ROSEMONT, IL - There are good suppliers in the industry, and there are great suppliers.
Reinhart Foodservice has distinguished Rema Foods as one of the greats, declaring them as its 2015 Supplier of the Year. Citing Rema Foods’ commitment to quality, food safety, and innovation, as well as the value Rema Foods brings to Reinhart and its customers, Rema was among a long lineup of supplier honorees announced at Reinhart’s annual Traditions Sales & Merchandising Conference on June 2nd.
"At Reinhart, our supplier partners are key to our business and to the success of our customers," said Jeff King, Reinhart’s President and Chief Operating Officer. "We’re proud of the relationships we’ve built with so many strong manufacturers over the years. By engaging and collaborating with our supplier partners on a daily basis, we’re able to develop valuable, long-standing relationships with our customers."
According to a press release, Reinhart’s Supplier of the Year Awards were presented to winners in eight categories and for five specific departments, with three overall winners. Winners were selected by a vote by Reinhart’s leadership and were selected based on key performance metrics and alignment with Reinhart’s business strategy.
The full list of recipients is as follows:
Category Awards
- Grocery – Rema Foods, Inc.
- Produce – Capital City Fruit
- Beverage – Mother Parkers Tea & Coffee
- Frozen Foods – Lamb Weston
- Center of the Plate – John Morrell & Company
- Seafood – Tampa Bay Fisheries
- Non-Foods – Fabri-Kal Corp
- Dairy – Foremost Farms USA
Departmental Awards
- Logistics Support – Schreiber Foods
- Business Friendliness – Beaver Street Fisheries
- FSQA – McCain Foods
- Marketing Partner – US Chemicals & Plastics
- Division Sales Support – John Morrell & Company
Overall Awards
- Exclusive Brands – Co-winners: Schreiber Foods & Ventura Foods
- Manufacturer Brand – Lamb Weston
- Supplier of the Year – Rema Foods, Inc.
King shared that Reinhart created its annual Supplier Awards to celebrate and recognize its partners who have truly embraced its customer-first focus over the last year and congratulated all the winners.
CASTROVILLE, CA - Ocean Mist Farms is welcoming two new employees to the team at its Castroville headquarters: Janelle Wong as the new Operations Controller and Gladys Valenzuela-Corzo as the new Human Resources Director.
Jonelle Wong will leverage her more than fifteen years of accounting, financial, and administration experience relating to agricultural operations and foodservice to further strengthen operations at Ocean Mist Farms. According to a press release, she was most recently the Controller at Danna Farms, a Plumas Lake, California-based company.
Valenzuela-Corzo, the former Human Resources Director at Growers Transplanting/Rocket Farms, will also carry several years of experience to this new position with Ocean Mist Farms.
Join us in welcoming these two new employees to the Ocean Mist Farms team!
WASHINGTON - The USDA announced that G & J Fresh Produce LLC satisfied a reparation order issued under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA).
According to the USDA, the McAllen, Texas-based company can continue operating in the produce industry upon applying for and being issued a PACA license. Josue De La Fuente and Gisela Munoz were listed as members of the business and may now be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee.
As we've previously reported, the USDA filed action against G & J Fresh Produce for failure to pay a $5,922 award in favor of a Texas seller.
Once a reparation order is fully satisfied and it is confirmed that there are not any outstanding unpaid awards, the USDA lifts the employment restrictions of the previously named, responsibly connected individuals. The USDA also requires any unlicensed company that fully satisfies all unpaid reparation awards to obtain a license if it continues to operate in the industry.
In the past three years, USDA resolved approximately 4,250 PACA claims involving more than $77 million. USDA experts have also assisted more than 7,000 callers with issues valued at approximately $110 million. Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, members, managers, officers, directors, or major stockholders may not be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee without the approval of the USDA. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), PACA Division, regulates fair trading practices of produce businesses operating subject to PACA.
NEWARK, DE - After a succesful year of partnering with the eat brighter!™ movement, PMA, Sesame Workshop, the Partnership for a Healthier America (PHA) have agreed to extend the program through 2018. With the help of nearly 60 industry members, the program has achieved positive metrics and increased participation across the industry, making the extension an obvious next step.
