Acceptance of innovative automatic equipment in the postharvest and food industry

PICKNPACK is a large collaborative project funded by the EU under the 7th Frame program, which will end in October this year 2016. The aim is boosting the development and implementation of innovative automatic systems in food industry. In order to find strategic approaches for facilitating greater deployment of new flexible and autonomous robots, sensors and packaging modules in the food industry of today, an acceptance study was done within this sector, which consisted of a survey to different directors and responsible form different European food and postharvest companies. This survey aimed to know the current level of automation of the European food industry; problems and needs sorting and packaging of its products; the willingness to invest in innovative equipment; and perceptions of those responsible for the companies, in reference to factors that could influence when investing in new equipment. Read more →