The growing flexitarian style of eating would seem to be a curse to the meat and poultry industry. It encourages eating plant-based foods while allowing meat and other animal products in moderation.

Speaking at the Chicken Marketing Summit, Frank Thurlow, formerly category director for beef and poultry with Southeastern Grocers, said, “We had to figure out what the Hispanic customer was looking for and what we needed to do to be attractive to that customer.”

Are chicken marketers allowing the loudest voices of social media to distract them from the important work of listening to their customers and responding to their needs?

Three future poultry production innovations are gaining attention and commercial interest in the marketplace since the first Poultry Tech Summit (PTS).

Poultry Tech Summit 2018 scoured the R&D and entrepreneurial world for the next tech breakthroughs that will cut production costs, speed processes and improve quality. Several of the ideas presented involved robotics and automation.

Profitably winning the consumer’s food dollar in the meat category in 2019 and beyond will require new solutions that automate and personalize the marketing of food proteins to consumers. A four-part session at the 2019 Chicken Marketing Summit will deliver insights into how this transformation will impact the chicken industry’s products in the channels in which it competes.

The first-ever Poultry Tech Summit brought together tech innovators, venture capitalists and poultry companies from 20 countries to triangulate on the next generation of technology that will solve problems and open new opportunities in poultry production.

Technologies are becoming available to leverage blockchain and machine-learning technologies to detect, predict and manage outcomes in poultry health, production efficiency, product quality and food safety throughout the supply chain.

Learn about a new technology for producing antigens in corn plants which can then be used as edible vaccines for poultry.

Robotic technologies to be presented at the Poultry Tech Summit give a glimpse into the next revolution in poultry farming — automation that tirelessly interacts with flocks, pinpoints localized problems in the house and reports everything on the cloud.    

Nanotechnology to be presented at the Poultry Tech Summit acts as a filter to trap avian influenza viruses for quick identification without dependence on antibodies.