From the Cold Corner

Lauren Edmonds, newly elected president of the Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) joins Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa to discuss the RFA’s plans for the coming year, plus how the pandemic is still affecting the refrigerated foods industry through price hikes and shortages on ingredients, a shrinking labor pool, and more. They also discuss Edmonds’ company, St. Clair Foods, and their move to an automated production facility.

Mario DiFalco, VP of innovation and insights at Del Monte Foods, joins the Cold Corner with Austin Keating, multimedia specialist for Refrigerated & Frozen Foods, to discuss the brand’s Veggieful line of frozen foods, and in particular, their award-winning plant-based Pocket Pies.

Jeff Rumachik from the National Frozen & Refrigerated Foods Association (NFRA) joins the Cold Corner again with Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa to analyze the industry’s record year for frozen food sales due to the pandemic and housebound consumers. This coincides with Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ annual Top 150 Frozen Foods Processors Report, which was just published and can be found under The eMagazine tab at the top of R&FF’s website.

Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa checks in with Pablo Rivero, Fresh Del Monte’s VP of marketing for North America, about the company’s new produce processing plant in Gonzales, California, operated by Del Monte subsidiary, Mann Packing, and the sustainable initiatives incorporated in and around the facility. They also discuss Fresh Del Monte’s plans for the rest of 2021.

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa checks in Ryan Riddle, Senior R&D Specialist for Plant-Based Meal Solutions at Nestlé, about the company's Sweet Earth brand, which helped Nestlé grow its plant-based sales by nearly 40% this year. They also discuss why frozen and refrigerated plant-based foods are so popular today, which consumer markets are key targets for plant-based foods, how Nestlé incorporates its plant-based products into the brand’s freezer-aisle favorites like DiGiorno Pizza and Stouffer’s, plus much more.

The disruption caused by COVID-19 forced nearly every food distributor to rethink their supply chain. Derek Curtis of Körber examines four recent examples of how their clients adapted to the changes better than their competitors, and grew their market share as a result.

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Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa talks with Vincent Free, chairman of the Controlled Environment Building Association (CEBA) about how the organization helps bring together suppliers, sub-contractors, builders and more, to move the thermal envelope industry forward through education and networking. They also detail how trends in e-commerce and last-mile delivery are fueling a cold storage construction boom.

Hear from JLS President/CEO Craig Souser about the latest pick and place innovations in the refrigerated/ frozen foods industries and how the new JLS Peregrine™   is sure to change the game of sanitary carton loading.

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Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa sits down with Neil Russell, VP of corporate affairs at Sysco, to talk about the company's constantly evolving strategies to help foodservice customers pivot and survive during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also discuss how Sysco lent labor, inventory and truck capacity to grocery stores when the supply chain was thrown off balance due to consumer stockpiling, and how the company has worked tirelessly with food banks around the globe during the crisis, donating 30 million meals to date.

Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa discusses frozen foods' record retail sales and foodservice challenges due to COVID-19 with Alison Bodor, president and CEO of the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI). They also talk about AFFI’s efforts to protect workers along the cold chain during the crisis, changes in packaging to allow increased inventory and easier supply chain movement, and efforts to retain new frozen food customers after the pandemic.