Food manufacturing jobs are typically manual in nature and labor intensive. They can be time-consuming, and monotonous, and allow room for errors. The imperfections in food production and distribution have been linked to several food safety and quality incidents leading to several financial losses. Human error continues to be a major cause of food safety and quality in the manufacturing spectrum because of the manual elements. Being human, it is natural to make mistakes; however, when it comes to food safety, public health, and the food industry's reputation, nobody wants to make mistakes. Also, with the current labour shortage and the increased quest for better throughput, transferring valuable human resources out of repetitive and menial labor is rapidly gaining prominence. Hence, given the broad functionality of food processing, the strive to minimize and eradicate the opportunities for human error becomes imminent through automation. Automation is using machine technology to perform tasks with minimal or no human intervention. Automated systems can take care of inconsistencies and human errors that cause food safety problems for food companies. Prevalent in all manual food-handling operations, human errors continue to be a source of concern and a most common avenue where food contamination can occur. Automation therefore proffers the solution to the myriad of employee inadequacies as well as incidents of food-safety human errors. Automation poses a valid solution to fixing the human element of employee mistakes in food manufacturing.

Adeniyi Odugbemi

Global Director of Food Safety & Food Defense

Archer Daniel Midland Co ( ADM)