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Torani Urges Rinse Water Savings, Announces Internal Program

In celebration of World Water Day, March 22, Torani, the nearly 100-year-old flavor company, announced its Rinse Water Savings Project, which has saved more than 25 percent on daily water usage. Since implementing its Rinse Water Savings Project in September 2022, Torani has saved over 3.5 million gallons of water in its manufacturing processes and expects to save a total of six million gallons in the first 12 months.

As a Certified B-Corp, Torani believes business can and should be a force for good that directly impacts its people, their community, and the planet.

With an ever-expanding line of over 150 flavored syrups and sauces in which water is a key ingredient, Torani is dependent on a steady supply of clean water and is committed to scaling its water savings initiative to make an even bigger impact in 2023 and beyond.

“At Torani, we’re committed to creating impactful work and meaningful learning, growth, and development opportunities for every team member,” said Melanie Dulbecco, CEO. “When we put our people first and give them the chance to shape their work, they can address big problems and make a real impact.”

The company’s engineering team has extensively reviewed Torani’s water consumption processes over the past two years at its “Flavor Factory” headquarters in San Leandro, Calif., and identified several different ways to reduce water usage every day.

“Our team came together and set an ambitious water savings goal; this became our north star and guides all of our decisions,” said Kimberly Ear, reliability engineer. “Our Rinse Water Savings Project has proven to have a positive impact on the environment, and we’re excited that it will be a launchpad for even greater water savings in the future.”

Ear leads the Rinse Water Savings Project team, made up of 11 team members from across the company. This aspiration for implementing water savings was driven by a team of seasoned engineers who have built beverage plants in all corners of the world.

“As one of the few remaining food and beverage manufacturers in the Bay Area, we push ourselves to be even more creative and use technology to solve big challenges,” said Dulbecco. “This project is just another example of how our team members can create opportunities for themselves while impacting our community and planet.”

Water sustainability was top of mind when Torani relocated from South San Francisco to its expansive new Flavor Factory headquarters in early 2020. Since the company “soft launched” the Rinse Water Savings Project in 2022, Torani has successfully replenished over 20,000 gallons of water every day, amounting to an estimated 25 percent savings in daily water usage.

The Rinse Water Savings Project captures and reuses rinse water, utilizing it as the first rinse when cleaning tanks before the manufacturing team begins making a new syrup. In addition, Ear and the team worked to remove redundant rinses, including scaling back on double rinses while ensuring the results exceeded industry standards. Through these new rinse water processes, Torani expects to reduce the amount of water used by over six million gallons annually.

In the coming years, Torani plans to widen its sustainability efforts as it works toward becoming more energy efficient. By the end of 2023, Torani’s Flavor Factory will have a solar-powered roof that will power the entire plant’s operations. Torani will also reoptimize its lighting system and investigate additional water-saving initiatives for its wastewater.

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UNFI Promotes Horvath to COO, Martin to Wholesale President

United Natural Foods, Inc. has promoted two senior leaders to better align leadership teams and resources to drive its customer-centric strategy and transformation agenda. This agenda is aimed at enhancing shareholder value creation by improving the company’s customer and supplier experience and increasing operating efficiency. Erin Horvath has been appointed to the position of chief operating officer and Louis Martin has been named president of wholesale.

UNFI recently outlined the core tenets of its four-part transformation program. Key initiatives of the plan will include network automation and optimization, commercial value creation, digital offering enhancement, and infrastructure unification and modernization.

Horvath and Martin will join company president, Chris Testa, who oversees UNFI’s Services platform, to leverage the combined knowledge of industry veterans and new leaders, and together form a team of operators with considerable experience with these types of capability improvement programs.

“This operational leadership team, made up of UNFI veterans and new leaders, is equipped to help us accelerate improvement in our customer and supplier experience, our operating efficiency, and digital and physical infrastructure,” said UNFI CEO Sandy Douglas. “With our transformation plan nearly complete and the realignment of our leadership teams in place, we are well positioned to become a unique value creator for our customers, suppliers, associates, and shareholders.”

Horvath will be responsible for driving project management underpinning the improvement plan, enhancing UNFI’s legacy integration and physical infrastructure, as well as ensuring successful implementation of the digital, technology, and automation initiatives. Chief supply chain officer, Mark Bushway, will report to Horvath and partner with her to drive improved process and standardization across the supply chain.

