Food Processing’s Food For Thought Podcast

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

Influential Women in Food: Jona Hightower, LRQA

This episode is part five of our Influential Women in Food Series, where we’re honoring women that have effected change for their colleagues and peers in the food and beverage industry.
With us today is Jona Hightower, Senior Lead Assessor with LRQA. Jona is the epitome of an influential woman in the food industry. She describes herself as having a passion for teaching and sharing knowledge and it’s something she’s known about herself since elementary school.  That passion also shows up when she’s lending her expertise and counsel to the numerous women she works with.
We start things off talking about how Jona found herself in the role of an assessor. True to her knowledge-sharing self, she offers guidance on how one might enter the profession before we shift to talking about Jona’s passion for training and supporting those around her. We talk about the importance of defining what success looks like as well as how Jona has elevated numerous women by way of guiding them through learning plans and professional development initiatives. We dig into what drives Jona to offer the kind of support she does as well as how she's helped pave the way for other women in the food and beverage industry.
We dip our toes into a conversation about work/life balance before ending the episode talking about the advice Jona has received and would give to those entering the workforce. 
Follow along in this episode through the topics timestamped below
Introduction and Role 2:25
How She Got Started 3:14
Understanding the Role of an Auditor 5:00
How She’s Training and Supporting her Fellow Female Colleagues 6:18
What Drives Her To Help Women With Their Careers In Food Industry 11:28
Mentoring & Paving The Way For Other Women In The Food And
Beverage Industry 14:38
Work/Life Balance 16:27
Advice Received at the Start of Career That is Still Used Today 17:22
Advice for Those Coming into the Food and Beverage Industry 18:37

Influential Women in Food: Tara Paster Cammarata, Cenza, Inc

Today we’re talking with Tara Paster Cammarata, CEO and President, of Cenza, formerly known as Paster Training. We kick off our episode getting to know Tara, and how she turned a $500 gift 20 years ago into the multimillion dollar, privately-held training and consulting company it is today.
Tara walks us through how Cenza educates and trains processors on numerous topics relating to food safety and how her previous experiences in classrooms changed the way she approached helping the food industry make sure there were innovative approaches to food safety.
We talk about Tara’s mentors throughout her career as well as how working for bad bosses in the past shaped the kind of manager and leader she is today. We discuss other topics, such as her proactive approach to training as well as how she's helping and inspiring the women around her. We end the episode talking about the advice Tara has received throughout her career as well as advice she would give to women entering the food and beverage workforce. 
Follow along in this episode through the topics timestamped below
Introduction And How She’s Helping The Food Industry 2:00
How She Got Started: 4:24
Mentors In Her Life: 7:07
Proactive Approach To Training: 9:32
How She’s Helping Women In The Food And Beverage Industry 11:45
The Books She’s Published 15:05
Advice Received At The Start Of Career That Is Still Used Today 18:16
Advice For Those Coming Into The Food & Beverage Industry 20:35
Learn more about Cenza Inc. Visit the Instruis Publishing bookstore 

Influential Women in Food: Javon Nicholas, Egg Rolls Etc.

With us today is Javon Nicholas, creator, founder, and owner of Egg Rolls Etc.  Javon was named one of Food Processing’s 2022 Influential Women in Food, and for good reason. Her Chicago-based frozen food company, which specializes in comfort-filled egg rolls, is a lesson in love.   
Javon, who has always had insatiable love affair with all things food, knew from an early age that she wanted a career that would keep her close to what she loved. In this episode, Javon walks us through how losing her mother and a trip to Taiwan became the impetus for launching a series of food products both made with – and from – love. 
Throughout this episode, you’ll definitely understand why was named one of this year’s Influential Women in Food. From the advocacy work she does to help entrepreneurs learn how to build their businesses to the community work she does helping children understand how to be better, more culturally-sensitive humans, Javon truly is an influential woman in the food industry. We talk her children-focused What's Inside That Counts program as well as the advocacy work she does with numerous women’s business groups throughout Chicago area. We end the episode talking about the advice Javon has both received and would give women just entering the food and beverage workforce. 
Follow along in this episode through the topics timestamped belowIntroduction & role 2:31Career progression and falling in love with food 3:12 Working with the Community; Teaching others Entrepreneurship and Cultural Sensitivity 5:37The “It’s What Inside That Counts” Program 8:21Mentoring and helping Other Women in the Food Industry 11:13Advice received at the start of career that is still used today 13:36Advice for those coming into the food & beverage industry 14:58
Learn more about Influential Women in Food on FoodProcessing.com

Influential Women in Food: Ria Dake, Balchem

With us today is Ria Dake, Sr. Business Director, Balchem.
This self-described introvert has been described by others as a ‘Master of Connection.’ We dig in to that juxtaposition by first talking about Ria’s career evolution and how one mentor early on helped Ria with a decision that would change her career path forever. We talk about what it means to be a ‘Master of Connection’ and how Ria used her knack for networking to help build Balchem’s Women of Impact Network, a company-wide affinity program with more than 200 members spanning multiple sites and remote locations. 
Join us as Ria explains the how and the why behind the Balchem Women's Impact Network and what she’s learned about herself since co-founding the program in 2018. We talk about formal and informal mentorship, while capping things off with the advice Ria has received – and provided – throughout her career so far.