Gourmet News

‘Delivering Food in Turbulent Times’ Global Food Safety Forum Set in Atlanta

Published February 22, 2023

The Global Food Safety Initiative, part of The Consumer Goods Forum, announces its 22nd Annual Conference, “Delivering Food in Turbulent Times: The Need for Agility & Resilience.” The three-day conference will take place at the Westin Peachtree Plaza in Atlanta from April 24-27.

The GFSI annual conference, in partnership with industry organizations, is the meeting place for decision-makers from across the public and private supply chain to share knowledge, strengthen their networks and do business.

Following last year’s in-person reunion in Barcelona, this year’s global event will host more than 600 food industry leaders from over 50 countries. 2022 attendees included household brands such as The Coca-Cola Company, Dole Food Company, General Mills, Mondelez International, Pick N Pay, The Kroger Co. and Walmart.

“After last year’s successful return to an in-person GFSI Annual Conference, we’re excited to see what this year’s event will bring,” says Erica Sheward, director of the Global Food Safety Initiative. “Though the initial uncertainties and struggles of the early pandemic have since fallen away, we still face unprecedented global challenges that affect the food and ingredient supply chain.

“As such, it’s more important than ever that industry experts and leaders across all sectors and verticals come together to discuss the best way forward. We’re glad to be the group fostering these conversations and fueling the future of the industry.”

The conference program will feature a group of hand-picked speakers, including CEOs, public authorities, renowned experts and academics, industry leaders, innovators and grassroots players. Attendees can select from sessions across three tracks – Benchmarking and Harmonization, Capability Building, and Public-Private Partnerships Collaboration. Sessions will center around food safety and the unprecedented times we face today because of economic uncertainty, climate change, geopolitical crisis and the disruption in food supply chains which have significantly impacted access to safe and secure food across the globe.

For more information about the conference and to register, visit https://mygfsi.com/events/gfsi-conference/register/. To request sponsorship info, brands can contact sponsorship@theconsumergoodsforum.com. For practical info, including COVID-19 requirements, travel and lodging details, and dress code, visit https://mygfsi.com/events/gfsi-conference/practical-info/.

The Consumer Goods Forum is a global, parity-based industry network that is driven by its members to encourage the global adoption of practices and standards that serves the consumer goods industry worldwide. It brings together the CEOs and senior management of some 400 retailers, manufacturers, service providers, and other stakeholders across 70 countries, and it reflects the diversity of the industry in geography, size, product category and format.

Its member companies have combined sales of EUR 3.5 trillion and directly employ nearly 10 million people, with a further 90 million related jobs estimated along the value chain. It is governed by its Board of Directors, which comprises more than 55 manufacturer and retailer CEOs.

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$59M Investment to Strengthen Food Supply Chain, Rural Economies

Published February 21, 2023

The Biden-Harris Administration is investing $59 million across the country to increase independent meat and poultry processing capacity, expand market opportunities for farmers and create jobs in rural areas.

The investments support the Biden-Harris Administration’s Action Plan for a Fairer, More Competitive, and More Resilient Meat and Poultry Supply Chain, which dedicates resources to expand independent processing capacity. As President Biden has highlighted, creating fairer markets and more opportunities for family farmers helps bring down prices at the grocery store.

“For too long, American farmers and ranchers have been asked to produce more to meet increasing demand across the country and around the world, while they and the rural communities they come from have struggled to see their fair share of the benefits,” U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said.

“The Biden-Harris Administration and USDA are taking action to advance a sustainable vision of agriculture that prioritizes the needs of our resilient producers and small businesses, strengthens our food supply chain and brings value back to rural people and places. Through investments like those I’m announcing today, USDA will continue to work tirelessly to give farmers and ranchers a fair chance to compete in the marketplace, which in turn helps lower food costs for the American people.”

Vilsack announced the new investments while touring a processing facility in Harrisonburg, Va., that will be expanded with the funding. Vilsack and Deputy Secretary Jewel Bronaugh visited with local producers and members of the community to discuss the importance of these investments to the region’s economy.

USDA is providing the $59 million in grants to five independent processors under the Meat and Poultry Processing Expansion Program. The funding will help build new processing plants, create hundreds of jobs, give local producers and entrepreneurs more options and business opportunities, and give consumers more options at the grocery store.

In Virginia, Shenandoah Valley Organic LLC is receiving a $3.6 million grant to expand its organic chicken processing facility in Harrisonburg to meet increasing demand. The grant will be used for equipment purchases, new conveyor lines, building and site modifications, and a new wastewater treatment system. The improvements will help the facility alleviate processing bottlenecks and nearly double its processing capacity to 630,000 birds per week. These investments will create 300 jobs and enable Shenandoah Valley to provide more processing options and choices for customers.

In Idaho, Riverbend Meats LLC is receiving a $25 million grant to help build an environmentally friendly beef processing plant in Idaho Falls. The funding also will be used for custom equipment and installation of nine miles of mainline gas pipe. The project is expected to double the plant’s capacity from 300 head per day to 600, increasing the price ranchers receive for their cattle and lowering costs for consumers.

In South Dakota, CNF Enterprises LLC is receiving a $3.3 million grant to help build a 30,000-square-foot processing facility in New Underwood. The facility will have the capacity to process 4,000 head per year, including beef, pork, lamb and buffalo. CNF Enterprises is a new company that was formed to help meet the increasing demand for high-quality, locally sourced meat products.
Through the American Rescue Plan, the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and the Inflation Reduction Act, the Biden-Harris Administration has made once-in-a-generation investments in rural America. These investments have provided USDA with an unprecedented amount of resources to invest in rural communities and transform our food system.

