Bühler Holding AG , based in Uzwil bei St. Gallen in Switzerland, is one of the market leaders in various grain processing technologies for flour and feed, as well as for the production of pasta and chocolate. At Microsoft’s Ignite Conference in Orlando, Florida, Bühler has now, in cooperation with Microsoft, unveiled the IoT platform ‘Bühler Insights’ , which offers customers a number of its digital services through Microsoft Azure.

Customers can, for example, access MoisturePro, a service that can reduce energy consumption in industrial drying processes. Two additional Bühler Insights solutions are LumoVision, which can identify and remove maize grains that have been contaminated with toxic aflatoxin, and TotalSense, for controlling the quality of rice. The TotalSense solution leverages a mobile analyzer, which takes pictures of rice samples using a light tent and smartphone camera, sends the images to the cloud for analysis via an app, and then returns the results to the smartphone. With GrainiGo, Bühler also offers a similar service for maize.

Bühler is currently collaborating with Microsoft on a model to test the possibilities of a blockchain for total traceability of food, to increase food safety and transparency across the entire supply chain.