Supply Chain

Food Retailers Best Offense Could be Food Defense

In today’s world, it’s important to know how to prepare for intentional threats inside and outside of the food supply ...

Discovering the ABC’s of Food Retail

One of the most impactful FMI events, the Annual Business Conference (ABC), has brought suppliers and retail partners together for face-to-face joint business planning meetings for years. The event works because it is simple, effective and focuses ...

Cage-free or Not to Cage-free, That is the Question

As anyone with any debating experience can attest, the toughest opponent to counter is the one who is allowed to keep changing the terms, reconfiguring the terminology or moving the vocabulary goal posts. This is an important lesson to remember ...

AI, Cultured Coffee and 4 More Food Retailing Trends I Didn’t Know About

Specialty foods and beverages represent the sweet spot in food retailing today. Sales hit $127 billion last year, climbing 15 percent from 2014 to 2016, while total retail food sales grew 2.3 percent, according to the Specialty Food Association’s ...

4D Printing: How Self-Assembly Materials Will Impact the Food Industry

If I had to pick one MIT team to shadow for the day, I’d probably follow Skylar Tibbits, co-director of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, TED fellow and speaker at this year’s Global Sustainability Summit August 9 – 11 in Nashville, TN....

The New Food Safety Testing Gold Standard: Whole Genome Sequencing

While the Food Safety Modernization Act of 2011 (FSMA) has updated U.S. food safety regulations, an emerging technology, known as whole genome sequencing (WGS), is revolutionizing outbreak investigations to more rapidly identify and prevent ...

Food Defense Superheroes: Suppliers and Food Processors to the Rescue

Arguably, there’s no greater hero to a company in the midst of a disaster or terrorist threat than those who are prepared to handle an emergency and shield your company’s assets from danger. ...

Are you Prepared for FSVP Compliance? Compliance begins May 30

The first compliance dates for FDA’s FSMA rule on Foreign Supplier Verification Programs (FSVP) for importers of food for humans or animals begin May 30, 2017. The FSVP rule requires importers who are covered by the rule to have risk-based programs ...

Drive Assurances and Efficiencies from Farm to Table

I joined attendees from various industries last week at the U.S. Chamber Technology Engagement Center (C_TEC) and its new TecExec Series discussing the role of technology in agriculture, retail and the grocery industry....

Breaking Barriers in Supply Chain Optimization

One of the biggest challenges for supply chain leaders remains, “How does the food retail industry enhance operational efficiencies?”...

Insightful Strategies for the Supply Chain

In the world of supply chain operations, the food retail industry continues to struggle with reducing the amount of unsaleable products. In the coming years, there’s no question implications from e-commerce will continue to accelerate across the ...

How Do You Trace Imported Produce?

For the supply chain, the pressure to meet consumer demand for high quality produce that contains product information that’s transparent and traceable coincides with new regulations and legislation that drive food safety decisions for retailers. ...

Are You Ready For the Digital Food Shopper?

When was the last time you purchased a hardcover book? How about a magazine? How many of your adult children have a newspaper delivered to their home every day of the week? Did you do most of your holiday shopping this year in a department store or ...

Are you prepared for Supply Chain Regulations?

Food retailers cannot ignore the rising pressure to keep track of these new rules and regulations that are constantly being rolled out and implemented. At the 2017 Supply Chain Conference, there will be several sessions discussing a number of ...

Approaching the Future of Food, Fashionably

I’ve always posited that food should be more like fashion. Similar to the latest trends in lapels and color palettes, consumers’ palates are attuned to what’s hot in the food world. Consumers may be willing to experiment with new foods and flavors, ...