SugarCreek: Brandworthy Food Solutions

Co-development tends to be a win-win for brands and manufacturers—streamlining sales and production alike. Yet for all the collaboration that happens between brand and manufacturer, there seems to be one aspect of partnership that seems strangely neglected.

While food safety has always been a primary concern for both brand and manufacturer, food safety stories tend to revolve around a failure to meet standards or a product recall. Few partnerships have produced newsworthy innovation—until recently. Lately, collaborative efforts to innovate food production seem as though they are finally coming full circle as brands treat food safety innovation on par with product development.

The food packing industry has always struggled to minimize production costs and keep injuries to laborers to a minimum. The advent of new robotic manufacturing technology in the late 1950s and early 1960s offered the food industry a way to do just that, but machines were expensive to purchase and maintain. The capital start-up costs were often prohibitive, however, so many packing companies chose to soldier on with manual assembly lines.

“Artisanal,” “craft” and “locally-sourced” are three of the hottest new trends in food service today. Add these phrases to a food label or restaurant menu and consumers flock to these items.

On the flip side is genetically modified (“GM” or “GMO”) food, which has been engineered for specific characteristics like weed or drought resistance. In the eyes of many consumers, GMOs have become synonymous with “big food.” Rightly or wrongly, consumers consider GM food to not only be less nutritious, but also more harmful to the environment, according to FoodNavigator USA’s Elaine Watson.

One of the greatest food debates of modern times has been on the safety of genetically modified foods.

We've all seen the news stories before: a company issues a recall on a processed food product or piece of produce because, after shipment to stores, a contaminant was found.

Since 1994, the National Restaurant Association has set aside September to focus on food safety issues such as cross-contamination risks, time-temperature control and hygiene.

If the mainline of your brand is ready-to-eat meals, your food innovation team is likely always on the hunt for ways to bring fresher, faster food to your consumers without compromising taste or safety.

No conclusive evidence has been discovered that would link food served by a Minnesota Applebee’s restaurant franchise to an E. coli outbreak (specifically the E. coli 0111 strain). But after the Minnesota Department of Health discovered that a dozen of the infected individuals had eaten at the same location, the restaurant chain has decided to take action in anticipation of consumer fears over tainted food. 

Reduce, reuse, recycle have become a familiar mantra among consumers wishing to reduce their personal carbon footprint and help improve the overall health of the planet. In light of this trend, companies— especially those within the food and beverage industry— have made a concerted effort to meet the public's demands for innovative food packaging. 

Consumers want packaging that not only increases the recyclability of the products, but that reduces fear regarding the use of chemicals in those same packaging products.

There's good news for bacon fans and the entire food service industry: the deadly swine disease PEDv (porcine epidemic diarrhea virus) which had been so instrumental in driving up pork prices may be old food safety news within a matter of months. The USDA granted Harrisvaccines a conditional license for the first PEDv vaccine, which may finally end the PEDv epidemic that’s had a devastating impact on the bacon and pork industries over the last year.