Advancements in the Food Industry
Discuss about the Innovation Enterprise and Society Evaluation.
The modern-day scenario is the age of mechanization. This is the time when machines are taking up the roles of human force in almost each and every aspect of life. This is because man wants to make their life easier and they have realized that machines help them a great deal. A large number of inventions and discoveries are being made, so that man can ease his life and can work in a more better and specific manner (Lakkis 2016). The industry that has been chosen here is the food industry. This is because the food industry deals with a large number of food items that have a different kind of composition. It is this composition that can often harm the health of those consumers who are consuming it. It is for this reason that the technological advancements are needed. These technological advancements are needed for the overall well being of the consumers and the society as a whole (Bohari et al. 2017).
The food industry has rapidly undergone many changes in the coming years. As the population is increasing day by day so are the needs and demands of people. It is for this reason that people are increasing the demands for their food as well. They are demanding new improved qualities of food. They look for a kind of improvement both in the quality and the quantity of food. It is for this reason that the technological advancements have to be made to meet the requirements of the people. One of the very good inventions is the handheld food scanners (Asif et al. 2015). This is a device that can be used by the consumer’s very easily to get a very clear view about the nutritional values of the food that they are consuming. However it was not possible for these people to get an idea about what they are putting in their body. They often had doubts about the components with which their foods have been prepared. However, now it is not so. Technology-driven accountability is also one of the major aspects that have come up due to the technological advancements. It is because of the technological advancements that man has been able to find out what is healthy and that what is unhealthy for their body. Now the consumers want to buy products only after being totally sure about the ingredients that are out in their products. One good example can be the sugar free products. Earlier the consumers had no idea about the fact that sugar is so harmful for the body. However now they know that too much consumption of sugar is bad. So they prefer the sugar free food products (Subramaniam and Wareing 2016). It is also because of the technological advancements that they have been able to develop the sugar free capsules that are used in the food products for ensuring that the nutritional values are properly available to the consumers. Froozer is a company that is using the modern-day technological ad advancements so that they can produce food by utilizing those products that would otherwise have been wasted by the other people. It is a known fact that often those people are wasted by many people. This is a company that will be utilizing all those products that would have been wasted otherwise. There is also much advancement in the kinds of food that people can usually make at homes. They can make this by using the modern technologically and scientifically advanced devices like the microwaves. Earlier there were companies that had the chance of lying to their customers regarding the quality of food. However now it is not possible and they do not have the chance of cheating with their customers as there are technological devices that can tell the customers regarding the quality of the food. There are food trackers that can track the food safety (Balasubramaniam et al. 2015).
Effects of Technological Advancements on Employment in the Food Industry
Technology is also helping the food researchers to carry out many types of research and then find out what is essential and what non-essential is for the consumers (Bartonicek et al. 2016). The other kinds of inventions are the AI and the chatbots. These are used by those restaurants that are forward-thinking and those that use these technologies (Brockgreitens and Abbas 2016). They have made a huge difference for the restaurants and for the consumers as well. They have to get advanced technologically so that they can give a tough competition to their competitors. The online ordering system is one of the most important and significant technological advancement that is taking place. This helps the customers to send orders very easily and also get them within the no time (Sun 2016).
All the different units of the food industry will remain in the competition and will make sure that they are being able to sell their products to the consumers at a rapid rate. All the food research institutes will work together for the purpose of making good use of the technologically advanced products and promoting the overall welfare of the people (Cheong et al. 2016).
