If there is one place to understand where the food industry is heading, PACK EXPO International 2026 is certainly one to watch. From October 18 to 21, Chicago’s McCormick Place will bring together professionals, companies and technologies from around the world for one of the most important events dedicated to packaging and processing.
And we at LAIeF will be there, stand #LU-8840
Not just to talk about machinery, but to engage with an extremely dynamic market and with companies that are already designing the way tomorrow’s food will be produced and packaged.
PACK EXPO International is the flagship event of the PACK EXPO circuit and brings innovations for many industrial sectors under one roof. The organizers describe it as the leading event for innovation in packaging and processing, a place where new technologies are presented and new products are launched.
Here, packaging and production do not run on separate tracks: automation, robotics, processing, quality control, sustainability and digital transformation are part of the same ecosystem.
For a company like LAIeF, which develops technologies for industrial ice cream production and ice cream novelties, this is a particularly interesting context. Because, beyond product excellence, when it comes to industrial production many other variables come into play: speed, precision, flexibility, format management, consumption and the ability to adapt to increasingly demanding markets.
In short, ice cream does not reach the market by magic. Although that would be nice.
The U.S. market represents a privileged observatory on the transformations of the food industry. And PACK EXPO offers the opportunity to see these transformations in action.
The 2026 program includes, among others, topics such as robotics, digital transformation, processing, flexible packaging and production line automation. The Discovery Tours also guide visitors through thematic routes dedicated to the most interesting technologies in the halls.
Particularly significant for the food industry is the Food Processing Equipment, dedicated to technologies for cutting, cooking, cooling, coating, dosing, forming and extrusion, with explicit attention to efficiency, hygiene and sustainability.
These aspects clearly describe the direction in which industrial production is moving:
There is also another theme that will carry significant weight at PACK EXPO 2026: sustainability applied concretely to production.
The Sustainability Solutions Finder for the 2026 edition brings together selected companies and solutions in areas ranging from recyclable and bio-based materials to reducing water and energy consumption, decreasing waste and using post-consumer recycled materials.
This approach is particularly interesting also for the ice cream industry, where production efficiency and sustainability are increasingly connected. Optimizing a line means not only producing more or faster, but also making better use of resources, raw materials and energy.
And this is where technology stops being simply a matter of performance and becomes a real competitive lever.
For LAIeF, taking part in PACK EXPO International 2026 means above all coming into direct contact with producers, operators and companies in North American and international markets. This is a valuable exchange for understanding needs, trends and new directions in a constantly evolving sector up close.
Every market has its own characteristics, and often the most interesting ideas are born precisely from dialogue with those who produce every day.
Consider that the United States represents a market of considerable size for the ice cream industry. According to the latest data from the USDA Economic Research Service, in 2024 the U.S. produced as many as 1,386,000,000 gallons of ice cream and other frozen dairy products: more precisely, 1 billion 386 million gallons of ice cream, corresponding to 5 billion 246 million liters of ice cream.
In 2025, regular ice cream production alone exceeded 845 million gallons, while low-fat ice cream production amounted to about 381 million gallons.
It goes without saying that in Chicago LAIeF will bring its experience in manufacturing machinery for industrial ice cream, with solutions designed to combine automation, reliability and flexibility:
Four days can seem like a lot. At PACK EXPO, you will probably need a good dose of energy and a pair of comfortable shoes.
Between halls, demonstrations, meetings and thematic routes, the 2026 edition will offer professionals the opportunity to observe technologies and solutions from numerous industrial sectors up close. The Discovery Tours program includes, in addition to food processing, routes dedicated to robotics, digital transformation, flexible packaging and new packaging solutions.
For those who work in food manufacturing, this trade show is clearly a valuable opportunity to step outside their own niche and see what is happening just beyond the boundaries of their sector.
The presence in Chicago fits into LAIeF‘s international path and confirms the importance of the U.S. market for technologies dedicated to industrial ice cream.
From dialogue with producers and professionals to the discovery of new trends in automation, processing and sustainability, PACK EXPO International 2026 will be an opportunity for us to bring our technology to the United States and, at the same time, return home with new ideas, new needs to interpret and new opportunities to develop.
See you in Chicago from October 18 to 21, 2026: PACK EXPO International, stand #LU-8840.
