Food For Thought

Want to Improve Your Supply Chain Issues? Focus On your Workforce Strategies

With us on the podcast today is Jen D’Angelo, Vice President at Catena Solutions. 
Today’s episode is packed with useful tips for food and beverage processors. Whether you work in HR, the lab, or even the plant floor, you’ll want to listen in as Jen walks us through some easy-to-implement tips and tools for attracting recruits of all ages to your company. Recruitment is only half the battle; Jen also offers guidance on retention strategies for keeping the employees you already have. And, of course, we talk about how all of this plays in to your supply chain. 
Follow along with with the timestamps for this episode by visiting our website

Innovation & Information: A Conversation with Andy Hanacek

We sat down and talked with Food Processing’s newest addition: Senior Editor Andy Hanacek.
Andy’s fairly well known in the food and beverage industry, and we kick off the episode talking about that and so much more. We cover a lot of ground, including how Andy’s been helping to inform an industry that combats misconceptions and misinformation on daily basis. 
Having covered the food and beverage industry for nearly 20 years, Andy talks about what he’s seen manufacturers do really well in the last two decades – and a few areas for improvement for the industry as a whole.  We cap things off talking about a few of the issues this veteran industry reporter is keeping a close eye on in 2023. 
Follow along with the timestamps for this episode by visiting our website. 
Read Andy’s March cover story on automation in the food industry, The Food Plant of the Future: Feeding More with Less
Read Andy’s article on Meat & Poultry in the Post-Pandemic era, What Removing the COVID Emergency Label Means for Meat & Poultry
Want to get in touch with Andy?Send him an email 

2023 Food Industry Forecast: Disinflation with a side of Agile?

With us on the podcast today is Gary Nowacki, CEO of TraceGains. We’re talking about what food and beverage processors might expect this year in terms of ingredient costs and supply availability. We launch into a discussion about inflation – and disinflation – and how both will play a part in the business strategies of many top food companies. As we attempt to make predictions about the coming year, one thing is certain: expect the unexpected. 
The unexpected plays a big part in the second half of our conversation, where we talk about how CPG manufacturers have pivoted in the last few years and that many are learning to embrace and build a more agile supply chain. We chat a bit about how food and beverage companies seem to be establishing better partnerships with their employees through benefits and long term needs before digging in to a conversation about co-manufacturing and how brand owners and co-mans are collaborating to bring new products to market. 
Learn more about the podcast and see the timestamps for this episode on our website

How Mentorship is Helping Hershey Find the Next Generation of CEOs

With us on the podcast today is Marlene Creighton, Chief Sales Officer at Hershey. We’re talking about Hershey’s Future CEO program, which brings together 10 young women and girls from around the globe for a day of learning and mentorship. We talk about why this program is so important to Hershey and how it’s helping to make an impact on the next generation. We discuss the importance of mentorship and ‘reverse mentorship’ not only for the girls involved in the program, but also for the company as well. 
Hershey, which was named Food Processing’s 2022 Processor of the Year, is a household name for many American consumers, and Marlene walks us through how programs like Future CEO help the company better understand – and listen – to its consumers. We talk about Gen Z’s importance to the brand before shifting to a discussion about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at Hershey. 
We cap things off talking about why diversity and representation are so fundamentally important not only to the company’s hiring and recruitment but also with its suppliers as well.  
Head to our website for the timestamps for this episode. 
Do you know an Influential Woman in the Food Industry?Nominations are now open for our 2023 Influential Women in Food awards. Head to our website to learn more about the awards and to submit your nomination for our 2023 awards. Visit the website

How Rich Products is Feeding the Talent Pipeline for the Food & Beverage Industry

Today we’re talking with Jamie McKeon, Senior Vice President of Demand Creation at Rich Products. Jamie’s here to talk to us about how Rich Products is working with a local university to help find, encourage, and recruit the next generation of the food and beverage marketers.  
We touch on the trends and observations the team has seen with the newest generation of the workforce as well as what Rich Products has learned about itself in the process. We also talk about advice for other companies that may want to explore similar options with their local schools and universities.  
Head to our website for the timestamps for this episode. 
Do you know an Influential Woman in the Food Industry?Nominations are now open for our 2023 Influential Women in Food awards.  Head to our website to learn more about the awards and to submit your nomination for our 2023 awards. Visit the website
 

