In this episode of Food Tech Talk: Supply Chain Insights from Farm to Fork, host Katy Jones, CEO at Trustwell, sits down with Ozan Ozaskinli, Partner and Managing Director at Value Gene Consulting Group, to explore how humanoid robotics and AI are solving labor shortages, reducing operational variability, and fundamentally changing how food manufacturers approach safety, standardization, and compliance. Ozan explains that food safety breakdowns often occur during transformation initiatives because many teams treat compliance as a late-stage checkpoint rather than a primary design input. By embedding these considerations from the start, companies can prevent costly errors like mislabeling and regulatory non-compliance. Successful leaders shift from a reactive to a proactive stance by building strong cross-functional muscles, bringing quality, regulatory, and operations teams together early in the commercialization process to catch issues before they escalate.

The conversation dives deep into the operational variability crisis, noting that food plants often see performance differences of up to 40% between shifts due to human factors and high turnover rates. While traditional automation often lacks the flexibility to handle the complexity of modern food manufacturing, humanoid robots offer a solution by providing human-grade capability with faster implementation times. However, to succeed with these technologies, leaders must raise the bar on documentation, translating undocumented "tribal knowledge" into clear data, decision rules, and quality checks. This rigor not only enables robotic fleet learning but also significantly strengthens overall food safety accountability by embedding procedures directly into the production process.

Looking toward the future, Ozan outlines a value-creation framework where humanoid deployment first closes the labor gap, then reduces variability, and eventually improves total efficiency through AI-managed line operations. This shift is becoming critical as the industry faces continuous pressure from reformulation needs, driven by emerging brands, changing consumer trends, and evolving regulatory landscapes. Rather than responding to these shifts crisis-by-crisis, food safety and quality leaders are encouraged to adopt a strategic three-to-five-year perspective, leaning into technological changes to drive proactive growth in an increasingly complex global supply chain.

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Connect with the team:
👉 Katy Jones on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/katyjonespr/
👉 Trustwell: https://www.trustwell.com/
👉 Ozan Ozaskinli on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ozanozaskinli/
👉 Value Gene Consulting Group Website: https://valuegeneconsulting.com/

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