CHICAGO — This year marked the first edition of the Equipment, Automation & Technology Show for Food & Beverage, or EATS, formerly known as Process Expo. Hosted by the Food Production Solutions Association and Messe Frankfurt, the inaugural EATS took place at Chicago’s McCormick Place from Oct. 28-30.

The three-day show brought over 350 suppliers together under one roof to showcase the latest in food processing and packaging technologies. Sectors included:

• Protein
• Prepared Foods
• Pet Food
• Beverage
• Bakery
• Confectionery
• Dairy
• Cannabis

On the show floor, exhibitors showcased their latest solutions for food processing and packaging needs. A few key priorities emerged on the show floor: higher visibility into production, simpler cleaning and sanitation, user-friendly equipment, space optimization on the plant floor and greater need for overall efficiency.

The show floor again featured the EATS Production Line program, walking EATS attendees through the production process for sliced pepperoni, as well as fresh pet food. Participating exhibitors in the pepperoni production line included Anritsu, BAK Food Equipment, Fusion Tech, Handtmann, Multivac, Poly-clip System and Weber.

EATS debuted the EATS Kitchen this year, connecting chefs with attendees to explore how innovation can be applied at scale. At the EATS Kitchen, Chef Dominique Leach, Food Network’s BBQ Brawl 2023 champion, displayed her culinary skills in a session titled “Smoke, Sizzle and Scale: Dominique Leach on Taking BBQ to Market.”

Leach is an award-winning pitmaster and the founder of Lexington Betty Smokehouse. During her educational, culinary-focused session, Leach prepared a comfort food staple: chicken, rice and beans, featuring her Lexington Betty Smokehouse Spicy Betty BBQ Sauce, a slightly spicy barbecue sauce from Leach’s barbecue line.

While cooking at the EATS Kitchen, Leach offered her insights on the barbecue craft, her experience as a chef-turned-pitmaster and what it was like to develop her first retail line.

Leach worked as a Tastemaker for Mariano’s, which naturally spurred a collaboration. Leach’s products, including her barbecue sauces and Wagyu Burgers, Wagyu Beef Franks and Wagyu Andouille Sausage, are available at all 44 Mariano’s locations.

Leach utilizes Instagram to connect her culinary craft with a larger audience, placing a lot of emphasis on the importance and growing relevance of social media engagement to build strong relationships.

This year also featured the return of butchery sessions from the Chicago Meat Collective, hosted by butcher and founder of the collective, McCullough Kelly-Willis. She hosted three separate sessions during the show, the first focusing on whole hog butchery. Kelly-Willis broke down half of a locally raised pig into primals, walking attendees through knife handling and the benefits of local sourcing. In her second session, Kelly-Willis focused on beef primal butchery, walking the audience through steak quality evaluation and a muscle-by-muscle butchery demonstration. Kelly-Willis' third and final session featured ground sausage and burgers, exploring concerns around quality, freshness and food safety.

The 2025 EATS event united the meat supply chain from farm to plate, exploring not only how to make a high-quality product, but one that is made efficiently and safely. Sessions like the ones hosted by Leach and Kelly-Willis demonstrate the importance of balancing technical innovation with culinary expertise.