The automotive industry accounts for 95 percent of the robots in industrial applications, but only because other industries have not figured out how to apply robotics to their more idiosyncratic processes. Innovations from Kuka and Fanuc show that major players believe it is time to move robots into the messy, difficult and physically demanding world of industrial food processing and distribution. Difficul- ties such as hygiene, and the relatively low innovation ethos in the industry may keep food-processing robotics in a fringe position for the time being, however.