At Hannover Messe, Bühler and Microsoft
camera assembly in Bühler clean room
have committed themselves to build a
powerful alliance that will increase the
availability of safe food and enhance food
integrity and traceability.
The aspired alliance will extend the
partnership the two companies have just
built. Microsoft and Bühler aim at rolling
out cloud-based solutions to eliminate
contaminated grains and to rapidly
introduce new services to improve the
availability of safe and healthy food. An
important part of the planned cooperation
are block-chain applications, whose
feasibility is currently being evaluated.
Food safety and availability is still one of
the most demanding global challenges.
Whilst 30% of all food is lost or wasted,
800 million people are starving. The
application of digital technologies, such
as offered by Microsoft’s Azure cloud,
artificial intelligence and block-chain
technologies, combined with inspection
and processing technologies of Bühler and
partners, will provide transparency and
greater efficiency in food value chains.
“Bühler impressively demonstrates that
manufacturers can be digital innovators,
by strategically combining their industry-
specific know-how with artificial
intelligence, intelligent cloud and IoT
solutions,” says Çağlayan Arkan, General
Manager Worldwide Manufacturing at
Microsoft. Calvin Grieder, Chairman of
the Bühler Board of Directors, adds: “By
interweaving Microsoft’s capabilities and
Bühler’s innovations for food safety and
availability, we strive to stand up to some
of the most pressing issues in the global
food system.”
LumoVision addresses problem of toxic
aflatoxin
Around 25% of all harvested grain is
contaminated with mycotoxins. “It is clear
that the global food value chain is not
sustainable yet and the consequences of
climate change and the rate of population
growth result in a challenge of daily
increasing magnitude”, says Bühler CTO
Ian Roberts.
At Hannover Messe, Bühler has launched “We see two companies that are evolving
LumoVision, the first optical sorting fast, have demonstrated alignment in
technology which is able to identify culture, goals and action, and a shared
aflatoxin based on direct indicators of commitment to improving global access
contamination, while simultaneously to safe, healthy and affordable food,” adds
using real-time, cloud-based data to Ian Roberts, Chief Technology Officer at
monitor and analyze contamination Bühler.
risk. LumoVision eliminates up to 90% of
contamination and reduces yield loss to
below 5%.
This example demonstrates the impact
that the partnership of Bühler and
New technologies such as block-chain
applications have an immense potential
to enable full traceability within food
Microsoft can bring to bear in food safety. value chains. They could be key to
“The Bühler and Microsoft partnership against food fraud. “We live in exciting
proves that the rigorous digital times; digitalization has now reached
transformation of the business enables the global food system,” says Bühler CTO
companies operating in traditional Ian Roberts – reason enough for the two
industries not only to win new customers industry leaders Microsoft and Bühler to
and expand their markets, but also solve explore the technological and bus