January/February 2024 - 4

THE PROCESS
MEL INDA WALDROP
ANXIETY-FREE AI
The machines are coming!
If thoughts of artificial intelligence (AI) conjure
Melinda Waldrop
Managing Editor
up images of HAL refusing to open the pod bay
door or of mammoth trucks on a Maximum
Overdrive rampage, this issue may contain some
reassuring news. Experts from equipment solutions
providers share their perspective on AI and drill
down into how the still-emerging technology
can improve efficiency and save costs - but not
render humans obsolete.
On page 10, Premier Tech Systems and
Automation shares how implementing AI into its
nut sorting solutions has created a huge buzz, generated big savings
and improved overall efficacy in ways even the company found hard
to imagine. And on page 20, global sorting and postharvest solutions
company TOMRA Food takes a deep dive on deep learning. The
company's head of innovation shares how AI can benefit processors
while maximizing food production potential.
This issue also spotlights one California produce company's journey
to improved sustainability - and the role of high pressure processing,
along with technological advances, on that path. Get to know Pacific
Coast Producers and how the company gets its produce - particularly
tomatoes - from field to can and onto consumers' tables with as little
waste as possible on page 14.
Also find out how controlled atmosphere research at the University
of Georgia is helping to reduce food waste by suppressing disease/
fungal growth, beginning on page 6. And get a tactile sense of how
production lines can implement high pressure processing - and why
they should - courtesy of PMMI, starting on page 24.
We hope this issue provides some insight into the evolving world
of AI. Maybe kick back and watch a futuristic flick - free from any
anxiety - while flipping through its pages.
Vol. 10, No. 1
Office 616-887-9008
Editorial
Managing Editor Melinda Waldrop, 616-520-2158
mwaldrop@greatamericanpublish.com
Editorial Director Debbie Eisele, 616-520-2160
deisele@greatamericanpublish.com
Advertising Sales
Associate Publisher Andrea Schafer, 616-520-2139
prosales@produceprocessing.net
Account Specialist Kim Meyers, 616-520-2137
kmeyers@greatamericanpublish.com
Production
Associate Amanda Mackey, 616-520-2157
Creative Director amackey@greatamericanpublish.com
Creative Director Allison McKenzie, 616-520-2142
amckenzie@greatamericanpublish.com
Circulation
Circulation Becky Stovall, 616-520-2138
circulation@produceprocessing.net
Corporate
CEO & Publisher Matt McCallum, 616-520-2133
publisher@produceprocessing.net
COO & CMO Kim Baker, 616-520-2135
kbaker@greatamericanpublish.com
CFO Deb Carnes, 616-520-2169
dcarnes@greatamericanpublish.com
Editorial Advisory Board
Adrienne Seiling, American Frozen Food Institute
Rudi Groppe, Heinzen Manufacturing International
Lou Cooperhouse, Rutgers Food Innovation Center
Sherrie Rosenblatt, Can Manufacturers Institute
Leonard Batti, Taylor Farms, Salinas, California
ISSN 2375-3447
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January/February 2024

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of January/February 2024
