Voice of The Food Industry Blog

State Legislatures Focus on Sustainability in 2023

In the first four months of 2023, FMI has seen the introduction of hundreds of sustainability bills across the nation. These include bills to prohibit per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS, polystyrene foam packaging, single-use ...

How Gen Z is Grocery Shopping

As a young Millennial, I find myself wondering how similar, or dissimilar, I am to Gen Z. While only a few years separate us, we are in different stages in life. I am a few years into my career, married, and a homeowner. On the other side, much of ...

Photo Friday: Sustainability in the Grocery Store

I recently joined Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (SLO) professor and agriculture economist Dr. Ricky Volpe's class on “Food Retail Management.” Along with 45 students, we met with Jonathan Tan from The Ratio Institute, a nonprofit certifying body for ...

FMI Tech Pitch Competition Winner: A Technology Solution for Labor Shortages

This year’s FMI Tech Pitch Competition winner was presented by Dan DelGiudice of Hyer. Hyer is basically Uber for labor. They have background-checked and insured gig workers available with no commitment or advanced scheduling needed. Workers log ...

Share Progress: Working Together on Hunger, Nutrition and Health

With dedicated day-to-day operations across the food industry, we know that FMI members are working hard to achieve these goals related to food donations and nutrition messaging for consumers. Now it is time to band together to gather metrics, ...

The Latest in Financial Trends for The Food Industry

It’s been a busy decade so far in finance and accounting. The first three years of the 2020s have been marked – and in some cases, rocked – by a steady stream of major events that have impacted retailers’ and suppliers’ books and bottom lines and ...

Communication and Culture: Imperatives for Food Safety

To ensure that food safety principles and practices drive workers and leaders across every level of an organization, a company needs to communicate and demonstrate their commitment to food ...

Recognizing An Asset Protection Legend

This will come as no surprise to anyone in the food retail industry, but one of the key imperatives identified by the Board of Directors at FMI is workforce and retention. The Asset Protection (AP) Council has recognized the importance of this and ...

When Is the Best Time to Plant a Tree?

Gene-edited food products will soon be making their way onto supermarket shelves, so the time to be preparing staff and customers for the advent of these new biotech enhanced products was twenty months ago. But if you’ve not done that, then right ...

Time-Strapped Shoppers Seeking Convenience in the Produce Department

There comes a time in everyone’s life when one must face their previous decisions and that day for me is moving day. The sum of my previous purchases literally weighs on me as I carry boxes up and down staircases. It’s a stressful and busy time, ...

Seafood: Two Steps Forward, One Step Backward

After the incredible growth of seafood sales at retail in the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020), seafood maintained its upward trajectory in 2021 to take the proverbial two steps forward. However, 2022 proved to be a very different story ...

A Family Affair: Asset Protection Rising Star Awards

It was my first year attending the APGR Conference and at each session, I experienced genuine people that shared their stories, insights and experiences to help the entire asset protection food retail industry grow stronger. This “family feeling” ...

Northgate Market in Cooking Up Change in the Community

Sometimes we don’t really grasp how one program, grounded by a local grocery store, and supported by an entire community, can impact the lives of so many until we get a chance to see that impact firsthand. What an honor when Northgate Gonzalez ...

State of the Industry: Asset Protection in Food Retail

A can of soup, a stapler, a trophy—what do these items all have in common? Their ability to protect you in the case of an active assailant threat. Recently, we received active assailant training at FMI. As part of this training, we were asked to ...

Three Essential Topics to Advance Fresh Foods

If I asked you what are the most important fresh foods topics for the industry now, how would you respond? You might point to subjects such as food price inflation, competing with restaurants, sustainability, health and well-being, prepared foods, ...