The recent 2023 Process Expo was a hub for innovation and networking. Running from Oct. 23-25 at McCormick Place in Chicago, this year’s expo brought together food and beverage professionals from across the globe.

The ninth edition of Process Expo had a plethora of experiences to offer attendees, including educational Food for Thought sessions, a Career Development Center, Innovation Awards, three live production lines, live butchery demonstrations at The Market, and the Defeat Hunger Campaign, as well as the exhibit hall.

Innovation Awards

The Innovation Awards typically span over four categories, but this year, Process Expo decided to grant just three awards. Recipients included German Bionic for Best New Application and Product, TMCAqua for Best New Technology for Sustainability and Weber Inc. for Best New Technology for Automation.

• German Bionic’s fully connected Apogee robotic exoskeleton combines human intelligence with machine power to boost workplace safety and worker health.
• TMCAqua’s Ceramic Membrane technology can recover low-grade enthalpy and clean water from waste exhaust stacks from gas combustion and drying processes. This reportedly is the only technology of its kind that works at this temperature and recovers clean water.
• Weber Inc.’s retail bacon solution is customized to solve unique challenges like processing with fewer people, more throughput with existing square footage, and innovative automated line control making smart decisions without operator input. A single integrated solution allows total line control and access to real-time data – whether on the slicer, automation, or the packaging machine.

The Market

Twice a day, McCullough Kelly-Willis, butcher and founder of the Chicago Meat Collective, demonstrated her butchery skills at The Market. These recurring sessions featured Kelly-Willis breaking down half of a locally raised hog, as well as half of a locally raised lamb, into primals and cuts. On the final day of Process Expo, using muscles and fat from the previous sessions, Kelly-Willis showed her audience how to make sausage by hand.

In addition to demonstrating how to properly butcher these animals, Kelly-Willis provided tips for sourcing, seasoning and preparing meat. The Chicago Meat Collective is a woman-owned educational resource for those wanting to get more involved in whole-animal butchery, cookery and charcuterie.

Bacon production line

Process Expo featured three production lines this year — meat, empanada and pet food — with bacon taking center stage for the meat production line. Sponsors for the bacon line included BAK Food Equipment, Burns & McDonnell, GEA Group, JBT, Multivac Group, Delkor Systems, Mettler Toledo, Pacproinc, Robopac USA, UltraSource and Weber.

Process Expo Meat Production Line. Photo credit: Sammy Bredar.Featuring equipment from multiple sponsors, the bacon production line demonstrations offered attendees insights into the full bacon production process, from brining to packaging. Daily's Premium Meats contributed their products to the demonstrations, while Burns & McDonnell managed the production line.

Defeat Hunger campaign

The Food Processing Suppliers Association Foundation hosted a press conference Oct. 24 at Process Expo, announcing its efforts to Defeat Hunger.

FPSA, FPSA Foundation and Process Expo exhibitors are making a donation to the local community, including thousands of turkeys, an abundance of healthy pizzas and a monetary contribution of over 300,000 meals. This year’s Defeat Hunger campaign marks a milestone in FPSA's 10-year Defeat Hunger campaign, bringing the total number of meals provided to Chicago’s needy families to over 2 million.

The Defeat Hunger campaign, initiated by the Foundation of the Food Processing Suppliers Association in 2013, has been an enduring effort in collaboration with the Food Processing Association’s members to address food insecurity in Cook County, Illinois. The 2023 Defeat Hunger campaign marks the sixth year of support for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, serving hundreds of thousands of Cook County residents annually.

Jarrod McCarroll, chairman of the Foundation of the Food Processing Suppliers Association and CEO of Weber, emphasized the importance of giving back to the community that hosts the biannual Process Expo in Chicago. He expressed his admiration for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, an organization integral to the Chicago community.

The Greater Chicago Food Depository operates across Cook County, supporting an extensive network of pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, mobile programs, children’s initiatives and more. In the previous year, the Food Depository distributed a historic volume of food, equivalent to millions of meals.

