In September 2026, producer prices for the supply of electricity and gas on the domestic market increased by 35.9% compared to a year earlier, according to Istat. The data does not necessarily coincide with the prices paid by individual companies, which also depend on supply contracts. Excluding energy, industrial producer prices rose by 3.5%. For food companies the dynamic is the opposite: in the same month, again according to Istat, the producer prices of food, drinks and tobacco fell by 1.4% on an annual basis. A gap that brings the issue of industrial costs and their impact on margins back to the centre.
Gas also remains expensive and unstable. On the TTF market in Amsterdam, a reference point for Europe, the price for November deliveries reached 100 euros per megawatt hour at the end of October, before falling in the following days. A volatility that makes cost planning more complex and pushes companies to monitor the consumption of their production lines.
Hot and cold under the same roof
A food plant consumes energy in two directions: it heats to cook, pasteurize, sterilize and wash, it cools to preserve, season and maintain the cold chain. Milk, for example, is first heated for pasteurization and immediately cooled. Often the two functions are entrusted to separate systems, even when the heat produced by the refrigeration systems could be recovered and reused.
Refrigeration is one of the main items of electricity consumption. According to the white paper "Energy efficiency in the food sector", signed by Massimo Gozzi for Tecniche Nuove with Viessmann, a brand now part of Carrier Global Corporation, cooling and refrigeration absorb 28% of the electricity consumed by a factory, followed by other motors (18%), pumps (17%) and compressed air used to operate machines and equipment (14%). “In the food sector, air conditioning and refrigeration systems are not a simple technological support, but a production asset: temperature, humidity and air quality are crucial for the quality and conformity of the product that reaches the market - explains Stefano Dallabona, managing director of Carrier Climate Solutions Europe for Italy - It is therefore clear how important it is to invest in technologies that are able to guarantee these standards, but by reducing energy costs and the risks of plant downtime”.
Energy requirements change significantly from one product to another. To produce one kilo of French fries, the document reports, approximately 3.8 kilowatt hours of energy from fuel and 0.4 from electricity are needed. For a kilo of biscuits or snacks, however, electricity consumption rises to 2.5 kilowatt hours, more than six times as much. Differences that make it necessary to evaluate interventions based on the characteristics of each plant.
Recover waste heat
Part of the energy used in factories is wasted through boiler fumes, refrigeration systems and other industrial processes. It is the so-called waste heat, which can be recovered to preheat water, produce steam or power other processes.
Improving efficiency depends on the technology used. According to the parameters reported in the white paper, recovery systems that use the heat of the fumes to preheat air or water can increase the efficiency of the system by a few percentage points, while generators powered by residual heat can achieve increases of 12-14% in the conditions considered.
Industrial heat pumps instead allow the recovery of low-temperature thermal energy and make it usable in production processes. In the production of milk powder, according to estimates reported in the document, they can recover up to 40% of waste heat and reduce energy costs by up to 20%. In specific dairy and meat processing applications, the potential reduction in greenhouse gas emissions can be as much as 52%.
Replacing an obsolete boiler with a condensing model or heat pump can also provide savings of up to 30-40%, according to the white paper. However, considering an efficiency program extended to the entire plant, the potential reduction in overall consumption is estimated at between 15 and 20%.
Investments in small steps
For many food companies the difficulty is financing interventions without interrupting production. An overall modernization requires significant capital and can lead to plant downtime, which is particularly delicate when perishable raw materials are processed.
The path can therefore start with an energy diagnosis, which identifies consumption and inefficiencies, followed by the installation of digital monitoring systems. The data collected allows us to establish priorities and evaluate expected savings, progressively introducing heat recuperators, cogenerators and heat pumps.
Economic convenience does not just depend on the bill. A more efficient plant can reduce waste, require less maintenance and improve the reliability of the lines. These are indirect benefits which, as underlined by the International Energy Agency (IEA), can significantly impact the overall return on investments.
An example is the Maina panettone factory in Fossano, in the province of Cuneo, which has installed a cogeneration system powered by natural gas, integrated with a boiler to recover the heat. The plant produces electricity, hot water and steam, while a management system coordinates energy production with the needs of the plant.
The integrated systems market
The need to manage heating, refrigeration and electricity consumption together is also changing the offer of industrial technology suppliers. Carrier Climate Solutions Europe operates in this market, the business unit that brings together Viessmann's skills in heating and renewable energy with those of Carrier in industrial refrigeration and air conditioning, following the acquisition of Viessmann Climate Solutions by the American group in January 2024.
