By 2030, food and beverage manufacturers are projected to lose 36% of potential revenue to inefficiencies, three percentage points more than life sciences. Life sciences companies built digital data infrastructure earlier, correlating with FDA compliance requirements and higher available cash flow. Now the European Union is introducing packaging obligations and cybersecurity mandates that push food and beverage toward similar data infrastructure requirements. Neil Smith, Segment President, Consumer Packaged Goods at Schneider Electric, explained why this is fundamentally a data management problem in a video interview with IIoT World.
Why Did Life Sciences Digitize Before Food and Beverage?
FDA requirements around drug release and drug approval correlated with earlier technology adoption in life sciences. Higher available cash flow allowed life sciences organizations to absorb those investments sooner. Food and beverage has maintained quality control and brand protection standards, but technology adoption has been progressive and cautious by comparison.
Sustained compliance exposure made life sciences organizations more familiar with exploiting technology at scale. Food and beverage is now experiencing stronger regulatory pressure, inspired by life sciences traction, but starting from a different technology baseline.
| Factor | Food & Beverage | Life Sciences |
| Projected revenue loss by 2030 | 36% | ~33% |
| Regulatory driver | EU packaging, cybersecurity | FDA drug release, drug approval |
| Technology adoption pace | Progressive, cautious | Earlier, compliance-driven |
| Available cash flow | Lower | Higher |
What EU Regulations Affect CPG Manufacturers Now?
The European Union is introducing packaging obligations that require molecule-level disclosures about what is in packaging materials, extending beyond the consumable items to the packaging itself. New cybersecurity requirements also apply to connected manufacturing systems. These rules originate in the EU, but they affect U.S. multinationals and national organizations that export to Europe.
The environment in which these organizations operate is not static. Increasing levels of regulatory obligations combine with increasing commercial pressures. Companies that do not address compliance in a systematic, data-rich way will struggle to generate the progressive efficiencies that these combined pressures demand.
Why Is CPG Compliance a Data Management Problem?
“This looks like a regulatory problem. The reality is it’s a data management problem. And this data management problem goes beyond the factory walls.”
Meeting packaging and cybersecurity mandates requires managing business systems across the enterprise: work orders, planning, scheduling, inventory controls, and supplier fulfillment. The information needed to satisfy these mandates sits across multiple disconnected systems. Molecule-level packaging disclosures demand data that traces materials from supplier through production to final packaging, a scope that no single plant system covers.
Companies that adapt their operating systems into an information-enabled, connected enterprise can satisfy regulatory obligations and build the structured data foundation needed to employ AI at scale, a step the competitive pressure will demand.
This article is based on a video interview with Neil Smith, Segment President, Consumer Packaged Goods at Schneider Electric, and Lucian Fogoros of IIoT World. AI tools were used to help summarize and organize the content. Reviewed and edited by the IIoT World editorial team.
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