Kate Maehr, executive director & CEO of the Greater Chicago Food Depository, highlighted the Defeat Hunger campaign as a powerful statement from the food manufacturing industry, reaffirming the commitment that no one should go hungry:

• In 2023, the Greater Chicago Food Depository distributed nearly 92 million pounds of food through its network of more than 800 partner food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other food programs.
• Food insecurity and food needs in Chicago and Cook County remain elevated. Nineteen percent of Chicago Metro-area households (one in five households) and 22% of households with children were food-insecure during the last week of August and the first week of September – similar levels to the first few months of the pandemic.
• While, for the most part, the pandemic appears to be in the past, many families continue to find it hard to put food on the table due to the cumulative effects of inflation, elevated food prices, and the rollback of crucial pandemic-era public assistance programs such as SNAP, or food stamps. As a result, many families are turning to food pantries for the first time. In August 2023, the Greater Chicago Food Depository’s network of partner pantries across Cook County served more than 190,000 households (approximately 422,000 individuals) – 20% more guests than last August.

Rebranding Process Expo

In another press conference at the expo, the FPSA and Messe Frankfurt announced that Process Expo is now EATS: The Equipment And Technology Show for Food & Beverage. This rebrand aims to focus the show on the food and beverage sector exclusively.

Constantin von Vieregge, president and CEO, Messe Frankfurt Inc., said, “In the last few years, the F&B industry has truly evolved and expanded its offerings within new sectors such as alternative proteins, pet food, functional beverages, and more, making this the right time to refresh the brand identity of our show.  It’s not just a name change, it’s carrying forward a new vision. EATS will be the platform where innovation, collaboration, and progress thrive to create a strong business, knowledge, and a growth-driven environment for the industry.”

“This evolution of the show is fully embraced by FPSA leadership as it will serve to further strengthen our platform as the premier showcase of manufacturing solutions for the food and beverage industry,” said David Seckman, president and CEO of the Food Processing Suppliers Association. “With the rapid pace of change in this dynamic industry, it makes sense for us to continually look at our event and shape it in ways that brings ever more value to our constituents including both suppliers to the industry as well as the end user. We are confident that EATS is yet one more step in that direction.”

The event, now officially titled EATS, marks a pivotal shift in the approach to expand the show. EATS will gather the food and beverage processors, packaging professionals and equipment manufacturers. Currently, the event showcases all aspects of food and beverage processing, uniting every industry sector. This core concept does not waiver with the new branding, but is enhanced with the increased focus on eight targeted areas; Bakery, Beverage, Cannabis, Dairy, Pet Food, Prepared Food, Proteins, and Sweets.

Brian Perkins, president of Provisur Technologies Inc., said, “We have been proud supporters of Process Expo since its very inception in 2010. The ambitious move to revamp the identity of an already successful show signifies that the organizers are leaders in their vision and growth plans … features like the Women’s Alliance Breakfast, the DEFEAT Hunger campaign, and the support extended to the industry make it obvious that the event is just as much about genuine, in-person human connection as it is about showcasing new F&B technologies. EATS reflects this vision and we are excited about the launch.”

Matt Malott, president/CEO, of Multivac Inc., said, “What differentiates EATS is that it will bring together ideas and innovative technology that span the entire food and beverage processing and packaging industry on a single platform giving us the opportunity to showcase our strength in diverse verticals.

The buyers will benefit from an elevated showcase of equipment and technology that also fosters meaningful connections and collaboration among industry professionals.  With the inclusion of these new features, the platform will reflect technologies and trends that shape the future of the F&B manufacturing Industry.

EATS will be a trade platform for showcasing and identifying innovations, market demand analysis, and trends of the domestic markets.

“The transition reflects our commitment to evolve. We’re modernizing the concept by building programs that will capture industry trends and target key growth sectors for the food and beverage industry,” said von Vieregge.

Initial elements of the brand’s evolution include:

• New logo and visual: As a representation of the event and experiences to come, the new logo and key visual are modern, animated and optimistic, inspired by the products, brands and industries it serves.
• New brand colors: Integrating Messe Frankfurt’s food technology trade-fair brand’s traditional hue of blue, the new identity includes a collection of fresh colors that speak to the diversity of industry sectors represented across the show floor. 
• New brand concept: The new show name implies how the brand will connect equipment and technology for the food and beverage industries and represent the industry in its entirety.

The newly launched website accompanies the reveal. The redesigned site will provide an enhanced experience for exhibitors and visitors alike.

The first-ever edition of The Equipment And Technology Show for Food & Beverage – EATS, will take place Oct. 28 – 30, 2025, at the McCormick Place in Chicago. 

For more details, visit the EATS website.