Bühler and Microsoft partner to increase availability of safe food

At Hannover Messe, Bühler Group and Microsoft have committed themselves to build an alliance that will increase the availability of safe food and enhance food integrity and traceability. The alliance will extend the partnership the two companies have just built. Microsoft and Bühler aim at rolling out cloud-based solutions to eliminate contaminated grains and to rapidly introduce new services to improve the availability of safe and healthy food. An important part of the planned cooperation are blockchain applications, the feasibility of which is currently being evaluated.

Food safety and availability is still one of the most demanding global challenges. While 30% of all food is lost or wasted, 800 million people are starving. The application of digital technologies, such as offered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud, artificial intelligence and blockchain technologies, combined with inspection and processing technologies of Bühler and partners, will provide transparency and greater efficiency in food value chains.

“Bühler demonstrates that manufacturers can be digital innovators, by strategically combining their industry-specific know-how with artificial intelligence, intelligent cloud and IoT solutions,” said Microsoft General Manager Worldwide Manufacturing Çağlayan Arkan.

“By interweaving Microsoft’s capabilities and Bühler’s innovations for food safety and availability, we strive to stand up to some of the most pressing issues in the global food system,” added Bühler Board of Directors Chairman Calvin Grieder.

Around 25% of all harvested grain is contaminated with mycotoxins. “It is clear that the global food value chain is not sustainable yet and the consequences of climate change and the rate of population growth result in a challenge of daily increasing magnitude,” said Bühler CTO Ian Roberts.

At Hannover Messe, Bühler launched LumoVision, the first optical sorting technology that is able to identify aflatoxin based on direct indicators of contamination, while simultaneously using real-time, cloud-based data to monitor and analyse contamination risk. LumoVision eliminates up to 90% of contamination and reduces yield loss to below 5%.

“The Bühler and Microsoft partnership proves that rigorous digital transformation of business enables companies operating in traditional industries not only to win new customers and expand their markets, but also solve major challenges for humanity,” said Microsoft Switzerland General Manager Marianne Janik.

“We see two companies that are evolving fast, have demonstrated alignment in culture, goals and action, and a shared commitment to improving global access to safe, healthy and affordable food,” added Roberts.

New technologies such as blockchain applications have an immense potential to enable full traceability within food value chains. They could be key to ensuring food integrity and in the fight against food fraud. “We live in exciting times; digitalisation has now reached the global food system,” said Roberts.