Can a byte improve our bite? An analysis of digital twins in the food industry

Posted on November 22, 2022 By LabLynx Journal articles

In this 2022 paper published in Sensors, Henrichs et al. of the University of Hohenheim present their literature review on the topic of digital twins in the food and beverage industry. The concept of the digital twin—a digital representation of a product, process, or system that as closely as possible represents the characteristics of the physical representation—is relatively new, and its use in the food and beverage industry holds much promise, according to the authors' research. After an introduction and extensive background, the authors provide the methodology for their review, focusing on six critical questions. They then present their results from a broad perspective, and then a more in-depth discussion focusing on answering those six questions. They close by emphasizing related work in the field, and then concluding that while a majority of the research conducted by others involves the production and processing stages of food and beverage activities, a dearth of cases appear to discuss supply, processing, retail, and consumption. They also note that "relatively few focus on the integration of digital twins in systems for developing autonomous control or providing recommendations to humans," which could be practically useful in the industry. "Nevertheless, digital twins provide huge potentials," they add, "e.g., in determining food quality, ensuring traceability, or designing personalized foods."