Horvath joined UNFI in October 2022 after more than 17 years in senior leadership roles with AmerisourceBergen Corporation, a global pharmaceutical wholesale company. She brings deep expertise in driving transformation initiatives in large scale wholesale distribution systems.

Martin joined UNFI in March 2022 and has been a key leader in the development of UNFI’s strategy and transformation agenda, as well as in spearheading the creation and early-stage development of the Company’s digital roadmap. Steve Dietz, chief customer officer, will report to Martin and continue to lead UNFI’s field sales and merchandising organizations with a renewed focus on UNFI’s growing regional and independently owned customers.

Before joining UNFI, Martin served for 15 years in a variety of senior leadership positions with The Coca-Cola Company, including overseeing the Global Walmart Customer team, where he built leading customer service capabilities. Martin is a seasoned leader who, as president of wholesale, will lead the evolution of UNFI’s customer-centric strategy by integrating national and regional customer organizations, revenue growth management, and the commercial planning teams.

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Spud Art: Try a New Easter Activity, Painting Easter Potatoes

Families love their tried-and-true Easter traditions, but sometimes, you just need to scramble things up. This year, due in part to skyrocketing food prices, Potatoes USA reports that families are hopping on the newest trend and painting Easter potatoes.

You heard that right: 2023 is the year of the Easter potato.

As it turns out, there are lots of upsides to brushing up on your spud art. In addition to being an affordable, nutritious pantry staple, potatoes are an excellent canvas for family activities.

“As a mom of two kids, I’m constantly looking for new activities. The idea of painting potatoes made me laugh, but honestly, it’s really fun,” said Marisa Stein, director of marketing at Potatoes USA. “My kids loved experimenting with different designs. It was silly and a great way to spend time with my family.”

Across the internet, families are giving their best tips for family-friendly crafting, featuring everyone’s favorite vegetable. Some use edible paint and water-based food coloring to dye their potatoes and eat them, too. Artists can give potatoes a food coloring bath for a lighter color or paint the food coloring directly on the spud for a vibrant alternative.

Other families are using traditional paint from their local craft store or dollar store to paint fun decorative potatoes to showcase their artistic accomplishments. Like with carving pumpkins at Halloween, the potato’s long shelf-life makes it an excellent opportunity to display fun showpieces in a friendly painting contest.

For the best results, here are a few tips for your Picasso potato:

Cover your workspace with newspapers or plastic tablecloths so you can embrace the painting process without worrying about the cleanup.

Gloves are a great way to keep little hands clean from food dye or paint.

If you’re using food coloring, painting the food coloring on will result in the most vibrant color. If you don’t want the color to rub off, and you’re fine keeping the potatoes purely decorative, a coat of hairspray can seal the color and keep the dye from bleeding.

If you use regular paint, a white primer coat will make the colors pop!

Make sure the painted potatoes have fully dried before you move them.

For an extra activity, parents can cut the potatoes in half and carve them to make Easter stamps! Once the adults have carved the pattern, kids can paint the potato stamps and use their creations to make fun Easter-themed paintings on paper.

As an added bonus, potatoes are a great option for scavenger hunts in the backyard. The Easter Bunny doesn’t have to worry about hiding their spuds a little too well, since anything the tater hunters miss is biodegradable. (Just be sure to keep dogs away, as raw potatoes can make them sick.)

Parents are loving potatoes for their Easter activities this year due to their affordable price points and lack of prep work. Potatoes work best as an artistic medium in their natural state, so no boiling or set-up is needed to make them canvas ready. Plus, they’re tough against falls and drops for younger (and mess-prone) artists.

“I’m thrilled to see so many families hopping aboard this new trend,” said Bonnie Johnson, R.D., director of nutrition and industry relations, Potatoes USA. “As a dietitian, I love seeing families embrace vegetables in creative ways. Making potatoes a fun part of your holiday will help children learn to love the spud – and all its incredible nutritional benefits.”

In addition to their more creative side, potatoes also shine as a nutritious pantry staple. Research published in The Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics found that potatoes have the highest score per dollar on eight important nutrients including potassium, fiber, protein, vitamins C and E, calcium, iron and magnesium. Potatoes also have a longer shelf life than many fresh vegetables.

Be sure to visit PotatoGoodness.com to learn more about the many health benefits of potatoes and find some delicious spring recipes.

If your Easter bunny hops on the #easterpotatoes trend this year, send us your photos! Tag @PotatoGoodness on Facebook or Instagram.

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