consumer.

Logistics Solutions For Warehouse And Inventory Management

In food production, there are lots of ingredients, packaging products, and small pieces of equipment to keep track of. Knowing where everything is, what it’s used for and, as is the case for ingredients and foodstuffs, how fresh it is, can require a lot of paperwork and organisation if undertaken manually. With the help of logistical solutions for warehouse and inventory management, you can assign each item a unique barcode, and then track its progress throughout your premises. Using these tools can save you time and reduce the chances of waste in your start-up food production organisation.

Payroll And Employee Management Software

There are more than 131,616 food production employees in the US alone, and many companies employ multiple team members to manage their food production offerings. Payroll and other essential employee management tasks can be time-consuming if they’re undertaken manually. It can also be hard to manage employees effectively and offer them the perks they expect without digital tools. Food production requires dedicated, efficient, and hygienic staff, so a low turnover is crucial. Payroll and employee management software solutions can help companies to manage their teams more effectively and reduce staff turnover, which can benefit their business in the long run. Technology and software tools can help your food production start-up to grow and achieve the success it deserves. It might seem hard to choose the right products, especially as there are so many options out there, and the wrong one can waste your time and hard-earned money. These suggestions should help you to find the right tools for your fledgling food production business

The collaboration creates an opportunity to penetrate the Asian market with 3D-bioprinted structured seafood products

MeaTech 3D Ltd. (Nasdaq: MITC) (“MeaTech”), an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultured meat industry, is pleased to announce that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with Umami Meats for the joint development of 3D-printed cultured structured seafood.

Umami Meats is a Singapore-based cultured seafood company with a focus on developing species that are expected to experience severe supply-side shortages in the coming years due to climate change, overfishing and continuously growing consumer demand. The global seafood market was estimated to be worth US $110.2 billion by 2022 and is growing at a CAGR of 3.6% (FMI – The Food Industry Association).

This collaboration opens a door for both companies into the Asian market, and Singapore specifically, which is currently the only country that has authorized the production and distribution of cultured meat.

The agreement is part of MeaTech’s strategy of collaboration with other players in the alternative protein space and takes advantage of the company’s flexibility in its technological and biological capabilities to develop and print a wide variety of species. With this agreement, MeaTech will be adding seafood to its portfolio of bovine, avian and porcine products under development.

The company’s innovative 3D bioprinting technology can produce complex meat products with pinpoint precision at an industrial rate of production without impacting cell viability. Through the company’s private subsidiary, MeaTech is developing and commercializing its 3D-printing capabilities in-house and to third parties in the food-tech sector.

MeaTech also sees this collaboration as an opportunity to make a valuable contribution to helping preserve marine ecosystems and wildlife while addressing the environmental challenges surrounding the aquaculture and fishing industries.

Arik Kaufman, MeaTech’s Chief Executive Officer & Founder: “We are very pleased about this new agreement which reflects our commercialization strategy of industry collaboration using our unique 3D printing capabilities. We are excited about entering into the seafood sector and believe it will lead us to new market pathways throughout Asia and worldwide.”

Mihir Pershad, Umami Meats’ Chief Executive Officer & Founder: “We are delighted to establish this collaboration with MeaTech to expand our product range with their 3D printing capabilities. This partnership will enable us to build upon our technology platform for cultivating fish muscle and fat to produce a variety of structured products that meet the desires of discerning consumers. We believe cultivated seafood holds tremendous potential to provide a local, sustainable source of healthy protein and to address many of the challenges facing our food system and our oceans.”

About MeaTech

MeaTech 3D Ltd. is an international deep-tech food company at the forefront of the cultured meat revolution. The company initiated activities in 2019 and is listed on the Nasdaq Capital Market under the ticker “$MITC”. MeaTech maintains facilities in Rehovot, Israel and Antwerp, Belgium and is in the process of expanding activities to the US.

MeaTech is developing a sustainable, slaughter-free solution for producing a variety of beef, chicken and pork products, both as raw materials and whole cuts. The company’s approach to meat production and modular factory design will provide an alternative to industrialized animal farming with the potential to enhance food security, reduce carbon footprint, and minimize water and land usage.

About Umami Meats

Umami Meats is cultivating a sustainable seafood future by producing delicious, nutritious, affordable cultivated seafood that is better for our health, our oceans and our future. Umami Meats’ cultivated, not-caught seafood offers equivalent nutrition to traditional seafood and provides a delicious culinary experience that is free from heavy metals, antibiotics and microplastics.

Umami Meats has also been recognized as a Semi-Finalist in the XPRIZE Feed the Next Billion competition, Fi Global Startup Innovation Challenge finalist, member of Forward Fooding’s 2021 FoodTech 500 list, and as the Best Emerging Sustainable Seafood Company – Southeast Asia in the 2021 Global Green Business Awards.

Did you know that people have been freezing and preserving food since 1000 BC? It all started with the Chinese freezing goods in ice cellars. Today in America, we have taken this concept of freezing food items by Clarence Birdseye – the father of frozen food. Birdseye learned how to freeze food instantly and package it for transport without it getting spoiled. This skill is what we use today to freeze, package and transport millions of frozen goods. If you want to learn more about frozen food and food packaging, then read on.

Why is Packaging Frozen Goods Important?

Freezing food is a great way to preserve and maintain a food item’s color, texture, and flavor. It also helps to keep the nutrient value. Freezing food is also quick, efficient, and easy to carry out. Food items like fruits and meat contain enzymes that are always working. When at low temperatures, the activities of enzymes are reduced to an exceptional level and therefore prevent any chemical changes from taking place.

It’s also important to remember that the growth of microorganisms is retarded when in cold temperatures, thus preventing the food from spoiling. If you wish to keep the food fresh for a more extended period, then you need to ensure that the appropriate temperature is provided by the freezer.  The ideal temperature in a freezer is 0 Fahrenheit. Be sure that the temperature is always constant in the freezer otherwise, and it will give rise to large ice crystals, which can alter the texture of the food, in particular the meat.

How is Food Packaged?

Merely freezing the frozen items will not be good enough; packing is a critical part too. There are several characteristics that a good packaging material should have, such as being moisture-proof, leak-proof, oil and water-resistant, and easy to fill seal and mark. In accordance with these characteristics, you can use rigid containers for packaging food. This includes plastic, glass, aluminum, and waxed cardboard. A great thing about them is that they are reusable. Cans can also be used for packaging. Bags, sheets, and laminated paper are also suitable for packaging. Always be sure that whatever packaging material you use can be labeled.

Why is Labeling Important?

Food labeling is critical. As a food producer, you are required by law to label your food products. Labeling is significant because it provides buyers with Dietary Advice, any allergens, and production details. All pre-packaged food, be it frozen or not should contain the following information on its label:

• The name of the food
• Ingredients
• Percentage of ingredients
• Instructions for cooking, opening, etc.
• ‘Use By’ or ‘Best Before’ dates
• Storage instructions
• Contact details
• Country of origin

More information can be added if desired, but the information above should always be there. Also, the labels and company logos allow people to recognize that they are purchasing goods from a trustworthy company.

How is Frozen Food Stored and Transported?

The best thing to do is to freeze food as soon as they are packaged. All freezers should be set to minus 10 Fahrenheit about 24 hours before food items are to be stored. Keep in mind not to overload any freezer since overloading can slow down the rate of freezing. To ensure that every food item is in the freshest of condition, always wash the freezers before storing food anew. These frozen foods are then transported by vehicle to supermarkets or shipped off in ships to other countries and delivered on ports so they can be distributed to the direct consumers.