Significance of the Bakery Processing Equipment
Since last year, the worldwide demand for the Foodservice bakeries has skyrocketed as the consumers are returning to the restaurants in bulk due to the uplift of the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. The Bakery Processing Equipment Market accounted for about USD 10.93 billion in 2020 & is projected to reach a benchmark of nearly USD 19.11 billion by 2030, at a CAGR of 5.73%.
The foodservice bakeries offer different kinds of products with distinctive shapes, textures, & formulations that determine how they should be packaged. At the same time, the advent of a variety of industry challenges, such as widespread labour shortages, have made the packaging process of these products & distributing them to the customers even more difficult. Thankfully, in today’s world, the packaging processes are fully automated, & hence in the future, the industry will require a lot of bakeries for successful automation of their systems while catering to their products’ individual requirements.
Reasons that are hindering the market growth
Nowadays, the larger commercial bakeries are almost 80% automated, but even today, the smaller & medium-sized bakeries are struggling with the labour shortage,” stated Mr Williams.
In spite of the advent of new technologies, a number of smaller bakeries are stuck in the past when it comes to their equipment usage. Cypress Research conducted a study on “Baking & Snacks Automating Out of the Labor Challenge”, where it was discovered that almost 58% of the small to midsize bakeries don’t have the automated vision systems that they can use for packaging, as compared to even 25% of the larger bakeries. Also, nearly 40% of these smaller bakeries have reported no such plans to purchase them, as compared to just 14% of the larger bakeries.
Importance of the Automated Vision Systems:
The automated vision system was developed at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in Atlanta, USA. It accurately inspects the characteristics and colour of the baked buns for food service & fast food customers.
Improvisation in the quality control of bun baking is crucial to cater to the various needs of the customers. Arby’s, McDonald’s, & Wendy’s are among those companies that emphasize this greatly. The baking industry is regarded as the 3rd largest segment of Georgia’s food processing industry (almost 13% by sales volume), with its operations located throughout the state.
With the rise in the number of fast-food providers, the demand for quality control is increasing for the determination of accurate bun shape, size, and colour, including the topping coverage (sesame seeds, creams, etc.). However, performing accurate quality control is indeed a daunting task considering the high volume of production with its rates of up to 1,000 buns per minute on a line. The high volume also signifies the requirement for automated control.
The automated systems are highly efficient, and it is expected that they will bring a revolutionary change to the market in the upcoming years. Moreover, the small and mediums sized bakery companies must take the initiative to install this system as soon as possible, which will lead to the expedition of the Bakery Processing Equipment Market.
