Flexible Food and Beverage Industry Talent Can Ease Market Pressures

Worker shortages in the food and beverage industry can disrupt product launches. Actalent can provide expert interim talent to keep you on target and timeline.

Rising Costs, Tightening Regulations and Changing Consumer Demands

The food and beverage sector is undergoing rapid changes driven by both internal and external forces.

In an effort to combat foodborne illness, compliance measures like the FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act aim to be more proactive, putting an emphasis on illness prevention over response. This requires an even more highly regulated supply chain, with much of the responsibility for compliance falling on manufacturing plants.

Consumers remain deeply concerned about food safety, but sustainability is increasingly top of mind. This focus spans products, packaging and processing, requiring manufacturers to consider sustainable practices across the entire supply chain. At the same time, rising costs — driven by labor, packaging materials and ingredients — continue to challenge product pricing.

These food and beverage industry trends can lead to smaller profit margins and longer production timelines. They’re further worsened by a talent shortage.

Losing Workers to Retirement — and Other Industries

A major challenge for industry leaders is the lack of qualified candidates. A food and beverage industry analysis shows 37% of food and beverage manufacturers describe the worker shortage as critical. The shortage is most evident in roles like R&D, microbiology, food science, and compliance and regulatory affairs.

But it isn’t just competition from within the industry that’s making talent hard to attract. Food and beverage companies are losing talented workers to fields like pharmaceuticals and tech. The overlap in skill sets, coupled with the higher compensation often offered in these other fields, can make it difficult for food and beverage companies to compete in the labor market.

This difficulty in attracting new workers provides an added challenge to an already aging food and beverage workforce. As workers retire and there isn’t enough new talent to replace them, teams are unable to build and execute succession plans. This knowledge drain further exacerbates industry challenges.

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Talent Shortages Compromise Manufacturers and Consumers

The talent shortage has a real impact on both manufacturers and consumers from a compliance and innovation standpoint.

Thorough audits and quality control are critical to ensuring food safety and quality standards. Talent shortages can delay these audits or even cause oversights or mistakes due to overburdened workers. This puts consumers at risk of foodborne illness and risks regulatory noncompliance and recalls for manufacturers.

An understaffed workforce can also slow innovation and product development. Capitalizing on emerging trends requires speed to market. Without the right talent in place at every stage of the process, companies will find themselves facing roadblocks during production — and lagging behind their competitors.

Bring in Interim Talent to Fill Knowledge Gaps and Support Teams

One solution to the talent shortage in the food and beverage industry is bringing in interim talent.

Actalent provides project-ready talent with extensive experience in the food and beverage space. Our expert talent can fill knowledge gaps left by retiring workers while helping to upskill your existing workforce.

Consultants can provide help over the lifespan of a product launch or supply short-term support during specific project phases. Interim talent can help you scale quickly during product launches to bolster existing teams and meet critical deadlines.

We can source talent for in-demand roles, including:

Biochemist
Chemist
Laboratory Technician
Microbiologist
Quality Assurance Associate
Quality Control Technician
R&D Technician
Compliance/Regulatory Affairs Specialist

Specialized Laboratory Support

Our client, a global developer of vitamin supplements, required specialized laboratory skills to properly sanitize and maintain equipment. However, they struggled to find skilled technicians. Instead, that work fell on their scientists and technical staff, overburdening the team and delaying their time to market.

We helped this client build a specialized workforce with experience in fermenter maintenance and fermenter sampling tasks. In the first year, our team performed 1,762 hours of cleaning, completed 1,537 maintenance tasks and handled over 5,500 samples for processing. Meanwhile, the client’s scientists and technical team were able to dedicate 100% of their time to research and analysis.

Specialized Laboratory Support

Put Product Launches Back on Track With Actalent

Actalent has access to a vast network of individuals with highly specialized skill sets and experience in the food and beverage industry.

We can offer support starting at research and development through production and compliance and regulatory matters. Our talent is well versed in the constantly changing regulatory landscape and can provide guidance and audit support.

Talent is available on a contract or project basis and can be scaled to fit your needs. Whether you need one expert or an entire team, we can help keep your launch on target. Contact Actalent to begin building a specialized team to support your production.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the latest trends in the food and beverage industry?

Consumers are increasingly health- and sustainability-minded. This means a growing interest in plant-based alternatives as well as more transparency into everything from ingredients to manufacturing processes to packaging materials.

What is the food safety modernization act?

The FDA’s Food Safety Modernization Act aims to prevent, rather than respond to, incidents of foodborne illness. Part of this is ensuring the safety of the food supply chain, which includes tightened regulations for manufacturers.

Is the food and beverage industry growing?

The demand for manufacturing talent is expected to grow to 3.8 million by 2033. However, the current rate of workers in the field can’t handle that increased demand. This will likely mean a tight labor market in which gaining access to top talent is highly competitive. Working with a partner like Actalent can help connect you with highly skilled interim food and beverage talent to fill gaps on your team and help you meet production timelines.

What are the challenges of the food and beverage industry?

Tightening regulations, a push toward sustainable products and practices, and rising costs are straining profits and timelines within the food and beverage industry. A labor shortage, brought about by retiring workers and competition from other industries, adds to these challenges.

What is the effect of AI in the food and beverage industry?

Artificial intelligence is being used in food and beverage manufacturing to improve quality control, streamline production and even discover new formulations. Supporting or automating these processes helps workers focus on higher-level initiatives rather than repetitive tasks.