It is due to large-scale advancements in the technological aspects that there is also a reduction in the employment in the food industry as well. There is the technological unemployment that is taking place at a massive scale. One of the best examples of this is the application of the chatbots that are taking place. It is through these chatbots or the online chat sessions that the customers can view all the dentils of the restaurants. Not only this, they can also take an overview of the menu that is made in that restaurant and then they also place the orders. This greatly hampers the business of the traditional restaurants. As a result of this, the restaurant management is taking this decision that they will reduce the number of the human staffs. These human staffs will be replaced by the specimen of the technological advancements like the robots. Using the robots in place for the waiters is also one of the most important technological advancements that have taken place (Berk 2018). Due to the large scale technological advancements, the apps are being developed and they can be used very easily on the Android and the smartphone apps. This gives the consumers the chances of sitting at their home and using these apps just with the go of a single click. They can also get home delivery of the products very easily through these apps and the food delivery system. There is the advent of the technology called the Say2eat, which can be installed very easily into the already existing and the ongoing processing system of the every restaurant. This helps in making the entire process of food delivery and ordering very easy. Technology all together helps in increasing the business efficiency and also helps in improving the customer loyalty. It is because of this that the technology is playing a major role. The waiters who are working in the restaurants are normal human beings and often fail to follow the orders that are placed by the customers. They also make many errors in the ways they serve the food. However these same mistakes will not be committed by the non human robots. They will be very fast and efficient. Moreover they will also be very fast and error free. The technological advancements have been very useful for the packaging of the food materials as well (Pascall and Han 2018). The packaging systems have been developed in a very efficient so that the products can be kept stored at a very good condition and can be transported from the place of production to the place of delivery. The items like the potatoes, the vegetables and ice-cream are among those food items that are transferred from one place to the other. It is also due to the large-scale technological advancement that the consumers are increasing their demands for food.
However, it is because of these reasons that the food companies are trying to reduce the human employers and replacing them. This creates the fear of loss of jobs among the workers. It is for this reason that they must always try to strike a balance between the technological, scientific products and the normal traditional products (Ojha et al. 2017).
So, it can be concluded that in the coming years the technological advancements will be taking over the majority of the manpower that is existing in the world. This also creates this fear that the amount of unemployment will increase and this will really affect the livelihood of many people. However, this fact cannot be ignored that human beings are better at showing affection and care. So, it is a fact that there are both advantages and disadvantages of using the technological advancements in the food industry. Hence it is a collective duty for the all the people to make sure that they are using this very carefully. It will increase the utility on one hand while increasing the chance of several risks on the other. So, efforts are to be made to strike a proper balance between the two.
References
Asif, M., Sabeel, M. and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman, K.Z., 2015, November. Waiter robot–solution to restaurant automation. In Proceedings of the 1st student multi disciplinary research conference (MDSRC). University of Wah, Pakistan.
Balasubramaniam, V.M., Martínez-Monteagudo, S.I. and Gupta, R., 2015. Principles and application of high pressure-based technologies in the food industry. Annual Review of Food Science and Technology, 6, pp.435-462.
Bartonicek, N., Maag, J.L. and Dinger, M.E., 2016. Long noncoding RNAs in cancer: mechanisms of action and technological advancements. Molecular cancer, 15(1), p.43.
Berk, Z., 2018. Food process engineering and technology. Academic press.
Bohari, A.M., Hin, C.W. and Fuad, N., 2017. The competitiveness of halal food industry in Malaysia: A SWOT-ICT analysis. Geografia-Malaysian Journal of Society and Space management, 9(1).
Brockgreitens, J. and Abbas, A., 2016. Responsive food packaging: recent progress and technological prospects. Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety, 15(1), pp.3-15.
Cheong, A., Lau, M.W.S., Foo, E., Hedley, J. and Bo, J.W., 2016. Development of a Robotic Waiter System. IFAC-PapersOnLine, 49(21), pp.681-686.
Lakkis, J.M., 2016. Encapsulation and controlled release technologies in food systems. John Wiley & Sons.
Ojha, K.S., Mason, T.J., O’Donnell, C.P., Kerry, J.P. and Tiwari, B.K., 2017. Ultrasound technology for food fermentation applications. Ultrasonics sonochemistry, 34, pp.410-417.
Pascall, M.A. and Han, J.H. eds., 2018. Packaging for nonthermal processing of food. John Wiley & Sons.
Subramaniam, P. and Wareing, P. eds., 2016. The stability and shelf life of food. Woodhead Publishing.
Sun, D.W. ed., 2016. Computer vision technology for food quality evaluation. Academic Press.