Voice of The Food Industry Blog

New Life for Older Stores

As supermarkets age, they don’t exactly gain value like the fine wines they sell. However, today’s retailers have some new opportunities for their older stores, particularly when it comes to incorporating ecommerce and upgrading to more energy-...

What Is Your Meat IQ?

My co-worker’s husband has become a barbecue aficionado. My son slow cooked a brisket for the first time at home. My grandson was excited to show me his burger-making skills. Is it just me, or has everyone’s meat IQ increased during the COVID-19 ...

Advancing Your Career During a Pandemic

It’s been an interesting time to be an e-learning professional with events going virtual, learning being reimagined and “zoom fatigue” impacting many of us. At the same time, it’s been exciting to see how many people have used their time during the ...

Health and Well-being in the Meat Department – Seize the Opportunity!

Over the past year, consumers have flocked to the meat department like never before. Retailers and product suppliers have a prime opportunity to ensure consumers are satisfied with their product selections and choices. Research indicates that while ...

Next Steps for Enhancing Meat Industry Strategies

Fast forward to today, a year after lockdowns began, and the picture is brighter. The meat industry has worked hard to address its challenges — and has succeeded in getting past the worst of ...

Collaborating Through a Crisis and Beyond

COVID-19 has reminded us more than ever that grocery and supplier collaboration is a vital strand in the social fabric. Beyond the deep-cleaning, shelf-replenishing and physical-distancing tactics that played out at the store level during the ...

How Far is the U.S. from COVID-19 Herd Immunity?

Like many of you, I have been following the march toward COVID-19 herd immunity for months. I’ve also been considering the personal considerations for consumers and the business implications for the food industry. I’ve taken note of how the issue of ...

Set the Table for Mediterranean Family Meals

When gathering around the table for Mediterranean-style family meals, the connections made between food and health and people and joy can grow even stronger. The Mediterranean Diet is based on the traditional eating habits of the countries ...

FMI Food Protection Committee Establishes 2021 Food Safety Initiatives

FMI’s Food Protection Committee (FPC) establishes annual initiatives to focus work, allow for resource allocation and highlight food safety issues that are topical and need industry collaboration for improvement. This year, the initiatives for the ...

What’s the Verdict on Plant-Based Fish Alternatives?

Our 2021 Power of Seafood report finds the biggest reason behind an increase in grocery seafood sales is consumers are trying to eat healthier (59%). In fact, 72% of frequent seafood consumers are putting more effort into making healthy and ...

Getting Smarter Together

We believe that we are smarter together than we are solo. We also believe that the racial issues confronting us are too large and complex to be tackled in isolation and that DEI concerns are a non-competitive issue for our industry. We want to ...

How To Remove Friction in the Supply Chain

A year into our collective COVID-19 response, most people now have a more informed view of our global supply chains and know the time and materials involved in moving goods around the world and around our country. As we are wired to ask ourselves: ...

Staying Strong with Family Meals and Food Safety

The time is right to help families include food safety skills and healthy eating habits at home, especially as they cook and enjoy more family meals together. With registered dietitians and food safety experts taking on greater responsibilities, the ...

The Ups and Downs of Food Prices

Food prices definitely did rise in 2020. United States Department of Agriculture (USDA)’s analysis of the Consumer Price Index (CPI) found that prices for “food-at-home” (i.e., purchased from a grocery store or other retail format) increased by 3.5% ...

FMI and Harold Lloyd: A New Virtual Store Tour Series and More

Recently, many events have moved to virtual platforms and now store tours (at least for now) are moving to the virtual world. An insightful experience that is normally featured at the Midwinter Executive Conference and during in-person share group ...