As bakers continue to navigate the changing supply chain landscape, there are tools to help them adapt more quickly.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can be used to help bakeries forced to switch raw ingredients, said Liran Akavia, co-founder and chief operating officer of Seebo, now part of Augury.

“Every time you switch an ingredient, that impacts your process in unpredictable ways and invariably leads to waste, quality issues and other production losses,” he said. “AI can be used in this case to enable your process to adapt to any raw material variances in real time, so you can keep your process stable, avoid any inefficiencies and gain significant cost savings in the process.”

Mr. Akavia added that AI can provide precise process parameters to allow bakers to maximize yield and quality of their ingredients and reduce waste.

KPM Analytics provides tools that help bakeries analyze product parameters, such as determining protein content and water absorption in flour, which is especially useful when bakeries are formulating new baked goods.

“If you’ve had to change ingredient suppliers, there are tools that can check the properties of the flours to understand what you’re getting, does it meet your specifications,” said Melanie Scott, director, marketing communications at KPM. “We have tools that help you measure flour quality on the front end and help you work with it so you’re not running more trials than you need to.”

This article is an excerpt from the August 2022 issue of Baking & Snack. To read the entire feature on Centennial Report: Bakery of the Future, click here.