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Mikhail Polyakov

Robots in food manufacturing: what they do according to 2026 data, what gets in the way and how to calculate payback

Level: BeginnerReading time: 10 min

Topics: Robots, Industry, Automation, Small business

A robot arm with a vacuum gripper moves a layer of sealed food trays from a conveyor into a shipping crate in a clean stainless-steel plant

Short answer: as of October 11, 2026, the most recent measurable figures on robots in food manufacturing among the sources I found relate to the US. The International Federation of Robotics (IFR) reported on September 24, 2026 that installations of industrial robots in the US food and beverage industry rose 30% in 2025, to 2,900 units. In a report dated August 31, 2026, the association PMMI writes that 72% of the end users of packaging and processing equipment it surveyed already use robots, and that the main obstacles are a high upfront price, integration with existing equipment and servicing. Three examples of how this looks in practice: a robot puts sealed trays into shipping crates at a Yandex Lavka plant, a Russian machine lays out sausages, and the company Chef Robotics offers to pick individual pieces of meat. The results in all three cases are the companies' own words, and I found no independent measurements for them. For a small plant I suggest starting with one repetitive operation, measuring it, testing the robot on your own product before acceptance and calculating payback with your own figures. Below are the data, the examples, the barriers, the checking procedure and the calculation.

What the figures show

On September 24, 2026, IFR published US data for 2025. The country installed 38,400 industrial robots, 12% more than a year earlier. According to IFR President Jane Heffner, the growth came in part from the food industry, warehousing, logistics and medicine, while the automotive industry remains the largest customer: 13,500 installations, 1% fewer. In the food and beverage industry, installations rose 30%, to 2,900 units.

Two clarifications. First, these are US figures. I did not find a global figure for the food industry specifically, or data for Russia, in the materials I opened. Second, growth of 30% does not mean a record. In a retelling of the 2022 IFR release (AgFunder News), a figure of 3,402 installations was given for the US food and beverage industry for 2021. IFR releases may revise the data, so the comparison is approximate, but it shows that 2,900 installations in 2025 is below that figure.

The second figure comes from the PMMI report "2026 Robotics in US Packaging & Processing Report," prepared together with the analytics company Interact Analysis and published on August 31, 2026. PMMI describes itself as the association for packaging and processing technologies. According to the report, the US market for packaging and processing robots was worth more than 440 million dollars in 2025, and by 2031, according to the report's forecast, it will reach about 800 million (growth of about 10.3% a year). Among the end users surveyed, 72% already use robots; by 2031, according to the report's forecast, this share will grow to 95%, and 61% plan to increase their investment within a year. The retelling of the report does not say how many companies were surveyed, so these figures reflect the mood of the industry, not a census. The report is about the US market, and the retelling does not describe who the respondents are.

What about Russia. On March 31, 2026, Kommersant, citing the Center for the Development of Industrial Robotics of Innopolis University, wrote that the Russian market for industrial robots in 2025 came to about 7.86 billion rubles by a conservative estimate, 14% more than a year earlier. That article has no breakdown for the food industry.

What robots do: three examples from companies

Where and when What the robot does What is known about the result Whose words
Yandex Lavka plant in Saint Petersburg, July 2026 With a vacuum gripper it takes a layer of sealed trays of ready meals from the conveyor and puts it into a shipping crate. It works in a workshop at about 4 °C According to the company, 30% faster than the people, who moved to less monotonous tasks Company material as retold by Retail.ru on July 3, 2026
OrenKlip, Orenburg, June 2025 The RUS 600 positioner-stacker lays out sausages using a delta robot: up to 600 per minute, sausage diameter from 14 to 32 mm The company names its first customers (Abi, Damate, Strogonov) and a localization level of 82% for the equipment Company announcement (www1.ru, June 10, 2025)
Chef Robotics, January 2026 A camera and a recognition model find individual pieces (chicken breasts, cutlets, burgers) in a container where they lie in no particular order, and a gripper moves them to a tray According to the company, some customers already use this on lines assembling fresh and frozen meals. There are no result figures Supplier press release (The National Provisioner, January 12, 2026)

What is worth noticing. The Yandex Lavka plant, according to the same material, produces 85 thousand portions with a total weight of 24 tonnes a day. The robot works with a layer of trays: the layer is formed by a divider, that is, a device that splits the flow of trays into parts sized to a crate, and the gripper is designed for trays of different weights and shapes. Chef Robotics writes that its robots have so far worked with foods that can be scooped and measured by weight, for example rice or leafy salad, while individual pieces have to be recognized one by one and placed in the right position. This shows that picking individual pieces is a new task for the supplier itself.

What gets in the way

According to the PMMI report, the main obstacles are a high upfront price, integration with existing equipment and concerns about servicing. When choosing a supplier, the end users in the survey put reliability and uptime first, then service and support, then demonstrated payback. For a Russian reader, there is also the question of spare parts and service: according to OrenKlip, as of June 2025 up to 90% of Russian meat processing plants use imported equipment.

