Labor shortages in the food sector: how to break the never-ending cycle

The labor market in food processing is tight, and that is not going to change anytime soon. If you are struggling to fill vacancies, it pays to take a close look at the team you already have. Shift the question from "How do I find more people?" to "How do I achieve more with the same team?" Automation offers a concrete answer. In this blog article, we demonstrate how Marcelissen machines make your employees more productive.

A shortage that isn't going anywhere

Companies in the food industry have long cited a shortage of (technical) personnel as the single biggest obstacle to growth. An aging workforce, high turnover, and a structural shortage of technically skilled staff mean vacancies remain open for extended periods, especially in the places where continuity is needed most: the shop floor.

The impact of understaffed shifts

The consequences are felt immediately. Production lines cannot always run at full capacity simply because there are not enough people to man them. Seasonal peaks, harvests, and holidays are particularly difficult to absorb at the exact moments when extra capacity is needed most. Complex, labor-intensive products are sometimes scrapped in favor of high-volume items because they are easier to produce with fewer staff.

Quality is also under pressure. Manual inspection along the conveyor belt is exhausting and prone to error, especially toward the end of a long shift. Meanwhile, the existing team works overtime to plug the gaps that new colleagues should be filling, leading to a higher risk of errors and absenteeism, which in turn worsens staffing pressures. Today, this vicious cycle is almost impossible to break.

If you can't find new people, make your current employees more productive

In this situation, you shouldn't rely on luck in the job market to dictate your production capacity. The answer must come from elsewhere: more output per employee. That is precisely where automation makes the difference. At Marcelissen, we encounter this demand from customers daily. For over 70 years, we have been developing machines for potato and root vegetable processing. The core objective of our machines? Taking over repetitive, physically demanding, or concentration-dependent tasks so the existing team can accomplish more.

The result is a team that delivers higher output with the same headcount, because employees no longer spend their time and energy on tasks that a machine can execute consistently and structurally.

Where this makes a concrete difference

In practice, the biggest difference often lies in small, repetitive actions that collectively account for a large portion of staffing requirements:

Peeling and scraping: Manually removing skin or remnants after peeling is monotonous work that quickly leads to fatigue and quality variations. A Drum Knife Peeler takes over this process systematically, delivering consistent results regardless of the time of day, without requiring additional personnel.
Finishing and correction: Skin remnants or blemishes remaining after peeling were traditionally removed manually by a line team. The Sliver Remover was specifically developed to automate this type of re-work, allowing the same team to process larger product volumes.
Sorting and visual inspection: Evaluating quality with the naked eye is labor-intensive and error-prone once attention flags. An Optical Sorter takes over this inspection task, assessing products continuously and consistently, allowing human sorters to be redeployed where their judgment is truly needed.
Cutting and dicing: Processes executed with a Hydrocutter, Slitmaster, or Halving Machine replace repetitive manual cutting tasks that require a level of precision that is difficult to sustain over time, even for an experienced team.

The bottom line

Stopping the spin of labor shortages starts from within. A larger team is not required to process more products; the existing team is relieved of the work that is hardest to staff and sustain. By taking over physically heavy and repetitive labor, employee strain decreases, resulting in lower absenteeism and more freedom to deploy people where their experience counts. Furthermore, because inspection and sorting no longer depend on human concentration at the end of a shift, product quality becomes far more consistent. For food processors, this translates to higher and better output from the same staffing levels, reopening the path to growth.

Together toward a future-proof line

No two production lines are identical, especially where staffing pressures are highest. That is why Marcelissen does not work with off-the-shelf solutions. We sit down with the customer to discuss where the team suffers most from labor shortages, run tests using the customer's actual product, and iterate until the solution demonstrably speeds up and improves output. That partnership doesn't end upon delivery. At Marcelissen, long-term relationships come first. We continuously drive machine development and maintenance, ensuring that a processing line adapts to an evolving market and internal staffing levels for years to come.

In summary

If you can't find new people, you must look for the answer elsewhere, starting by lightening the workload for the people who are already there. Automation is not a miracle cure, but it is a concrete and proven response to the hardest-to-staff work: repetitive, physically demanding, and error-prone tasks. Curious about how this could work for your production line? Contact Marcelissen to discuss where automation can make the biggest difference in your process.