Gobbledegook

Software programs that are ever-more closely aligned with one another, high-tech cameras that perform a better final inspection on food production lines or help to robotise slaughterhouse activities, cybersecurity: we can work increasingly cheaply and more efficiently, and monitor quality better than ever before. Automation and digitisation are advancing at breakneck speed!

Yet as digitisation is growing, so too is computer illiteracy it seems. Automation and digitisation are pure gobbledegook for a large group of people. I notice it on websites where you can’t see the wood for the trees, or in ‘news’ sections where the most recent item is six months old. It’s not easy to keep all the balls in the air.

I also notice it on press releases listing painfully long web addresses, crammed full with strange symbols and mysterious acronyms. No one can possibly remember what it all means! Instead, take your customers by the hand and ensure that your homepage makes it clear where they can navigate to, or put some buttons on it. Better still: promote a specific landing page on your website in your promotional materials and use a short and snappy URL, such as www.foodinbusiness.com/app. Or opt for an external landing page such as www.appfoodinbusiness.nl. My colleagues Saskia and John are happy to tell you more about this.

One thing I know for sure: not everything can or should be automated or digitised. Many processes will always need the human touch. Moreover: products should appeal to every single one of our senses (as everyone working in the food industry knows like no other – and should never forget!). Keep listening to one another, keep meeting one another face to face such as at the various trade events that are being held this autumn, participate in the company visits that are organised for OSV and YFM members. Keep listening, feeling, seeing, smelling and (above all) tasting!

Judith Witte
[email protected]