Fresh Foods

How Technology is Redefining the Meat Case

While the backroom used to be where butchers made cuts by hand, there’s a different kind of cutting edge in today’s food retail meat business. Advanced technologies are changing the way meat is produced, processed and packaged, as well as handled ...

3 Easy Ways to Jumpstart Your Plans for Supermarket Employee Day 2.22.23

There are more than 40,000 stores that sell food and grocery items in the U.S. alone. Millions of supermarket employees come to work daily to keep shelves stocked and to provide communities with essential services that help them survive and ...

Holiday Meal Planning Made Easy

Amidst the holiday hustle and bustle, foodservice at retail can serve as a critical value-add for shoppers with long to-do lists and a desire to spend less time in the kitchen and more time with their loved ...

Reasons to Celebrate: The In-Store Bakery

These days, it feels like there’s a celebration nearly every day of the year. Whether it’s a traditional holiday, Supermarket Employee Day or even the Store Manager Awards, there are lots of reasons to celebrate and in-store bakery can make any ...

Taking Action to Move the Fresh Industry Forward

When leaders gather for a major industry conference there’s generally a short window of time to turn insights into action steps. That’s because insights can quickly be forgotten in the rush of day-to-day challenges. How often have we attended events,...

Thanksgiving, the Consummate Family Meal and Beyond

Thanksgiving is the consummate family meal. It bears all the nutritional, emotional, mental, and social merits that are accrued when we gather at table sharing a common need of physiological substance, and surprisingly discover that our minds and ...

A New Opportunity to Put Retail Foodservice on Consumers’ Radar

There is good news on the retail foodservice front, along with a new opportunity to overcome a longtime growth hurdle. First the good news. Foodservice/prepared foods, hit hard during the pandemic, has solidly rebounded in dollars and units and is ...

Illustrating the Evolving Grocery Experience

We used to debate whether our industry was going through an evolution or a revolution. Depending on your viewpoint regarding the pace of change and the catalysts for it, there has been one constant: Our industry continues to invest heavily in ...

How Did That Seafood Get On Your Plate?

To start off National Seafood Month, FMI’s Seafood Strategy Leadership Council held our Fall meeting in Seattle. The weekend started early on a sunny Sunday morning (not the norm in Seattle) as Trident Seafoods, our host, took us on a tour of their ...

Protein Made Personal: Discoveries for a New AMC Brand

When it comes to protein, meat continues to lead perishable areas in grocery in terms of store sales by fresh department, and for well over two decades, we’ve partnered with the North American Meat Institute on a high-impact forum – The Annual Meat ...

Where Do Shoppers Look for Plant-based Foods and Beverages In-Store?

A few years ago, several meat alternative companies made headlines with one small change—placing their products alongside traditional meat counterparts in the meat section. A debate ensued that continues today—where should plant-based foods and ...

Going the Extra Mile for Fresh Foods Success

Holding a conference at a high-altitude location can help everyone see the big picture. FMI’s recent FreshForward conference in Denver, the Mile High City, sparked high-level insights from speakers to foster industry success. I recently wrote that ...

Senior Retail Leaders Champion Fresh Foods Progress

Succeeding with fresh foods strategies is a lot easier if you have senior leaders championing efforts. That is one of my key takeaways from FMI’s recently completed FreshForward conference in Denver. Top leaders from three major retail organizations ...

Keeping Fresh in Focus While Navigating an Obstacle Course

As part of this year’s Speaks survey, FMI took a deep dive into what is happening in the fresh perimeter departments, and there was so much to report, that we created a separate deep dive into The State of Fresh Foods. Here are a few of the key ...

Who is The Animal-Alternative Product Shopper?

In the inaugural Power of Plant-based Foods and Beverages 2022 report, which is FMI’s first-ever comprehensive review of the plant-based topic broadly, we looked at naturally plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, beans and whole grains and ...