Building a food-as-a-service model to globally deploy more than 2,000 metric tons of nutrition in six months

Creating the food-as-a-service business model

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 820 million people were affected by hunger in 2023, and 3.1 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet. Blendhub is committed to changing the agricultural food value chain and making access to food and nutrition fairer and safer. However, stamping out hunger worldwide is a massive undertaking that requires digital technology. With the help of Siemens Digital Industries Software, Blendhub has already had a positive impact on reducing food insecurity by creating the means to deploy millions of meals anywhere in the world with their modular hubs and unique global replication model.

Blendhub facilitates localized production of food and nutrition, focusing on getting products to consumers anywhere in the world. Blendhub uses cloud-connected factories, data-driven sourcing, proprietary technology in blending and quality control in a global replication model to reach more people in more places.

To alleviate food insecurity, Blendhub built a food-as-a-service model by designing a food and beverage factory that can be packed in a 40-foot container and deployed anywhere in the world, close to farmers and producers and in zones where people do not have easy access to food.

“With Blendhub, we are creating a new system of shared value creation where there is accountability and transparency for all the transactions we conduct everywhere in the world,” says Henrik Stamm Kristensen, founder and chief moonshot officer of Blendhub.

“With 800 million people going hungry and 3 billion suffering malnutrition today, I believe if we don’t solve that from a global perspective, it will be difficult in the future to live the life that people would like to live on healthy and affordable nutrition.”

To meet this challenge, Blendhub uses Opcenter™ software, which is part of the Siemens Xcelerator business platform of software, hardware and services.

Overcoming old program challenges with new solutions

Prior to implementing Siemens solutions, Blendhub was experiencing challenges with their old programs.

“The old programs were more difficult to maintain, update and upgrade,” says Sergio Martinez, head of engineering at Blendhub, who realized the time invested in redundancy was hurting operations. “Taking data, working in a spreadsheet and then deciding when we had all the information meant we were losing time and opportunities.

“It was also important to measure the data in near real time and to have it in the manufacturing execution system to determine how much time in the production area was being used to produce a good product and improve communication protocols by using information.”

The digitalization department at Blendhub, led by Carlos Calleja, digitalization and information technology (IT) director, internally promoted Siemens solutions. He proposed implementing Siemens solutions because they had the best market solutions that would help the business grow and deploy innovative models. “Blendhub wanted to jump on to a big company’s shoulders to evolve so we could invest in new versions of the products instead of reinventing the wheel,” says Calleja.

According to Mayte Ferris, technical support manager, one of the reasons they chose Siemens was because they did not have to make many changes to their process. “When we saw the software and the demos, we chose Siemens because they could adapt to the way we worked,” says Ferris.

Transforming the world

Currently, Blendhub has a network of hubs deployed in India, Asia and South America to provide food to populations that have difficulty getting daily, high-quality nutrition. In collaboration with Siemens, Blendhub is revolutionizing the food industry and contributing to build a fairer and more equitable world. They have created ways to transform arid landscapes into flourishing, food-secure communities, empowering individuals to control their own food supply with powder-based products, which are nutrient-dense, easily transportable and long lasting.

Blendhub facilitates localized production of food and nutrition focusing on delivering products to consumers globally. Powder-based food ingredients from local/regional and global suppliers are a key part of Blendhub’s food-as-a-service business model. The Blendhub Portable Blending Hubs are all connected to a global network of food recipes, which provides each hub with fast access to new product development capabilities based on the locally available food ingredients. Blendhub’s model includes everything from deploying the hub, hiring staff and conducting all operations and maintenance. “By having Siemens components, we can carry more complete projects covering all our needs in terms of factory, software and integration,” says Calleja.

To control operations, Blendhub uses the Totally Integrated Automation (TIA) Portal and Opcenter Research, Development and Laboratory (RD&L) software for its automation components in the hubs to control the production, formula and laboratory management and specification management on the cloud.

Using simulation to streamline R&D

Getting nutritious, affordable powder foods to market quickly is a complex task. It requires balancing cost, shelf life and consumer preferences, which requires careful planning and collaboration.

Blendhub assists its customers with these tasks via its recipe as a service model, which is based on Siemens’ Enterprise Recipe Management. This allows companies like Blendhub to reimagine its recipe transformation processes and drive disruptive change in the industry.

Blendhub uses Opcenter RD&L to streamline, optimize and align its formulated product research and development (R&D), driving innovation efficiency and data management. This gives the company the ability to bring new, quality products safely to market faster.

They use Opcenter RD&L to simulate product performance with a digital twin of the formula, and work on formulated product design in a digital environment to bring food processing closer to raw materials and nutritional products closer to consumers. Simulation plays a crucial role in the food and beverage industry by providing a virtual environment to model and analyze various aspects of production, distribution and other processes. Blendhub uses the digital twin and simulation capabilities to see how the powders are blended inside their production hubs.

By enhancing Opcenter RD&L with cloud-based Specification Management, which is part of Teamcenter® software, Blendhub’s R&D employees can more easily manage product definitions and recipes and share them with manufacturing, suppliers and partners.

Delivering transparency

The complex and opaque value and supply chains make transparency a challenge. Since Blendhub operates on several continents and is subject to various rules, regulations and consumer interests, they chose Trusted Traceability from Siemens to digitally identify and trace a product’s history, distribution, location and application. Leveraging Trusted Traceability helped Blendhub meet legal requirements and offer more sustainable and higher
quality products.

Additionally, Blendhub can access data more easily and prove relevant product information for regulatory compliance and consumer safety.

Affecting community sustainably

Sustainability is a crucial factor in ensuring Blendhub’s powder-based products and production hubs can maintain a positive impact on the local community and environment. With a combination of digital technology and a drive for innovation, Blendhub found ways to deploy over 2,000 metric tons of nutrition globally in six months via a mod-
ular hub, a portable powder blend (PPB) and a replication model.

To achieve this, Blendhub took a 360-degree approach to sustainability with an easy go-to-market of plant-based and upcycled sources of nutrition to reduce climate impact and land use. The company can also reevaluate local crops in highly consumed popular products to save biodiversity and reduce water use.

Recognizing there are countless regions with varying cultures worldwide, they understand the importance of acting locally: sourcing new ingredients, connecting with the culture and community and reinforcing business networks.

Ultimately, Blendhub’s powder food is an excellent solution to reduce food waste and energy use to realize a more sustainable approach to the agricultural food industry.

Automating processes to improve traceability and efficiency

Blendhub’s network of hubs are powered by Siemens automation systems, such as the TIA Portal and human machine interface (HMI). This way operators can easily monitor and control production in real time and gain a clear picture of what was happening in the PPB, allowing them to make any necessary corrections. Each PPB model uses their innovative programmable logic controllers (PLCs), which act as the central brain of each machine. Using a PLC is like having a smart manager overseeing all the production processes.

This system controls and oversees various tasks, making sure ingredients are loaded, blended and packed correctly, taking care of production traceability during each step. Siemens automation systems are used to collaborate with other systems in the factory, such as inventory and quality control, to create a seamless and efficient process, allowing for remote monitoring and control, enabling managers to oversee operations from a distance and adjust as needed.

“We can make all the changes remotely,” says Martinez. “When we receive a new project for a customer, normally we have a gap of time to take the information and give an answer of unit per kilo. With Siemens, we can better capture all the data and give the best answer to a customer in less time. Siemens helped us reduce stress and take on more projects.”

“We simplified and standardized processes and made them stronger,” says Calleja. “As a result, we were able to respond to the user and client more quickly, including better time-to-market.”