Machine learning in transforming the food industry

The continued evolution and advances in Artificial Intelligence (AI) technologies are offering innovative solutions and setting the futuristic trends in the food sector. The use of different Machine Learning (ML)-based models has demonstrated promising applications in the food processing industry. Processing operations such as drying, frying, cooking, heating, and baking are complex and challenged by multifaceted problems due to simultaneous heat, mass and momentum transport processes. The ML-based tools could potentially categorize each food material and efficiently predict its processing kinetics for optimization of the processing conditions. Furthermore, ML technologies have shown excellent applications in ensuring the traceability of food provenance and quality, enhancing the transparency and traceability from farm to fork, and providing consumers with more reliable product information. Overall, ML tools have untapped potential to identify and accelerate multiple development opportunities across the entire agri-food sector to improve productivity, profitability, and sustainability in the future.