Innovation and digitalisation: it is now a fact of life that anyone who wishes to continue to operate in the away-from-home foodservice sector will need to get to grips with these two aspects – not that they are particularly new subjects: HostMilano has been covering and promoting them for the last few editions. And yet, never as in this historic moment in time has the rush to adopt technological advances been such a priority. We asked our HostAmbassadors to describe the trends they are seeing around the world.

Above all, says Julie Gerbet from France, this is about “all the technological solutions that allow restaurateurs to exist at the time of Covid 19 and in a context where restaurants are closed to the public: delivery platforms and services, click & collect platforms, contactless payment solutions and so on.”

From India Vernika Awal tells us about the adoption of IoT because prices have come down, so even appliances already in use can now be connected up to voice controls. “In terms of industrial IoT applications, what's encouraging is the fact that data collection, data analytics and cyber security are being studied and adopted more seriously.”.

Sabrina Cuculiansky, in Argentina, highlights delivery apps, but also “applications with programmes to manage the roasting of coffee and cocoa.”

Sally Prosser reminds us that technology and the environment are no longer mutually exclusive, but can actually go hand in hand: “My interest is in local, organic produce and sustainability which seems far removed from hi-tech. However, we need to make radical changes to our existing food production systems in the face of the climate emergency. Using advances in IoT can help this change, by integrating low-intensity food production and reducing food waste through more efficient systems for instance. Also the recent pandemic has brought weaknesses in food supply systems into sharp focus with many looking to IoT solutions to solve them.” And to quote Damian Malins, of the UK-based Fera Science: “Coronavirus has highlighted how our food is dependent on complex global supply chains and how easily these chains can be broken. Thus, shortening and simplifying these chains by building regional and national self-sufficiency is a top priority for governments.”

Recently, the UK has been collaborating with GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) countries, for greater food security. Agxio, the Welsh data science and machine learning company, is helping to address the instability in the global food supply chain. As CEO David Gregory explains: “The Gulf region – and the rest of the world – has finite natural resources that need to be here for a long time. Life sciences, biotech and agricultural industries have been dramatically transformed thanks to the availability of large volumes of data through IoT innovation and advances in technologies.”

Marc Matsumoto, reporting from Japan, agrees: “With a world population barrelling towards 9.7 billion people by 2050, a lack of arable land, and unprecedented droughts facing many regions of the world, we need to improve the efficiency of farms to feed the growing population. IoT systems that enable precision farming and automation will play a big role in agriculture over the next decade.”

One thing is certain: we can look forward to a very multi-faceted future, with ever-evolving technological solutions. From Italy, Aline Borghese points for example to the “new 3D modules developed by Google which in the future will play a major role in design and architecture, but also in the catering industry, to create 3D visualisations of just about anything, from a piece of furniture to a dish first drawn by hand.”