by Kevin Payne | Jun 25, 2019 | Digital Transformation
The agriculture technology industry – more commonly known as AgTech – is ripe for accelerated growth. Over the past few years we’ve seen widespread adoption of technologies such as pre-harvest sensors for monitoring irrigation, fertilization and weed abatement, and drones that provide farmers greater remote crop visibility. There’s also been a lot of investment in “last mile” technologies as food moves from the supplier to the retailer and consumer. But what about what’s in between, that space between harvest and delivering fresh...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 18, 2019 | Sustainability
What are the impacts of sustainability on the supply chain? How do things like hurricanes and flooding impact the production and distribution of fresh food? Does climate change play a role? How does food waste contribute to the environmental problems? I think that, intuitively, we know the answers to these questions, but do we know how much of a role food waste plays and climate change’s impacts and trends over time? Sustainability: The Impact of Weather on the Supply Chain At a recent meeting of the Cold Chain Council, an...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 10, 2019 | Freshness Management, Retail Grocery
Shelf-life variability can have a significant impact on customer satisfaction and loyalty to a grocery store. According to the Food Marketing Institute, the number one reason a shopper chooses a grocery store is because of “high quality fruits and vegetables” with 80 percent of people rating this as their primary motivation. Too many customers, however, have had the unfortunate experience of purchasing produce that looks good on the store shelf only to have it “go bad” at home shortly after they purchase it and before they consume...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 4, 2019 | Food Safety, Food Waste, Freshness Management
On May 23, 2019, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a letter urging industry-wide adoption of a “Best If Used By” date. The letter seeks to simplify what has for years been a somewhat random system of various dates printed on foods that generally confused consumers and led to waste because consumers – often incorrectly – threw out food because of a printed date, even if the food was still safe to eat. It’s interesting to note that there is only one category of foods that require date labeling: infant formula. For...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 28, 2019 | Good Causes, Sustainability
Today, May 28, is World Hunger Day 2019, an initiative by The Hunger Project. According to their website: More than 821 million people do not have enough food to eat. 60 percent of the world’s hungry are women. 98 percent of the world’s undernourished live in developing countries. Hunger kills more than Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis combined. The Hunger Project is focused on solving a number of issues associated with food. Their view, according to their website, is that: Hunger is not just about food. Hunger and poverty are...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 21, 2019 | Retail Grocery
The grocery shopping experience continues to evolve. More than one third of U.S. grocery shoppers are now shopping online, according to Coresight Research. In their U.S. Online Grocery Survey 2019 that was recently referenced in The Supermarket News, 36.8 percent of those polled bought groceries online over the past year. This is up 23.1 percent from the previous year. They figure that this represents about 93 million online grocery purchasers, a gain of nearly 35 million from 2018. However, their research also showed that only 39.5...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 14, 2019 | Food Safety, Supply Chain
Recently, I saw the Produce Marketing Association’s Dr. Bob Whitaker present on food safety and the supply chain. Dr. Bob, as he’s affectionately known, was the opening keynote speaker at the Salinas AgTech Summit in March and also the closing keynote speaker at this month’s PMA TechKnowledge conference. At both events, his message was about the need to rethink how we, as an industry, address food safety challenges and the supply chain. For me to summarize his presentations would be challenging as they were quite comprehensive and...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 7, 2019 | Blockchain
When it comes to implementing blockchain for fresh food supply chains, has reality set in? Back in late 2017, blockchain was seen as a messiah, of sorts, for food safety and traceability. It seemed like it was hard to go a day without seeing an article in the press about this. Blockchain was going to solve all of our supply chain problems for freshness, traceability and food safety. Has it? Gartner’s Opinion Last year, in August of 2018, Gartner, the internationally recognized analyst firm, in its Hype Cycle for Emerging...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Apr 30, 2019 | Sustainability
Last Monday was Earth Day 2019 and today marks the conclusion of Earth Month. The first Earth Day was back in 1970. 49 years later, we should probably ask ourselves how much progress has been made? Cause to Celebrate According to a recent article about Earth Day in Supermarket News, of late, there has been some good news to celebrate, including: Aldi announced that by 2025, 100% of their packaging, including plastic packaging, will be reusable, recyclable or compostable. Aldi will also reduce packaging material across its entire...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Apr 23, 2019 | Freshness Management
Cold supply chain variability is, oddly, a constant. And, the impact of delays and other variables on freshness and quality can be significant. Politics aside, this issue has been highlighted of late due to delays of getting trucks across the border from Mexico into the USA. According to an article in Fresh Fruit Portal “Producers of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries have on average experienced a 20% drop in sales as the extended wait times crossing into the U.S. have resulted in reduced shelf life for the...Continue Reading...
