From 19 to 22 March 2024, the providers of innovative and practice-oriented sensor solutions will set standards at Anuga FoodTec when it comes to successfully advancing process safety and efficiency in food and beverage production. High performance sensors that assume many functions of communication across systems – both of machine to machine and of machine to cloud – will be presented on the Cologne fair grounds. Sensors are indispensable elements for automation. With rapid reaction times as well as reliable and accurate measured values, they have for decades been assisting food producers in optimising their processes and in thus saving energy, time and media. However, the tasks of measurement technology are also transforming in the course of digitalisation and networking. "Only" measuring process parameters is no longer enough today. The more complex the automation scenario, the more extensive the requirements for sensor precision and reliability. The large amounts of data pose new challenges for the configuration and connection of measurement technology. Classic sensors that provide binary signals for the control system find their limits here. They are increasingly being replaced by sensor systems in which signal preparation and processing are united in one housing together with the actual recording of measurement parameters. At Anuga FoodTec, measurement technology providers, including, for example, Baumer, Endress+Hauser, ifm, Siemens, Vega, Optel and Beckhoff, will show how food producers also remain competitive with smart sensors in times of Industry 4.0. What all developments have in common is that digitalisation is not being promoted for its own sake, but is instead taking place against a practical background. Self-explanatory operating concepts, sensor diagnostics as well as possibilities for wireless data transfer are viewed as key concepts for smart processes. In addition to high resolution measurement technology, artificial intelligence and deep learning algorithms also play an important role here. The more intelligence is integrated into the sensor in the form of sophisticated signal processing the more possibilities for self-monitoring and reconfiguration arise.