Fresh is turning food retail on its head. Competing for business share? It’s the ultimate disruptive category.
FMI FreshForward, developed in collaboration with Deloitte, is an exclusive, senior executive thought-leadership event—we tackle the future of fresh at retail, generating new ideas and actionable next steps.
Better serve fresh consumers by understanding influential factors—from multicultural shopper motivations to convenience drivers.
We'll dive into data analytics and demographics driving fresh experiences.
Increasingly complex, our fresh supply chain needs improvement, including real-time visibility impacting freshness and safety.
We’ll cover automation, on-time delivery, forecasting, and new trading partner collaborations integral to cost efficiency.
Future vitality requires revisiting sustainability and plastics, hinging on improved operations and consumer expectations.
We’ll tackle immediate and long-term planning—from sustainability and food waste to packaging.
The fresh food industry is on the cusp of transformative change, faced with policy and business choices that will carry more consequential impact than anything we’ve seen in the past decade. As scale tends to be less of an advantage in fresh categories like produce, meat, and dairy, many of these policies and business decisions tend to be reactionary and driven by short-term thinking. FMI has the exciting opportunity to help remove barriers and establish a unified voice with a stronger, positive influence on regulatory policy and ultimately the future of our industry. Foreword from Barb Renner, Vice Chairman and US Consumer Products Leader, Deloitte
The entire industry needs to come together to boost the success of fresh foods strategies. Senior leaders need to engage with each other to help navigate disruption and create the next generation of fresh foods opportunities.
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Technology can be a game changer in fresh foods because it brings new solutions to longstanding problems. These include challenges related to inventory, waste, freshness, and food safety.
Achieving fresh foods safety can sometimes feel like a game of whack-a-mole. That’s because retailers and suppliers are often forced to react to food safety ongoing outbreaks and recalls.
Sustainability is a topic of growing importance to consumers, and it needs to be prioritized by leaders in the fresh foods industry. However, this is easier said than done.
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We're looking forward to the lively discussion at FreshForward 2019 on:
Perhaps you have a few questions about these yourself? Submit a question below and we'll sort through them and post selected answers!
John Ruane, Chief Merchandising Officer Giant Food Stores, LLC Question We’ve been hearing more about the use of traceability technologies that may boost food safety, such as blockchain. What role does technology play in enhancing fresh food safety? John's Answer Technology is a very important component to advancing food safety, but there’s no silver bullet. While traceability technologies, such as blockchain, can play a fundamental role in enhancing food safety programs, advancing the overall food safety system requires improved supply chain collaboration, more consistent data-capturing procedures, and engagement with government officials. The best solution when it comes to fresh food safety is prevention of contamination throughout the entire supply chain.
Terry Murphy, Group Vice President, Fresh Wakefern Food Corp. Question The industry is hoping that ‘smart’ packaging will help reduce loss by extending the shelf-life of food. Is there concern that this might conflict with other retailer initiatives, such as reducing the use of plastic packaging? Terry's Answer Retailers are embracing sustainability and adopting practices to reduce the use of plastics and combat food waste. The use of smart packaging has a lot of promise to help achieve that goal. With smart packaging, the functionality of packaging expands beyond protecting and preserving the contents of a product. Smart packaging is packaging that monitors and provides information about the condition of a product, which has the potential to enhance the consumer perceptions on the freshness and quality of products. With any change, there is always the potential for unintended consequences; therefore, it is critical for supply chain partners to actively work together when adopting new strategies and programs for reducing waste.
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