Events
AIBI and Fedima are co-hosting the 2026 Congress, organized by the International Association of Plant Bakers every two years. The associations will welcome participants for two and a half days of learning, sharing and highly-anticipated reunions. This time, the background of the hemisphere’s main event for industrial bakers will be the French Riviera.
For bakeries focusing on the private label sector, PLMA is an important source of inspiration and innovation. Reflecting the evolving trends shaping today’s private label market, the Idea Supermarket at PLMA’s World of Private Label has been reimagined as PLMA’s World of Ideas.
Packaging
With growing sales of on-the-go, small pies, US snack pie maker JTM Foods set out to double its production capacity to over 350 million units per year. This goal meant building an entire new factory.
Cookies, biscuits
Personalized snacks cater to a greater diversity of nutrition priorities, lifestyles and diets, portion sizes and flavor combinations. Either wire-cut or molded, new and changing cookies are demanding flexible systems to support large-scale production.
Consumers’ fondness for cookies is only growing stronger, as the status of this treat is enhanced. Next-level cookies are no longer simply a snack, as they check a unique list of boxes, such as a moment of luxurious
experience, an adventurous surprise, a small, permissible indulgence, a versatile snack, and establishing a connection with a like-minded, exciting and highly personalized brand. Opportunities for cookie makers flourish, provided they meet new and fluid consumer needs.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Sjoerd Raben, Project Manager, Software Development, Royal Kaak, offers insights into the company’s work, perspectives on AI concepts, and advances in incorporating game-changing tools in the solutions provided.
Artificial Intelligence is one of the moment’s biggest conversations. Tremaine Hartranft, Vice President, Technical Growth and Strategy at Reading Bakery Systems, shares with Baking+Biscuit International the company’s perspective on AI, its current status and vision for opportunities and further advances.
Artificial Intelligence makes smart use of key process data to improve and automate baking processes, while making the process convenient for the people using the technology.
Sustainability
The EU is on track to apply new packaging rules before the end of the summer. What does it mean to consumers, and what will change for businesses offering packaged baked goods?
interpack special
The end stage of the manufacturing process is emerging on the other side of a major sustainability transformation. With a set timeline to PPWR conformity, the ‘ifs’ are quickly becoming ‘when’ in short-term planning for food businesses, bakeries included. Until August, interpack is the innovation stepping stone in the journey to more sustainable – and, at the same time, smarter – packaging and processing.
The three-year wait is almost over. For those planning their trip to Düsseldorf, here are some of the companies worth visiting for bakery professionals, listed from A to Z, and the advances they are highlighting at their stands.
In the spotlight
For the past four years, Takeharu Shinga represented the Japanese pioneer in rheology engineering in Europe, as the President of RHEON AUTOMATIC MACHINERY GmbH. Before taking on a new role in Japan this spring, as the Operating Officer, Director of Development & Designing Department, he granted BBI an interview at the company’s Düsseldorf headquarters, speaking about Rheon’s unique perspective on baking industry processes, its approach to innovation and providing bakers in each market with the solution to fit their exact needs.
Digitalization
Cybercrime is on the rise. Small and medium-sized businesses are feeling the impact as well. Hacker attacks, sabotage, and data espionage are becoming increasingly common and are targeting the baking industry.
Packaging and labeling
The EU Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation will not only impact the choices in packaging materials, but also those related to the information that comes with it – the entire message, its content and the ink.
Production
As experts have left the industry, baking brands are uniquely positioned to take more control over their flour quality specifications.