In November, USDA awarded $75 million to 22 projects under MPPEP. In January, USDA awarded an additional $12 million to three more MPPEP projects. The program is one of many actions that USDA is taking to expand processing capacity, create more revenue streams and market opportunities for producers, and transform the nation’s food system.

Additional information on all these programs is available at www.usda.gov/meat.

Under the Biden-Harris Administration, Rural Development provides loans, grants and loan guarantees to help expand economic opportunities, create jobs and improve the quality of life for millions of Americans in rural areas. This assistance supports infrastructure improvements; business development; housing; community facilities such as schools, public safety and health care; and high-speed internet access in rural, Tribal and high-poverty areas. For more information, visit www.rd.usda.gov.

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Americans Think Grocery Store Profits, Inflation Higher than Reality

Published February 20, 2023

Americans believe that grocery store profits are at a 35.2 percent net profit margin, 14 times higher than grocers’ actual net profit margin average of 2.5 percent, and that food-at-home inflation is 24.3 percent, double the annual rate reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics according to the latest dunnhumby Consumer Trends Tracker. The CTT is part of the dunnhumby Quarterly, a strategic market analysis of key retail themes, with the third edition being focused on navigating uncertainty.

n the third wave of the CTT, dunnhumby also found that despite perceived inflation reaching a new high, customers are coping a little better compared to the last wave of the report. Consumers who reported they would have difficulty covering an unexpected expense of $400 dropped from 64 peercent in July to 60 percent in November 2022. In addition, 48% of consumers reported they are getting the kind of food they want to eat compared to 43 percent in the second wave.

“In this latest wave of our CTT study, we found that retailers are in a precarious position with their brand perception, since customers are vastly over-estimating grocers’ store profit margins and inflation rates, while they themselves are battling food prices,” said Matt O’Grady, president of the Americas, dunnhumby. “Retailers need to show they are empathetic to customers through their prices, their rewards/loyalty offers, and with messaging to best support shoppers during these challenging financial times.”

Key findings from the study:

Inflation worries are driving customer sentiment. When consumers were asked as part of the survey, why customer sentiment is the lowest it has been in 50 years, consumers responded by a five to one margin that inflation was the cause, with covid coming in a distant second. When asked about 2023, only 22 percent of respondents predicted inflation and the state of the country will get better. Forty-seven percent of respondents predicted inflation and the state of the country would improve three years from now. Over a five-year period, 54 percent of consumers are optimistic that their own finances and the state of the country will improve.
Younger shoppers are most optimistic, but only in the short term. For 2023, 31 percent of consumers aged 18-34, believe their finances and the state of the country will get better, compared to just 13 percent of consumers over 65. Over a three and five-year timeframe however, there were no significant differences by age.
Food insecurity remains a problem. Thirty-one percent of households reported they have skipped or reduced the size of a meal for financial reasons. Thirty-nine percent of respondents under the age of 44 have skipped or reduced meal sizes. And households with children at home are 8 percent more likely than adult-only households to have skipped or reduced meal sizes. Consumers living in Idaho, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, and West Virginia reported the highest numbers, where over 40 percent had skipped or reduced the size of a meal in the last year. Consumers living in Washington, Minnesota, Michigan, Massachusetts, and Maryland reported the lowest numbers, with approximately 20 percent having skipped or reduced the size of a meal in the last year.
While improving slightly, most consumers continue to struggle financially. No state is immune, but the states with the highest rate of financial insecurity (75 percent) are Oregon, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and West Virginia. The states with the lowest rates of financial insecurity (45 percent) are Minnesota, Wisconsin, Maryland and Delaware.
Consumers want easy to shop and more convenient eCommerce solutions. Eighty-one percent (up 4 percent) of consumers say easy to shop websites and apps are important to them and 78 percent (up 4 percent) want retailers to have more convenient delivery and pick up time slots. For consumers aged 55 and over, ease and convenience are even more important. In this age group, 84 percent say easy to shop websites and apps are important to them and 81 percent want convenient delivery/pick-up time slots available. Families are 16 percent more likely to interact with a store’s app and have a 10 percent greater need for the retailer to pick products as well as they would, compared to shoppers without children.
Consumers want retailers to help them make healthy choices. Forty-four percent of consumers reported it was very or extremely important for retailers to help them make healthy choices, an increase of 3 percent from the previous wave. In addition, 48 percent reported they choose healthy foods while shopping (up 2 percent), 40 percent read diet and nutrition information (up 2 percent) and 29 percent are buying products for a specific diet when they shop. The top five diets in the U.S. cited in the survey are 1) Keto, 2) Low carb, 3) Low sugar, 4) Vegetarian, and 5) Gluten free.

For this study, dunnhumby interviewed 6,012 consumers, representative of the U.S. grocery shopper nationwide. The online interviews for Wave 1 were conducted in April 2022, Wave 2 in July 2022, and Wave 3 in November 2022. Approximately 2000 individuals were interviewed for each Wave of the study.

The CTT study is designed to uncover shopper needs, perceptions and behavior over time, and to complement dunnhumby’s Retailer Preference Index which measures the strength of retailers’ customer value proposition. The dunnhumby Consumer Trends Tracker can be accessed today.

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