Every year, new technological innovations enter the market. New machines make processing faster and more efficient. New software improvements make traceability faster and track data. Since employees are harder than ever to find, it makes sense that technology helps to fill the void. In some cases, food safety is actually improved by letting automation portion, cook, chill and package a product without any human hands potentially adding pathogens to the mix.
While technology can do many great things in the meat and poultry industry, we’re not at the stage where robots will run things just yet. There always is a need for people, particularly among smaller companies. In a world that is increasingly high tech, there is considerable value in pleasant human interaction, even in business. When we can have full conversations via e-mail or text, there is comfort in calling a company and getting to speak with the owner or the key contact immediately.