“We've been tracking the movement's early adopters who have been in market for approximately six months. These participants are self-reporting positive sales lifts of 1 to 2 percent on eat brighter!™ branded items,” said Kevin Fiori, PMA's Board of Directors Chairman. “We're all anticipating the impact on sales through the movement and early results - a 1 to 2 percent increase in sales thus far - sends a positive signal that we will continue to track over time.”
Since PMA’s first impact survey in 2014, 30 more companies have reported that they're supplying product in market. According to PMA, nearly 60 companies, representing over 130 commodities, have signed onto the movement, with more than 30,000 retail stores accepting eat brighter!™ branded product. The movement has also expanded into Mexico, allowing produce marketers, retailers, school foodservice, and promotional organizations who sell product in the country to participate as well.
PMA has also announced that it will develop a variety of tools with Paragon Design as the program evolves. Some of these updates include a new, user-friendly website, a step-by-step tutorial, an updated toolkit that features guidelines for packaging, point-of-sale, and more. The updated toolkit includes digital ads, press releases, sell sheets, webpages, retail circulars, coloring and activity sheets, and the assets for Plaza Sésamo for the consumer market in Mexico.
For more information on the movement and how to get involved, please visit pma.com/eatbrighter.
BANCROFT, WI - Tasteful Selections™ is launching a new retail campaign, dubbed #RescuedMoments.
The promotional campaign encourages consumers to spend more quality time with family by creating time-saving recipes with useful cooking tips.
POS materials, including Tasteful Selections bins with #RescuedMoments recipe tear pads, will promote the brand’s quick cook times, fantastic flavors, and consistent quality in every bag, according to a press release. Retail stores in select markets will feature brand ambassadors engaging with shoppers through product information, coupons, recipe cards, and more.
Tasteful Selections’ chef partners, Michelin Star Chef Joey Elenterio and kid-Chef Jack Witherspoon will endorse the campaign via 12 upcoming recipe and tip videos, hosted on TastefulSelections.com/RescuedMoments. The page will feature monthly meal planning calendars, which incorporates content from food and mom bloggers.
Check out one of #RescuedMoments recipe videos with Chef Elenterio below!
Rounding up the campaign is a new sweepstakes and several giveaways on social media. The grand prize winner of the #RescuedMoments Sweepstakes will win a trip to Chef Elenterio’s new restaurant, Cadence, in San Francisco. Two additional winners will receive kitchen cookware.
The #RescuedMoments campaign will continue from now through September.
MEXICO - The hurricane warning for Tropical Storm Carlos, about 180 miles southeast of Manzanillo, Mexico, has lifted, but a watch continues to remain in effect along the Pacific coast of Mexico.
Until about 10 a.m. central time this morning, a hurricane warning was in effect east of Lazaro Cardenas, including Ixtapa, Zihuatanejo and Acapulco.
According to The Weather Channel, Carlos brought 30 mph winds to Acapulco, Mexico, with a peak of wind speed of 43 mph, and a hurricane watch continues west of Putno San Telmo to Playa Perula, including Manzanillo. A tropical storm warning is also in effect from Lazaro Cardenas to Punta San Telmo.
Carlos appears to have weakened since it was named last Thursday, having formed as a Tropical Depression Three-E, and is moving slowly parallel with the Mexican Pacific coast instead of touching the land. According to the report, however, Carlos’s small wind field would bring stronger core winds from the storm to land.
For now it looks like Carlos may shift to the north-northwest, which could move toward the Jalisco and Nayarit state coastline by Wednesday, going into early Thursday. While the Weather Channel reports that if Carlos does restrengthen it’s not expected to be significant. Rainfall is expected through late Wednesday that could total from 6 to 10 inches in southwest Mexico and locally higher amounts of up to 15 inches. This amount of water could bring dangerous flash-floods and mudslides, particularly in mountain terrain.
According to The Weather Channel, Tropical Storm Carlos is the second earliest third hurricane occurrence on record for the eastern Pacific, making this a busy beginning to the hurricane season.
WASHINGTON - The USDA has suspended Pittsgrove, New Jersey-based ABI Imports Inc.’s Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act (PACA) license for failing to make its records available for review.
According to a USDA press release, ABI Imports Inc. refused to allow inspection of its records as part of an ongoing investigation under PACA, and its PACA license was suspended as a result of the refusal. The suspension will remain in place until the records are made available. During the suspension, ABI Imports Inc. may not operate subject to PACA, according to the release.