One more condition is washdown. In an announcement dated January 5, 2026, the supplier Stäubli shows the six-axis TX2-90 robot, which, in its words, is designed for hygienic and humid environments and withstands wet cleaning. In an article dated June 24, 2025 by a senior project manager at Hoj Innovations, palletizing robots for the meat industry are described as built for pressure washdown, with the IP69K designation. These are the words of company representatives. How to use this: ask the supplier for a document confirming resistance to your washdown regime, and show it to your quality assurance department so that it can check the cleaning agents and water temperature.

Reliability is better measured over the whole chain of actions, not over a single motion. Why "99% per step" does not give "99% per task" is explained in the article Why one successful motion is not enough for a robot.

A checking procedure for a small plant

This is my own procedure, not a recommendation from PMMI or suppliers.

  1. Pick one operation and measure it. To begin with, it is easier to take an operation that repeats and works with a product or packaging of one kind, for example laying finished packs into crates.
    • Who does it: a technologist or a shift lead.
    • How to check: over two or three shifts, it is recorded how many pieces per hour pass, how many people work on the operation, and how many stops and defects occur. A responsible person has signed the records.
  2. Describe the hardest product. Shape, weight, temperature, moisture, packaging, slipperiness.
    • Who does it: a technologist.
    • How to check: there is a list of the products that must pass through the robot, and separately samples of the hardest one.
  3. Request offers from two or three suppliers in one form. Equipment price, connection, start-up, service, spare parts, lead times, what is not included in the price.
    • Who does it: the production manager.
    • How to check: the prices are brought together in one table, and each contains the same items.
  4. Test on your product before acceptance. Samples of the hardest product are run through the cell at the supplier's site.
    • Who does it: a technologist together with the supplier.
    • How to check: the acceptance criteria are written into the contract in advance (pieces per minute, share of failures and defects, downtime), the contract has been reviewed by a lawyer, and the test result matches the criteria.
  5. Check washdown and safety. Guards and the emergency stop are determined by the integrator's design and by occupational safety requirements, and they must not be removed or bypassed.
    • Who does it: the quality assurance department and the person responsible for occupational safety.
    • How to check: there is a written conclusion from the quality assurance department on washdown and a written confirmation from the person responsible for occupational safety that the guards and the stop match the design.
  6. Start on one shift alongside manual operation and compare.
    • Who does it: a shift lead.
    • How to check: the same indicators as in step 1 are measured with the robot, and the list of stops over a month is broken down by cause.

How much it may cost: a calculation on hypothetical numbers

The numbers are hypothetical, substitute your own. The operation takes 4 people (two per shift, two shifts). The cost of an employee to the employer, including taxes and contributions, is 90,000 rubles a month: 4 × 90,000 × 12 = 4.32 million rubles a year. A robotic cell (robot, gripper, guards, sensors) costs 6 million rubles, connection and start-up 1.5 million, 7.5 million in total. Service and spare parts are 0.6 million a year, and washdown, replacement of grippers and other expenses are 0.3 million a year: 0.9 million a year in total.

Payback depends on how many positions have really been freed:

Positions that stopped costing money Savings per year After subtracting 0.9 million of expenses Payback period
3 3.24 million 2.34 million about 3.2 years
2 2.16 million 1.26 million about 6 years
1 1.08 million 0.18 million about 42 years

The calculation holds if a freed position really stops costing money: for example, after an employee leaves, the vacancy is not filled again, or you do not have to hire someone for another open vacancy. The HR department and a lawyer determine how the release of a position is formalized. Moving a person to another task does not by itself reduce payroll costs: the benefit is then the result of their new work, and it has to be counted separately. At Yandex Lavka, according to the material, people moved to less monotonous tasks, but it gives no payback period.

In the same article by an employee of Hoj Innovations, dated June 24, 2025, labor savings of 25-40% and payback usually within two years are stated. The article gives neither a source nor initial data for these figures, so compare them with your own calculation rather than substituting them for it. Add to the calculation the time for adjustment after start-up, preparation of employees and washdown downtime, if the supplier has not accounted for them.

When it is too early

  • There is no measurement from step 1: without it, it is unknown what to compare the robot with.
  • There is no one who will be responsible for the cell: a technologist or a setup engineer. Ask the supplier who will come and how quickly at night if the cell stops.
  • The product and packaging change so often that there is no large enough batch of one kind. Then you first need to decide which items will go through the robot at all.

Summary

According to IFR on September 24, 2026, installations of robots in the US food and beverage industry rose 30% in 2025, to 2,900, and according to the PMMI report of August 31, 2026, 72% of the end users surveyed already use robots. There are no Russian data on the food industry in the materials I opened, but there are examples from companies: tray laying at a Yandex Lavka plant (July 2026) and the OrenKlip sausage stacker (June 2025). In both cases the results are the companies' own words. A small plant should choose one repetitive operation, measure it, test the robot on the hardest product before acceptance, check washdown and safety, and calculate payback with its own numbers: depending on how many positions are freed, it can differ several times over.

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