Food and beverage manufacturers must adhere to several food safety and sanitation regulations. Thus, they often have specific machine design needs that OEMs and suppliers need to be aware of. End users have key machine features they look for when evaluating new machinery, and three food safety-specific needs and three sanitation-specific needs stand out.
That’s according to PMMI Business Intelligence’s “Food Safety and Sanitation Trends: End User, OEM, and Supplier Perspectives,” a report that explores the essentialism of adhering to food safety regulations and effectively executing sanitation strategies through information on regulations, strategies, and exclusive insight. The report’s findings are based on 130 surveys/interviews with industry professionals, 77% of whom are CPGs or contract packagers, and 23% who are OEMs and suppliers.
Surveys indicated that 73% of end users seek clear documentation and labeling as the first key food safety need. 48% noted automated monitoring of temperature, pressure, and flow as the next key desired feature, and 47% indicated fail-safe alarms for deviations from food-safe parameters as the last need.
As far as sanitation goes, 70% of end users desire more machines made with food-grade materials, 49% desire machines with hygienic design, and 35% want machines to feature smooth, non-porous surfaces.
The Business Intelligence team also received insights from OEMs, providing a glimpse into the machine features suppliers intend to add in the future. 35% of OEM respondents said they plan to add automated and self-cleaning functions, 35% plan to integrate sanitation-safe HMI/PLC to log activity, and 27% plan on digital integration capability for sanitation processes.
In summary, nearly all end users look for new machinery that is easy to clean and can be cleaned effectively. OEMs and suppliers will need to continue factoring in ease and effectiveness of cleaning when looking to design new machinery or update existing machine designs, especially for equipment that requires breakdown for COP (clean-out-of-place) processes.
SOURCE: 2025 Food Safety and Sanitation Trends: End User, OEM, and Supplier Perspectives
For more insights from PMMI’s Business Intelligence team, find reports, including “2025 Beverage Packaging Trends“ and 2025 Performance Optimization: Insights for Packaging Line Readiness” at pmmi.org/business-intelligence.
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