Quick service restaurants have always adopted new technologies. With the latest innovations, however, the industry is likely to move away from tactics like cashiers asking whether you want fries with your order to complex algorithms knowing that you do. Food Institute Focus
President Biden's West Coast ports plan might not solve the shipping crisis and could even push backlogs further down the supply chain. Gartner supply chain analyst Brian Whitlock said the plan could amount to a less than 1% change, and former U.S. trade negotiator Harry Broadman argued the plan did not address land-side transport issues, reported Fresh Fruit Portal. Full Story
Meanwhile, J.B. Hunt expects West Coast supply chain bottlenecks to intensify heading into the holiday season and extend into 2022. The company cited a shortage of truck drivers, rail workers, and warehouse employees as major drivers for the shipping delays, reported The Wall Street Journal. Full Story
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Chipotle recently added nutrition filters to its app and chipotle.com, a move that allows customers to create a tailored menu that saves options such as vegan, paleo, and gluten- and soy-free to their profiles. Experts believe the filters could hint at the “menu of the future.” Food Institute Focus
Lifted in part by inflation, grocery sales climbed 7.5% year over year in September, while retail and foodservice sales increased 13.9% over the same period despite concerns about COVID-19, supply chain disruptions and rising prices, reported Supermarket News. Full Story
Walmart has launched a beta test of Text to Shop in selected markets. With the solution, customers can send text messages naming products to add to their shopping list or virtual cart on the company’s website or mobile app. Full Story
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Union leaders are trying to increase their ranks and secure gains for members as employees demand more from employers. Starbucks, Deere & Co., Mondelez International, Amazon, and the Kellogg Co. are among the food industry companies that have contended with worker strikes in recent months, reported The Wall Street Journal. Full Story
Meanwhile, workers at Heaven Hill Distillery, parent company of Deep Eddy Vodka and Evan Williams Bourbon, have been on strike for more than six weeks over healthcare cost hikes, schedule changes, and overtime cuts, reported Forbes. Full Story
Hooters says it is reversing its recent mandate that female servers trade in their already short shorts for new skin-tight, bikini-cut bottoms, reported The New York Post. Full Story
Barbecue restaurants are bearing the brunt of high brisket prices. Beef supply constraints and rising demand have pushed brisket prices up to levels not seen before, forcing some operators to re-strategize, reported Restaurant Business. Full Story
Evanesce Packaging Solutions will open a manufacturing facility in Hampton County, South Carolina, that will allow the company to produce millions of biodegradable straws per day and launch new products. Full Story
Delivery Developments: Crypto Eats launched an app allowing users to pay for food delivery with cryptocurrency, and it introduced a native token that will offer a discount on orders when used. Full Story
New Product News: Dunkin introduced the peanut butter cup macchiato. Full Story … Mars Wrigley is releasing M&M'S white chocolate pretzel snowballs for the holiday season, reported CSNews. Full Story … Anheuser-Busch has entered the rapidly expanding ready-to-drink segment with Nütrl, a premium vodka seltzer in three flavors, reported Forbes. Full Story
Store News: MAPCO opened a flagship location in Nashville, Tennessee, reported CSNews. Full Story
Executives on the Move: Papa John's International promoted Max Wetzel to EVP, chief commercial officer. Full Story … Jack in the Box named Doug Cook SVP and chief technology officer. Full Story … El Pollo Loco appointed Laurance Roberts interim CEO. Full Story
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Wagas, a cafe business in China serving light and healthy food, is exploring a sale amid interest from potential investors, according to people familiar with the matter. A sale could value the Shanghai-based business at $500 million to $600 million, reported Bloomberg. Full Story
Swift Prepared Foods, a subsidiary of JBS S.A., has reached an agreement to acquire Sunnyvalley Smoked Meats Inc. for $90 million, reported Meat + Poultry. Full Story
Allplants, a vegan meal delivery startup, raised $52 million in Series B funding. A portion of the proceeds will be used to expand its plant-based kitchen in North London to six times the current size and to build scalable capacity for multichannel distribution, reported TechCrunch. Full Story
