The Food Machinery Industry Standard: Getting Machines From Different Brands to Speak the Same Language

The First Food Machinery Industry Standard

On June 26, 2025, the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry (TAMI) released the Food Machinery Industry Standard (食品機械產業標準), the first industry standard in Taiwan specifically for food processing machinery.

When many people hear "standard," the first thing they think of is hygiene or safety specifications. But this standard deals with something else: letting machines made by different manufacturers exchange data in a consistent way.

Why It's Needed

A food plant's production line is often made up of machines from several manufacturers: the mixer from maker A, the encrusting machine from maker B, the steamer from maker C, the blast freezer from maker D, and the metal detector from maker E. Each machine's controller and data format are different.

This becomes a sticking point when a plant wants to:

• See the operating status of the whole line on one screen
• Record which machines each batch passed through, at what temperature, and for how long, for production traceability
• Notify managers immediately when a machine has a fault
• Analyze output and downtime causes to find bottlenecks

In the past, achieving this often meant writing custom interfaces for each individual machine, which was costly and had to be redone whenever a machine was replaced. The purpose of the industry standard is to unify the "language" first.

What the Standard Covers

According to reports in the Commercial Times in June 2025 and the Economic Daily News in June 2026, the standard covers:

• Applicable equipment: Major process equipment in food processing, such as packaging, heating, cooling, and inspection
• Monitoring of physical quantities: For example, internal pressure, voltage, current, and power of bakery dust collectors; furnace temperature, flue temperature, feedwater status, and fault alarms for boilers; internal temperature, defrost status, compressor operating frequency, door-open time, and refrigerant pressure for refrigeration and freezing equipment
• Data structures and communication formats: How each type of data is named and in what format it's transmitted
• Exchange procedures between equipment: Allowing equipment from different sources to be integrated within the same framework

The standard was initiated by TAMI's food machinery committee, with discussions beginning in December 2023 and industry, government, academic, and research participants invited to draft it; the Bureau of Standards, Metrology and Inspection provided project funding, and the final version was approved on May 9, 2025. The standard is not mandatory, and TAMI has said it will revise it based on industry feedback. For the original text and full details of the standard's name, go by the version published by TAMI.

Adoption So Far

According to an Economic Daily News report on June 26, 2026, results of real-world applications of the standard were presented at the 2026 Taipei International Food Processing Machinery Show, with about 30 food machinery makers investing in cloud data applications for their equipment. TAMI's aim is to help the industry move from supplying single machines to providing system integration services.

What It Means for You

If you run a food plant:

• When planning a new line or moving to digital management, ask each equipment supplier whether they support this standard or other common data interfaces
• If you want to automate production traceability or temperature records, equipment that can output data is a prerequisite
• This standard isn't a hygiene or safety certification; when choosing machines, hygienic design and safety protection still need to be assessed separately

If you're a small shop buying a single machine:

• The short-term impact is small. For tabletop and semi-automatic machines, what matters is still being easy to use, easy to clean, and durable

If you're applying for subsidies or investment tax credits:

• A machine's digitalization and data visualization capabilities relate to the direction of the Statute for Industrial Innovation's definition of "smart machinery," but eligibility must be judged case by case under the provisions; see smart machinery investment tax credits

To ask whether Dong-Yih Machinery participates in or supports this standard, please call 06-257-4644 or reach us through our contact information page. For an overview of the industry, see An Overview of Taiwan's Food Machinery Industry.

FAQ

Q: What is the Food Machinery Industry Standard?
A: Taiwan's first food machinery industry standard, released by the Taiwan Association of Machinery Industry on June 26, 2025, governing communication protocols, data structures, and exchange procedures between packaging, heating, cooling, inspection, and other equipment.

Q: Is it a hygiene or safety standard?
A: No. It deals with equipment data exchange and doesn't cover hygienic design or machinery safety; both still need to be confirmed separately when buying machines.

Q: Is compliance required?
A: No. TAMI has stated that the standard isn't mandatory and is adopted voluntarily.

Q: What does it mean for me?
A: Food plants that want line-wide monitoring, production traceability, or automated temperature records can make support for common data interfaces a purchasing criterion; small shops using single machines will see little short-term impact.