Food For Thought

Meeting Business Challenges with New Digital Technology

When it comes to digital transformation initiatives, have you ever wondered what the top food and beverage companies are doing? Here to help answer that question is Eric Campagna, Food & CPG Machine Health Lead for Augury. Join us as we talk about what’s working – and not working – for the top food and beverage processors as well as the importance of taking risks, particularly when it comes to digital transformation.
We talk about which digital transformation initiatives could provide the most impact as well as how manufacturers can address their current business challenges with new technologies.  
We wrap things up talking about machine health and how it can increase food and beverage manufacturer’s competitive advantage. 
Read the Transcript on the Food Processing website
Learn more about how Augury helps the food and beverage industry. Visit their website
This episode was sponsored by Augury

Is Lab-Grown Meat the Safer Option?

With us on the podcast today is Steven Burton, Founder and CEO of Icicle Technologies. Originally launched to help solve the problem of foodborne illness, Icicle now helps food companies execute their food safety plans.
In this episode, we get to the meat of the matter of lab-grown meat. We kick things off talking about why the notion of lab-grown meat and alternative proteins are growing in popularity as well as their impact on the meat industry.
We talk a bit about consumers’ perspectives of meat alternatives and the GMO-ification of it all before digging in to a discussion about both the advantages and drawbacks of lab-grown meat. We of course also talk about how safe lab-grown meat really is. We wrap things up talking about how Icicle Technologies is helping companies – including those in the lab-grown meat space – bring safer products to market.
Read the Full Transcript on the Food Processing website
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2022 Digital Food & Beverage Conference: Special Discount for Food For Thought ListenersBe sure to register for the 2022 Digital Food & Beverage event taking place July 25-26 in Austin, Texas to meet with fellow digital marketing and ecommerce professionals from the industry's most innovative companies. Use promo code DFB22FOOD at foodandbeverage.wbresearch.com for 25% off your pass!

ISO Class 0 Compressed Air: Is It Just Another Way of Saying “Oil-Free”?

On today’s special episode, we’re talking with Kaeser Compressors about ISO Class 0 Compressed Air.  Join us as we talk with Neil Mehltretter, Technical Director, and Werner Rauer, Product Manager, about what Class 0 Compressed air really is. 
We talk about what a Class 0 label really means as well as what guidelines and specifications there are for class zero air in food and beverage applications. We wrap things up talking about whether there are energy or other cost implications for higher levels of air quality. Enjoy the episode. 
Read the transcript on the Food Processing website.
This episode is sponsored by Kaeser Compressors

Why Food & Beverage Manufacturers Need an Advanced MRP

Are you feeling OK about the MRP in your ERP? If you’re feeling unsure, then listen in to this informative conversation we had with Plex Systems’ Ara Surenian about material requirements planning, especially as it relates to enterprise resource planning.
We kick things off talking about how supply chain planning can help with inventory lots as well as with labor issues. We then segue over to a discussion about risk management and wrap things up talking about what’s going on with the current packaging and material shortages and how Plex can help food and beverage processors plan for all of it. 
Read the transcript of this episode on the Food Processing website
Learn More About our Sponsor: Plex Systems at Plex.com
Enjoy the episode. 

VicinityFood Has The Recipe for Inventory Success

In this special bonus episode, we recently talked with Randy Smith, CEO and Founder of Vicinity Software about the supply chain and analytics and how the VicinityFood ERP system can help processors with predictive ordering and availability of ingredients.
We talk about a lot of topics that are important to food and beverage processors right now, such as reviewing vendor performance, understanding how changes in inventory costs will affect production, as well as what tracking and traceability information processors will need to have in place in the event of a recall.
Learn more about this episode's sponsor, Vicinity Food
Read the transcript of this episode

Meet The Company Helping Processors Bring Fresher, Cleaner Food To Market

In this episode of the Food For Thought podcast, we’re talking with Bill Besenhofer, CEO and Co-founder of The Fresh Factory. 
This vertically integrated company partners with food and beverage brands big and small to help them scale up production of ‘fresh’ and ‘clean’ food products. With a mission to accelerate the growth of plant-based foods, The Fresh Factory owns and partners with emerging brands in the plant-based space to develop, manufacture, and sell products made from fresh produce. 
In this episode, we talk not only about what The Fresh Factory is doing, but also the trends it’s seeing in the plant-based category. We also talk about how the Fresh Factory uses High Pressure Processing on its manufacturing lines. We wrap things up talking about the company’s most recent endeavor: Its Fresh Start accelerator program. 
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2022 Digital Food & Beverage Conference: Special Discount for Food For Thought ListenersBe sure to register for the 2022 Digital Food & Beverage event taking place July 25-26 in Austin, Texas to meet with fellow digital marketing and ecommerce professionals from the industry's most innovative companies. Use promo code DFB22FOOD at foodandbeverage.wbresearch.com for 25% off your pass!

