By Dr. Bernhard Reichenbach

In the age of globalization and digitization, of Internet and e-commerce, it is more important than ever to be well informed. In the face of fierce global competition, an informational advantage can be crucial. Trade fairs such as ProSweets Cologne or Anuga Foodtec are among the most important sources of information for business people in industry and commerce. We will report on both events in this issue and introduce you to interesting novelties.

With 20,000 visitors, ProSweets Cologne attracted significantly more interested parties than the previous events, and Anuga FoodTec is also likely to be a crowd puller. In our interview, Simone Schiller, Managing Director of the Specialist Centre for Food of DLG (German Agricultural Society), shows what the trade fair visitors can expect from 20 to 23 March 2018 in Cologne.

In our series “sp portrait”, this time, we report on the company Eis-Zauberei in Rheinsberg/Germany. After the fall of the Wall, the enterprise took advantage of an older US invention and developed a “magical swirl” for ice cream production. With this mixing system, everyone can design their own ice cream product and create a new, individual taste experience.

Another interesting article deals with intelligent data management at a renowned confectionery manufacturer. In order to avoid capacity bottlenecks in the central data processing, they decided for an IT solution of NetApp company and profits from increased storage efficiency as well as shorter access times.