Industry Insights

Compared to a few years ago, food safety fears in China have surged among consumers. The 2008 melamine/infant formula scare that killed several and sickened approximately 300,000 has been a cornerstone for this growing concern. Chinese parents have taken to other methods to procure formula for their children since, including the following: importing of brands from outside of the country, smuggling, obtaining via the mail, and even as featured in the New York Times, instructing friends, family, and others to bring home formula back from their international vacations.

As one Chinese mother said

“Gluten-Free” might represent a new diet fad to some, but to those that suffer from celiac disease, the label is of the utmost importance. Celiac disease is a digestive condition that can reek havoc on sufferers’ daily lives if gluten finds a way into their diets. To ensure the safety of celiac sufferers, the FDA has stepped in to regulate gluten-free claims on food packaging.

According to an FDA News Release: “This new federal definition standardizes the meaning of ‘gluten-free’ claims across the food industry. It requires that, in order to use the term ‘gluten-free’ on its label, a food must meet all of the requirements of the definition, including that the food must contain less than 20 parts per million of gluten. The rule also requires foods with the claims ‘no gluten,’ ‘free of gluten,’ and ‘without

Kefir? If you are not familiar with the term, you might be soon. At an increasing number of retail outlets one can find this cultured product that is smooth, creamy, and able

There is no such thing as a “good” bag or “bad” bag. In cheese packaging, what matters is whether the bag works for your particular application.

• Prior to using a particular cheese bag on a regular basis, you should “qualify” the bag for your process. That means running a small number of bags on machinery under standard conditions. Ideally, technical experts from your bag vendor should be present during the trial run.

• Examine the package for an adequate, leak-proof seal. Put it through your standard storage and distribution process. Only then can you be confident that this particular bag works with your manufacturing process.

• If anything in your process changes, you should re-qualify your packaging material. In order to keep your cost as low as possible, packaging materials are usually designed with a very small margin of error. Even something as simple as a new sealing bar can be reason

It’s the beginning of a new year, and most Americans welcomed 2013 with resolutions, contemplations and a glass of bubbly. The food processing industry, however, has its own way of welcoming a new year---with an abundance of research-driven food trend predictions. Forecasting what will be in our refrigerators and on our plates is crucial to our customers’ success. But it’s also critical to our success as a distributor to those food processors. Anticipating customer needs and understanding the end consumer makes us a more responsive, solution-oriented channel-partner---thereby cementing our value as an integral part of the supply chain. Interpreting these trends also helps our company to grow by discerning which customers and industry segments may be poised for growth.

Trade organizations, specialty publications, news outlets, consultants and even the United Nations (it’s the year of quinoa---haven’t you heard?!?) have taken stabs at predicting what