Welcome to the Food and Beverage Processor Forum. A podcast tailor-made for Ontario’s food and beverage processors. Whether you’re an owner or an industry professional with a passion for food and business, you’ve come to the right place. Together with myself, Dyson Wells, and Food and Beverage Ontario’s CEO, Christopher Conway, we’ll engage with experts and leaders in the food manufacturing industry to uncover insights that help you run your team and business the way you know it can. We’ll explore anything from emerging consumer trends to addressing the industry’s labour challenges. Each episode, we’ll also get you up to speed on everything Food and Beverage Ontario has been working on, to keep you informed on the sector and resources to give you the leading edge in labour attraction, business operations, and strategy.
You can find a new episode of the Food and Beverage Processor Forum free to stream each month on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favourite podcast.
All content for Food and Beverage Processor Forum is the property of Food and Beverage Ontario and is served directly from their servers
with no modification, redirects, or rehosting. The podcast is not affiliated with or endorsed by Podjoint in any way.
Welcome to the Food and Beverage Processor Forum. A podcast tailor-made for Ontario’s food and beverage processors. Whether you’re an owner or an industry professional with a passion for food and business, you’ve come to the right place. Together with myself, Dyson Wells, and Food and Beverage Ontario’s CEO, Christopher Conway, we’ll engage with experts and leaders in the food manufacturing industry to uncover insights that help you run your team and business the way you know it can. We’ll explore anything from emerging consumer trends to addressing the industry’s labour challenges. Each episode, we’ll also get you up to speed on everything Food and Beverage Ontario has been working on, to keep you informed on the sector and resources to give you the leading edge in labour attraction, business operations, and strategy.
You can find a new episode of the Food and Beverage Processor Forum free to stream each month on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favourite podcast.
How AI Vision Is Looking To Transform Food Manufacturing
Food and Beverage Processor Forum
54 minutes
7 months ago
How AI Vision Is Looking To Transform Food Manufacturing
AI vision isn’t just for tech giants anymore. It’s on the processing floor, inspecting products, spotting safety risks, and even flagging maintenance issues before they lead to costly down-time.
In this episode of The Food and Beverage Processor Forum, FBO sits down with Jeff Hetherington, Head of Project Development at Maneva.ai, to explore how AI vision systems are being integrated directly into food and beverage manufacturing facilities— and what it means for safety, efficiency, and the future of food processing.
We cover:
What AI vision actually is and how it works in a processing environment
Real-world examples of how processors are using AI vision for quality control, equipment monitoring, and plant safety
The surprising ways AI can reduce waste and improve sustainability
How accessible is this new technology to small and mid-sized businesses
What’s coming next — from augmented reality to real-time performance optimizations
The most surprising AI applications aren’t in the lab — they’re already on the line.Jeff Hetherington – Head of Project DevelopmentWith over 30 years of leadership experience in the food and beverage industry across both retail and manufacturing, Jeff brings deep operational expertise and a proven track record of driving continuous improvement. His career spans key roles at JM Schneider, Maple Leaf Foods, and Sofina Foods, where he led initiatives in cost reduction, plant optimization, and Lean Six Sigma implementation—delivering over $2 million in savings. A seasoned plant manager and mentor, Jeff is passionate about tackling the labor and operational challenges facing the industry today. Now at Maneva, he leads innovative AI-driven projects aimed at transforming food manufacturing through technology.linkedin.com/in/jeff-hetherington-a7047a244
About Food and Beverage Ontario
Food and Beverage Ontario is a not-for-profit leadership organization dedicated to advancing the interests of Ontario's food and beverage processors. The organization's focus is on the success, prosperity and growth of the food and beverage processing sector - a $40 billion industry and a major contributor to the province's economy.
To learn more about Food and Beverage Ontario, visit https://foodandbeverageontario.ca/
Food and Beverage Processor Forum
Welcome to the Food and Beverage Processor Forum. A podcast tailor-made for Ontario’s food and beverage processors. Whether you’re an owner or an industry professional with a passion for food and business, you’ve come to the right place. Together with myself, Dyson Wells, and Food and Beverage Ontario’s CEO, Christopher Conway, we’ll engage with experts and leaders in the food manufacturing industry to uncover insights that help you run your team and business the way you know it can. We’ll explore anything from emerging consumer trends to addressing the industry’s labour challenges. Each episode, we’ll also get you up to speed on everything Food and Beverage Ontario has been working on, to keep you informed on the sector and resources to give you the leading edge in labour attraction, business operations, and strategy.
You can find a new episode of the Food and Beverage Processor Forum free to stream each month on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to your favourite podcast.