Food tech platform C3 secured $10 million from Swiss-based private capital investment firm Lurra Capital. The investment will support infrastructure expansion with C3’s growing digital restaurant brands, ghost kitchens, and brick-and-mortar culinary centers. Full Story
U.K.-based vegan restaurant Neat Burger has raised $7 million from a funding round, taking its valuation to $70 million. The chain plans to triple its footprint by the end of 2022 by opening 19 dine-in restaurants and 16 delivery kitchens in London, reported The Financial Times. Full Story
Cala has raised €5.5 million in a seed funding round to fund an autonomous pasta-robot restaurant. Cala’s robot is essentially a fully operational restaurant in a box that preps and cooks pasta, plates it, and cleans up afterward using a cartesian coordinate system robot, reported The Spoon. Full Story
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The Brexit brawl kicked into high gear Friday on sticking points over Northern Ireland and French fishing, coming almost a year after a deal on a free trade agreement was supposed to have officially sealed the separation between the European Union and the U.K., reported ABC News. Full Story
Authorities in Brazil are growing increasingly concerned over a Chinese ban on Brazilian beef which has lasted more than a month and threatens to decimate exports worth around $4 billion per year, reported The Financial Times. Full Story
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In a new USC study on the health effects of a low-calorie diet that mimics fasting in the body, researchers found regular five-day cycles of the diet in mice seemed to counteract the detrimental effects of their usual high-fat, high-calorie diet, reported MedicalXPress. Full Story
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Five members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon.com's chief executive Sunday, and accused the company's top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon's business practices. The letter also states that the committee is considering "whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate," reported Reuters. Full Story
A federal judge blocked a ban on lobstering a section of the Gulf of Maine finding that federal regulators relied on “markedly thin” analysis that didn’t prove the whales they’re aiming to protect are in the waters, reported Portland Press Herald. Full Story
The FDA is hosting a summit this week to usher in a “New Era of Smarter Food Safety.” The initiative is being led by Frank Yiannas, Deputy Commissioner for Food Policy and Response, a long-time advocate for creating a “Food Safety Culture” to “leverage technology and other tools and approaches to create a safer and more digital, traceable food system,” reported Forbes. Full Story
Tuffy’s Pet Foods Inc. has issued a voluntary recall of Pure Vita Salmon Entrée Dog Food in a Tetrapak carton due to potentially elevated levels of Vitamin D. The recalled product was distributed to U.S. distributors and retail stores and features a UPC code of 0 73893 96202 1. Full Story
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Chile is forecasting substantial growth in its cherry exports to the U.S. in the 2021-2022 season. The Chilean Fresh Fruit Association said it expects to export about 13,000 metric-tons during the season, which will run for more than 12 weeks for the first time, reported Fresh Fruit Portal. Full Story
U.S. turkey eggs in incubators totaled 27.1 million on Oct. 1, down 1% from Oct. 1, 2020, according to USDA. The total was up 6% from Sept. 1. Full Report
Peanut prices received by farmers for all farmer stock peanuts averaged 24.8 cents per lb. for the week ending Oct. 9, up 0.4 cent from the previous week, according to USDA. Full Report
Mango producers in Brazil and Ecuador exported about 1.8 million boxes the week ending Oct. 9, according to the National Mango Board. The Ecuadorian season was projected to be about 20% higher than last year. Full Story
Frustrated with low prices, ranchers are attempting to build their own meat processing plants. Construction on a plant will being this fall near North Platte, Nebraska, and plans are underway for projects in Iowa, Idaho, and Wisconsin, reported The Associated Press. Full Story
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Suzanna's Kitchen Inc.
Founded in 1960, Duluth, GA-based Suzanna's Kitchen has grown to be one of the premiere food companies in the South. With 359,000-sq. ft. of storage and processing space, Suzanna's Kitchen produces a broad range of prepared foods including battered, breaded, charbroiled, smoked and oven-roasted chicken, turkey, beef, pork, veal and veggies, all fully cooked and in conveniently packed sizes for retail, club and foodservice, and their product line continues to grow. With a proactive attitude and products made to help control food and labor costs, Suzanna's Kitchen is ready to serve you.
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