The biggest barrier to automation in food and beverage sanitation isn’t actually an obstacle—it’s hesitation. Many processors simply haven’t taken the first steps to explore where automation could fit into their sanitation operations.
According to PMMI’s 2025 Automation in Food and Beverage Equipment Sanitation report, 33% of respondents said they haven’t sought out automation yet, despite ongoing industry discussion around labor shortages, consistency, and food safety risk reduction.
Companies that have moved forward experience execution challenges. Respondents cited lack of in-house knowledge or integration support (17%) and harsh or variable environments (17%) as top hurdles. Others pointed to equipment not designed with automation in mind (14%), and cost and unclear ROI (14%).
The data suggests that while interest in automation is high, uncertainty around implementation continues to slow adoption.
This may result from practical challenges that hold back investment in sanitation automation. Machinery must be designed to be easily cleanable and many machines currently on production lines aren’t, according to the PMMI Business Intelligence Team.
Even if a line is automated, human monitoring of the cleaning processes is essential. There are perceived risks in relying completely on automation because regulatory and safety concerns are a key priority.
First steps for companies seeking to automate:
- Collaboratively start with the most important pain point and create pilots with all relevant teams.
- Quantify potential damages and measure against estimated ROI.
- Leveraging other OEM customers with similar implementations and best practice benchmarking
SOURCE: 2025 Automation in Food and Beverage Equipment Sanitation
For more insights from PMMI’s Business Intelligence team, find reports, including Automation in Food and Beverage Equipment Sanitation, Knowledge Transfer for Machine Operators: From Paper to Digital Intelligence, and Beyond Manuals: Setting the Right Expectations for Operator Training on Modern Packaging Lines at https://www.pmmi.org/business-intelligence.
