by Kevin Payne | Jul 17, 2018 | Freshness Management
Proactive planning in the fresh food supply chain has a lot of similarities to playing football. In a matter of weeks, football season will be upon us; players will begin drills, running routes and studying the playbook. You’ll see multiple key elements to every play: offense, defense and the clock. Racing against the clock, the offense aims to be proactive and move the ball downfield while the defense tries to stop them from accomplishing their goals. What are some of the valuable lessons football offer those of us in the fresh...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jul 10, 2018 | Freshness Management
What is freshness capacity for produce and what do cell phones have to do with it? You look at your cell phone and the battery indicator says it’s about half-charged. How long will the battery last? An hour? A day? You don’t know because it all depends on how the phone is being used. The average cell phone battery charge will last a single day, given normal use. But what about fresh produce? If you’re just texting, the battery might last the rest of the day. If you’re watching videos or playing a compute-intensive game, it might...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jul 3, 2018 | Freshness Management
If you’re in my age group, this week’s blog title may take you back to the Fleetwood Mac song from their iconic Rumours album and you may wonder what it has to do with poor quality produce. Well, I’m not going back to 1977 and I’m also not going back to a particular grocery store. Why? Because the produce I purchased there was horrible. Poor Quality Produce: My Shopping Experience I had just returned from the United Fresh conference in Chicago and needed to make a quick stop for produce to get me through the rest of the week. On my...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 26, 2018 | Supply Chain
When it comes to monitoring your supply chain performance, it’s a good idea to work with someone that has independence – meaning they don’t benefit based on the result. Just as you wouldn’t trust the fox to keep an accurate count of hens in the hen house, you should find an objective, third party to monitor your product performance through the supply chain. The Value of Independence For example, consider advertising rates on television. Let’s say a fast food restaurant wants to advertise their new double bacon chili cheeseburger...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 19, 2018 | Freshness Management
No, I’m not talking about something a character from a 1970s TV show might have said. I’m talking about that feeling when you open your refrigerator in the morning to grab berries for breakfast and are greeted by raspberries that are growing beards and turning to mush. Premature food spoilage. How frustrating. No fruit for breakfast, and a $5 clamshell of raspberries is now going in the trash. More food waste. Premature Food Spoilage – Why Does it Happen? I’ll bet you’ve had this experience at least once. But have you wondered...Continue Reading...
by Dan Scalco | Jun 12, 2018 | Food Delivery
With so many meal delivery services available today, one of the commonly asked questions from customers is, “How do my meals stay fresh and safe in transit?” Many customers are concerned about the condition their pre-made dishes or raw ingredients will be in when they’ve arrived at their home. And they have a good reason to be worried about that. Spoiled food can not only ruin the meal kit experience, it can turn off customers entirely from a meal delivery service. So how can you ensure the meals you’re delivering stay fresh and...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | Jun 5, 2018 | Freshness Management
It’s June, and not only is the weather heating up, so is produce season! Fresh fruits and produce abound and retailers’ shelves overflow with nature’s bounty. Yet, on any given day it may be very hard for growers, processors, shippers and grocers to “Stay Cool.” For growers and processors, every day brings fresh challenges related to labor, weather, equipment and the progress of the crops themselves – they often have too much to harvest or not enough. Shippers and logistics providers struggle to find drivers with enough hours to...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 29, 2018 | Freshness Management
Have you ever noticed how people sometimes keep doing things over and over even though the results keep turning out badly? For me, a good example would be home repairs. Whether trying to replace a faucet, change a light switch or install a security camera, you can count on me to break something, use the wrong part, lose one of the screws, etc. Yet, for years I continued to give it my best shot. This only served to frustrate me, irritate my wife and teach my kids the proper use of profanity. After years of poor outcomes, I finally...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 22, 2018 | Freshness Management
When it comes to the freshness of bagged salads, vegetables or meal kits, you need to ask, “What’s in the bag?” Many bagged salads or meal packages will have a “Use By” date but these dates are only guidelines and aren’t reliable or accurate. Why? Not all product harvested on the same day – even from the same field – will have the same freshness or remaining shelf-life. Variations in harvest conditions and processing can cause significant differences in shelf-life meaning the “Use By” date is only an estimate and can vary from the...Continue Reading...
by Kevin Payne | May 15, 2018 | Freshness Management
Have you had the experience where a friend (or child) comes to you in a panic with a problem and asks for your help and immediately jumps to the end of the story? Our typical response is “Wait, let’s start at the beginning” because we require the details of what happened to understand what is causing the problem before we can help them solve it. The problem of shrink or waste in the fresh food supply chain is similar. You need to start at the beginning of the supply chain to understand when and where the cause of shrink – when food...Continue Reading...