The Impact of Compressed Air System Location on Uptime, Productivity and Equipment Longevity

With us on podcast today are Wayne Perry, Senior Technical Director at Kaeser Compressors and Neil Mehltretter, Technical Director at Kaeser Compressors. On today’s episode, we’re talking all about Compressed Air, but more specifically, how the location of your compressed air system impacts uptime, productivity, and equipment longevity. We kick things off talking about all of things to consider when deciding where to install your compressor. Both Wayne and Neil talk about the importance of ventilation, in particular how it impacts compressor performance.
We also talk about the necessary clearance needed around compressed air equipment as well as hearing about less than ideal compressor installs and how you, too, can avoid the same blunders. We cap things off talking about why you may want to consider a standalone enclosure for your compressor. 
Learn more about this episode's sponsor, Kaeser Compressors
Read the full transcript of this episode on the Food Processing website
Enjoy the episode

Getting Down to Business with FoodBusiness ERP

When it comes to your business, are you looking to streamline all of your management systems into one place? If so, you may want to consider an ERP system. Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) is an integrated management system that takes everything you need to run a company – from purchasing and sales information to things like inventory, distribution, finance, and even quality management – and puts them all in one system.
Here to talk more about ERPs is Jennifer Spanos, Vice President of Product and Vertical Strategy at NexTec Group and FoodBusiness ERP. In this special episode, Jennifer walks us through the ins and outs of ERPs why they are ultimately a single source of truth that allow you to manage the entire business from one place. We talk through the benefits of an ERP system and how it differs from something like QuickBooks as well as talking specifically about the FoodBusiness ERP product and how it can help with supply chain issues and risk mitigation.
Enjoy the Episode
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Read the full transcript on the Food Processing website
Learn more about this episode's sponsor, FoodBusiness ERP 

The Pandemic’s Impact on Food & Beverage Manufacturing, with IFS’ Maggie Slowik

In today’s episode, we’re continuing the conversation we started last November how the pandemic has changed the game for food and beverage manufacturers.
We kick things off talking about the pandemic’s ripple effect and lessons learned so far. We peel back a few more layers about how supply chain issues are continuing to affect food and beverage processors, with Maggie explaining the ‘Supply Shock’ and ‘Demand Shock’ the industry has experienced the last couple of years.
We dig a little deeper into the new competitive landscape for food and beverage manufacturers and how information-hungry consumers are helping to shape new product innovation.
We cap things off talking about supply chain disruption, labor issues, and the role of technology is playing in food and beverage companies’ digitally transformation journey, making sure to highlight how IFS's digital solutions are helping manufacturers across the globe each and every day. 
Learn more about IFS and their enterprise software solutions. 
Read the full transcript of this episode on the Food Processing website.
Enjoy the episode. 

Meet the Software that’s Combining AI and Product Development for CPG Companies

For anyone in Product Development and R&D at a food and beverage company, this episode is definitely for you. With us on the podcast today is Manmit Shrimali, co-founder and CEO of Turing Labs AI.
Founded in 2019, Turing Labs, which recently concluded $16.5 Million Dollars in Series A funding, has been helping Consumer Packaged Goods companies get new or improved products to market faster using their unique AI platform.  
Listen in to hear how Turing is helping some of the biggest names in CPG create or reformulate faster and more efficiently. Perfect for the post-COVID hybrid R&D Department, Manmit walks us through how the platform uses artificial intelligence to simulate working through different ingredient combinations to determine what works…and what doesn’t. You’ll definitely want to tune in to hear how this revolutionary platform is helping manufacturers take thousands of data points and turn them into formulation gold. 
Read the transcript of this episode on the Food Processing website