MULTIVAC has announced the programme for its Meat & Minds Summit in Germany, with speakers from Samworth Brothers and Atria joining discussions on meat markets, supply partnerships and production technology.
The update, published on 15 September, sets out the subjects and speakers for the event organised with TVI and Handtmann on 27–29 October 2026. It follows the summit’s initial announcement in June.
For supermarket meat buyers and their suppliers, the programme brings commercial questions alongside equipment demonstrations. Lee Sullivan of Samworth Brothers will discuss long-term partnerships across the supply chain, while Atria’s Reijo Äijö will give a European meat-industry outlook.
Ekaterina Tretyakova of Innova Market Insights will address global trends in meat and meat alternatives. These sessions could help category teams assess where consumer demand and suppliers’ investment plans align, rather than considering machinery purchases separately from the products they need to sell.
Packaging is another central theme. Markus Schmid of the Sustainable Packaging Institute will examine material innovation, food protection and circularity. PreZero’s Alexander Reitz will address retail requirements for recyclable packaging, and Marco Atzberger of the EHI Retail Institute will discuss food logistics.
For buyers evaluating mono-material food packaging suppliers, the useful question is how a proposed pack performs with the actual product and production line. Recyclability claims alone do not establish that a material will deliver the required seal integrity, shelf life or distribution performance.
The programme also includes a presentation on digital automation from Lars Hinrichsen of the Danish Meat Research Institute. Research sessions will cover food preservation, sustainable packaging and future production methods.
Live demonstrations and expert sessions are planned for the second and third days. Delegates can book individual agenda items at MULTIVAC in Wolfertschwenden, TVI in Bruckmühl and Handtmann in Biberach.
That three-site format makes advance planning important. Procurement and technical teams should identify the processes they need to examine before committing to a visit, and check session timings and travel arrangements between locations.
MULTIVAC, which features in GTN’s overview of packaging companies in Germany, is both a host and a supplier of processing and packaging equipment. The event therefore offers access to supplier expertise, but should not be treated as an independent comparison of competing systems.
Teams assessing an investment can use demonstrations to ask for evidence on throughput, changeover time, cleaning requirements, labour needs and compatibility with existing equipment. Any projected savings would still need to be tested against their own product mix and operating conditions; today’s programme announcement provides no quantified performance results.
Registration is available through the summit organisers. The next step for prospective delegates is to select the relevant sessions and establish which technical questions can be tested during the October demonstrations.
