The European Union is the world’s second largest producer of pork and the fourth largest producer of beef and poultry, making the meat industry a key pillar of the European economy. Beyond ensuring a constant and high-quality food supply, the sector faces other challenges such as meeting EU targets on efficiency and food system safety. In this context, automation is a key factor in improving processes.

In industries such as meat processing, where reliance on manual labour and high water consumption are two of the major challenges faced, automation plays a fundamental role in the pursuit of sustainability. Without technological advances automating processes, the meat industry struggles to meet increasing demands for efficiency, productivity, and environmental responsibility.

However, advanced robotics and automation systems remain inaccessible to many companies in the sector due to high costs and the current lack of flexibility, scalability, and robustness in available solutions.

Currently, in most food cleaning contracts managed by ACCIONA Facility Services, the sanitisation process for rooms and equipment has not evolved at the same pace as the technology of the machines being cleaned. The method remains largely manual: gross residues are removed by hand, large amounts of water are applied to eliminate them, and chemical products are later applied in one, two, or three phases as required.

This cleaning process accounts for approximately 20 % of the total water consumption of a meat processing plant.

ACCIONA is launching two challenges to find solutions that automate:

1. The removal of coarse residues

2. The pre-washing of conveyor belts

These solutions will be implemented in the facilities of the client COVAP Centro Cárnico (pork cutting room) with the goals of:

• Reducing hot water consumption, energy use, and process times, thus improving energy efficiency.

• Improving ergonomics for workers.

Challenge details:

🔹 Solutions for the removal of coarse residues:
Equipment capable of efficiently eliminating residues generated in a cutting room — pieces of meat and fat of various sizes that fall to the floor. These must be collected at the end of production and done dry (for example with manual tools) to avoid using water resources. This currently adds time to the process without adding direct value to the cleaning.

🔹 Solutions for conveyor pre-washing:
Devices that apply water effectively to conveyor belts — both exterior and interior surfaces — and can adapt to most commercial belt models. Preference will be given to solutions that also cover the application of chemical agents.

Finally, one of the two proposals will be selected and implemented through a pilot project to test the technology’s fit.