Food Processing Equipment Market - Global Industry Size, Share, Trends, Opportunity, and Forecast, 2021-2031

The Global Food Processing Equipment Market is projected to expand from USD 56.89 Billion in 2025 to USD 81.89 Billion by 2031, achieving a CAGR of 6.26%. This sector encompasses a wide range of machinery and systems designed for handling, preparing, cooking, preserving, and packaging food products. The primary catalysts fueling this growth include rapid urbanization and increasing disposable incomes worldwide, which together boost consumer demand for processed nutritional items and convenience foods. Furthermore, strict international food safety and hygiene regulations necessitate continuous infrastructure upgrades by manufacturers, thereby maintaining a consistent need for compliant and efficient processing technologies.

However, the industry encounters significant hurdles due to a shortage of skilled labor, which hampers operational efficiency and slows the deployment of automated solutions. To highlight the sector's export strength, VDMA reported in 2025 that the German food processing and packaging machinery industry achieved an export turnover of 10.6 billion euros for the 2024 fiscal year, marking a 6 percent rise from the prior period. This statistic emphasizes the trade's resilience even as manufacturers face challenges related to elevated production costs and varying levels of domestic investment.

Market Drivers

Manufacturers are increasingly turning to automation and robotics to address persistent skilled labor shortages, fundamentally reshaping the market landscape. To counter workforce deficits, companies are integrating artificial intelligence and cobots to sustain throughput and guarantee product quality, utilizing digitalization to ensure continuous production cycles and operational resilience. According to the '10th Annual State of Smart Manufacturing Report' by Rockwell Automation in June 2025, 95% of manufacturers have invested or intend to invest in machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies over the next five years. This surge in investment contributes to broader sector stability, as shown by UCIMA in July 2025, which reported that the Italian packaging and processing machinery industry generated a turnover of 10.06 billion euros in 2024, reflecting strong global demand for advanced equipment.

Concurrently, the demand for sustainable and energy-efficient processing solutions is fueling research and development expenditures aimed at lowering the industry's carbon footprint. Rising utility costs and stringent regulations are forcing processors to replace outdated systems with machinery that reduces energy and water consumption, a shift further propelled by consumer demand for environmentally responsible brands. Leading technology suppliers are optimizing their manufacturing processes to establish new industry standards; for instance, Tetra Pak’s 'FY24 Sustainability Report' from June 2025 revealed a 54% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across its operations compared to the 2019 baseline. These developments indicate that equipment efficiency has become a decisive factor in purchasing decisions.

Market Challenges

A scarcity of skilled labor represents a substantial barrier to the expansion of the Global Food Processing Equipment Market. As processing machinery grows increasingly technical to satisfy hygiene and efficiency requirements, the industry needs a workforce capable of managing complex automated systems. When manufacturers fail to recruit qualified personnel to maintain or operate these units, operational efficiency suffers, resulting in diminished production capacity and unplanned downtime. Consequently, potential buyers frequently postpone capital investments in new infrastructure, as the risk of underutilizing machinery due to staffing shortages outweighs the prospective productivity benefits, thereby contracting sales volumes for equipment manufacturers.

Highlighting this issue, PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies, reported in 2025 that 95 percent of consumer packaged goods companies experienced significant challenges in recruiting skilled technicians and operators to sustain their manufacturing activities. This widespread talent gap limits the capacity of food processors to modernize their facilities, subsequently retarding the rate of modern machinery adoption and hindering the overall revenue growth of the equipment market.

Market Trends

The creation of specialized equipment for alternative protein processing is accelerating as manufacturers move away from adapting traditional meat or dairy machinery toward utilizing precision fermentation units and purpose-built bioreactors. This transition is motivated by the necessity to scale the production of cultivated and plant-based products while enhancing yield and texture, which demands bespoke engineering capable of handling complex protein structures and delicate cell cultures. Manufacturers are establishing dedicated innovation hubs to pilot these technologies prior to full industrial implementation, ensuring product consistency and process viability; for example, GEA Group officially opened its New Food Application and Technology Center in Wisconsin in July 2025 following a USD 20 million investment to support the scaling of alternative protein technologies.

Simultaneously, advancements in Non-Thermal Technologies and High-Pressure Processing (HPP) are becoming essential for maintaining nutritional value and ensuring food safety without heat-related degradation. This approach enables brands to satisfy increasing consumer demand for clean-label products by removing artificial preservatives, utilizing extreme hydrostatic pressure to neutralize pathogens in packaged items such as ready-to-eat meats, dips, and juices. Adoption is growing as the technology becomes more accessible for a wider range of applications, a trend highlighted by Hiperbaric in March 2025 when the manufacturer reached a significant operational milestone by installing its 400th HPP system worldwide, demonstrating the expanding industrial integration of non-thermal preservation methods.

Key Players Profiled in the Food Processing Equipment Market

• BAADER Group
• Marel
• BUhler AG
• GEA Group Aktiengesellschaft
• The Middleby Corporation
• Tetra Laval International S.A.
• Alfa Laval
• Krones AG
• JBT Corporation
• SPX Flow Inc.

Report Scope

In this report, the Global Food Processing Equipment Market has been segmented into the following categories:

Food Processing Equipment Market, by Type:

• Thermal Equipment
• Mixers Blenders & Homogenizers
• Cutting & Peeling Equipment
• Extraction Equipment and Others

Food Processing Equipment Market, by Mode of Operation:

• Automatic and Semi-Automatic

Food Processing Equipment Market, by End-Product Form:

• Solid Form
• Liquid Form and Semi-Solid Form

Food Processing Equipment Market, by Application:

• Bakery & Confectionery
• Dairy
• Meat & Seafood
• Alcoholic Beverages
• Non-Alcohol Beverages and Others

Food Processing Equipment Market, by Region:

• North America
• Europe
• Asia-Pacific
• South America
• Middle East & Africa

Competitive Landscape

Company Profiles: Detailed analysis of the major companies present in the Global Food Processing Equipment Market.

Available Customization

The analyst offers customization according to your specific needs. The following customization options are available for the report:

• Detailed analysis and profiling of additional market players (up to five).

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