By: Carlos Fernandez
EVP & President, JBT Diversified Food & Health
Innovative technologies that address the social and environmental impact of food and beverage manufacturing to reduce waste, water consumption, and electricity, will continue to transform the way food is produced, managed, and distributed now and well into the future.
Food waste contributes to two of our biggest global challenges — world hunger and climate change. Today, nearly 690 million people are hungry around the world —10 million more than in 2020 (Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN). Being mindful of the needed resources to better ensure food security for all is a great responsibility, and technology innovation is necessary to find new solutions to reduce food waste. Furthermore, it is estimated that food waste was also responsible for 8% to 10% of global emissions between 2010 and 2016 (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).
Technology providers that tackle this problem through the products they offer can help their customers contribute to a healthier, better world. For example, JBT’s citrus solutions are designed to make the most out of natural resources. They do not just extract the juice but also process very valuable by-products, including the peel, oils, and pulp. With its processing solutions, customers can recover value out of more of the raw ingredient inputs – up to 100%. At the processing level, High-Pressure Processing (HPP) technology’s sustainability and cost-saving advantages have also made a huge impact. HPP systems from JBT Avure, for example, reduce the need for artificial preservatives while extending shelf life and improving food safety.
Plant-based products will also continue to grow in popularity due to their health benefits and environmental benefits, and technological solutions will need to adapt accordingly. Global retail sales of plant-based food alternatives may reach $162 billion by 2030 — up from $29.4 billion in 2020 (Bloomberg Intelligence Research). If so, the projected plant-based food market would make up nearly 8% of the global protein market.
For manufacturers who provide these products, JBT’s Sterideal® Ultra High Temperature (UHT) equipment has proven effective, due to an innovative coil design that has better performance with longer production run times due to reduced precipitation in the process. In addition to already popular plant-based proteins and dairy alternatives, the culture-based proteins, while not mainstream yet, are certainly on the horizon. Cultured meat made its marketing debut almost a decade ago and will continue to rise as a leading alternative-protein source.
Learn about the technology driving innovation in sustainability and how JBT supports our customer’s sustainability efforts in our latest ESG report: https://www.jbtc.com/about-us/esg/.