Inflation’s Big Impact on Small Food & Beverage Companies

Joining us today is Maria Pearman, Principal and Beverage Practice Leader, at GHJ. Maria is what you would call a ‘Contract CFO.’ She helps companies that are moving from their startup and emerging phases and gets them over the hurdles so they can reach their more mature stage of growth. How she helps them with these growing pains is something we dive into at the start of the episode.
We then spend a lot of time talking about the big issues facing small food companies right now, in particular how to deal with the squeezed margins and increased costs due to inflation. Maria offers advice on how processors can mitigate some of their losses, especially as it relates to supply chain issues. 
We cap things off talking about what companies can do to help themselves out financially, with special attention paid to the relationships that can be cultivated or improved upon to help with loans or other financial resources. 
Learn more about this episode 

Food Safety And Consumer Trust

In this episode, Maggie Slowik, Global Industry Director for Manufacturing at IFS, walks us through how food safety and consumer trust are related. We talk about what trends she’s seeing as well as what’s at stake if a manufacturer doesn’t have good end-to-end quality management practices in place. We then spend some time talking about how food safety and traceability can lend themselves as opportunities for competitive differentiation. We dig into the current consumer mindset while also talking about the best practices of several food companies that have married transparency with consumer trust. 
We end the episode with a discussion about technology’s role in all of this and how IFS can help processors remain compliant with regulatory requirements while also building that customer trust. 
Read the transcript on the Food Processing website
This Episode is Sponsored by IFS

Influential Women in Food: Alexis Bertrand, Reid’s Dairy Company

For our seventh and final episode of the Influential Women in Food series, we’re turning our attention to Alexis Bertrand, Quality Assurance Supervisor at Reid’s Dairy Company. 
A great listener. A teacher. A champion of women she works with. all are phrases that could be used to describe Alexis. A forensic science student in college, Alexis went on after graduation to become a microbiology technician at Reid Dairy. As her career evolved, so too did her inclination to uplift the women around her. Not only has she been a key figure in bringing more women onto the production floor, but she’s also teaching a whole new generation of women at her local college on why they should consider a career in bioscience. 
But science isn’t the only things she’s teaching the future workforce, she’s also helping them grow their confidence and find their voice. We talk about all of that and whole lot more in this episode of the podcast. 
Catch up with each of our Influential Women in Food on the Food Processing website 

A Case Study In Remote Alarm Notification Software

WIN-911’s Cody Bann talks with us about how companies can not only improve their cyber security, but also mitigate their risks for cyber-attacks. We have a conversation about how tools like remote alarm notification software can help reduce cyber-attacks in processing facilities.
We’re then joined by Ozarka’s Trey Mixon, who explains how this Blue Triton brand out of Texas is using WIN-911’s remote monitoring tool and why it’s critical for them in keeping up with their real-time and long-term monitoring data. Trey offers an example of an emergency that was averted because of the Remote Alarm Software before explaining the advantages the software provides him and his team when they’re not on site.
Read the transcript and learn more about WIN-911
This episode is sponsored by WIN-911

Influential Women in Food: Jennifer Stojkovic, Vegan Women Summit

If you’re discouraged or frustrated by the disparity between how men and women are represented in the food and beverage industry, then this is a can’t-miss episode. This week, we’re talking with Jennifer Stojkovic, founder and creator of the Vegan Women Summit and the author of The Future of Food Is Female: Reinventing the Food System to Save the Planet.
We pack a lot of great information into this episode, from talking about how Jennifer got started to why she launched the Vegan Women Summit and penned The Future of Food Is Female.
Amid the conversation about the importance of diversity and inclusion in our boardrooms, we touch on the widening gap between who gets funding in new food and beverage ventures, and who does not. We talk about why representation matters and how things like the baby formula shortage would’ve likely been prevented had there been more diversity in the rooms where decisions were being made.  
We also spend some time talking about why the Vegan Women Summit is important, not only to the plant-based and animal-free food sector, but to the many product and networking opportunities that exist because of it. And like every one of our Influential Women in Food episodes, we end talking about the advice Jennifer would give and has received throughout her career.
Follow along in this episode through the topics timestamped below
Introduction & The Vegan Women Summit: 2:57
Following an Atypical Path 4:35
Raising Awareness About Venture Capital Bias 6:44
Advocating For Increased Diversity And Representation 14:42
About The Future of Food Is Female 19:18
Not Tokenizing Women 21:22
Advice Received at the Start of Career That is Still Used Today 24:21
Advice for Those Coming into the Food and Beverage Industry 26:49