In the past three years, USDA resolved approximately 4,250 PACA claims involving more than $77 million. USDA experts have also assisted more than 7,000 callers with issues valued at approximately $110 million. Individuals, including sole proprietors, partners, members, managers, officers, directors, or major stockholders may not be employed by or affiliated with any PACA licensee without the approval of the USDA. The Agricultural Marketing Service (AMS), PACA Division, regulates fair trading practices of produce businesses operating subject to PACA.
CHICAGO, IL - If the produce show you decided to skip out on this year was United Fresh, you have a lot of catching up to do! This year’s Chicago conference was filled with product debuts from companies across the board, as well as the retail buyers there to scope out the best-of-the-best. While this is not a full list of all the amazing products we saw at United, this will definitely help get you up to speed…
Robinson Fresh — Glory Foods Power Essence Blends
Robinson Fresh’s Glory Foods brand has introduced a new line of nutrient-rich green blends called Power Essence. These superfood blends come in 3 varieties, including a kale, spinach and chard variety, a kale and Brussels sprout variety, and a kale, collard, and turnip variety. According to the company, these blends include fresh greens, that when combined give consumers a boost of antioxidants and phytonutrients.
SUNSET® — Flavor Bombs Cherry Tomatoes
A winner of United Fresh’s New Product Award for Best New Vegetable Product, these are some of the newest offerings from the multi-faceted company. According to SUNSET®, this multi-award winning cherry tomato is greenhouse grown with seed exclusively sourced from the south of France.
Naturipe Farms — “On-the-Go” Fresh Blueberry Mix
Also a winner of a United Fresh New Product Award, this time for Best New Fruit Product, Naturipe has introduced two new “Ready to Eat” fresh fruit snacks. Available in Mango/Blueberry and Grape/Blueberry, both new combinations, as well as the company’s core blueberry snacks, look great on the shelf, and have fun, high graphic packaging. According to the company, these new fresh blueberry blends comes in two convenient sizes: single serve and trios.
RAAW Foods — RAAW Juices
Lucky enough to have our booth right across from theirs, we were able to get up-close-and-personal with RAAW Juices’ flavor creations. RAAW offers a host of 100% pure fruit and vegetable juice blends in 9 flavor combinations, including Very Berry Wheatgrass, Better Beets, Strawberry Purple Carrot, and Pineapple Cucumber. According to the company, RAAW Juices contain no added sugars, no preservatives, no artificial dyes or flavoring, and no water. Each product is also Gluten Free, Non-GMO Verified, Kosher, and Vegan.
NatureSweet Tomatoes — Jubilees
With the company’s new Jubilees, NatureSweet is seeking to make a better sandwich tomato. The product is one of the first of its kind with a “best if used by date,” making it appealing to those with product waste concerns. With a brix of over 5.8 and sizes between 70g – 90g, the company touts Jubilees as superior in flavor, and the perfect size for one sandwich.
We also took a look back at some of the highlights from the show floor in a previous article. Check it out by clicking here, and stay tuned for even more from this year’s show.
FOWLER, CA - Jim Marderosian, President of Bee Sweet Citrus, confirmed today that the company is going solar.
“Bee Sweet Citrus is committed to reducing our carbon footprint,” said Marderosian. “Logically, going solar was the next step as we continue to be a leader in sustainability.”
Picket Solar, a Fresno, California-based company, will facilitate Bee Sweet’s energy shift and will install a high-tech, 2.4 Megawatt solar system to offset the company’s current use of electricity.
“Bee Sweet Citrus is a leader in the citrus industry, and reducing our carbon footprint is one of our main priorities,” said Marderosian. “It is our goal to not only provide the world with fresh, delicious citrus, but to be an environmental steward as well.”
Water conservation, the use of electric forklifts, and utilizing recyclable packaging materials are just some of the many other ways Bee Sweet Citrus has continued to practice environmental sustainability, according to a press release. This new solar system is the next step forward in the company’s efforts to be a high-yielding, environmentally-conscious agribusiness.
EPHRATA, PA - Four Seasons Produce is a busy place to be a part of in recent days, announcing its new warehouse expansion plan and the launching of a new website.
“We’re thrilled to have an updated online presence that matches the quality of our people, operations and facilities,” said Ron Carkoski, President and CEO of The Four Seasons Family of Companies. “As the company heads towards its 40th year, the new site is built to be easily maintained and changed so it will stay fresh for customers, associates and the trade. It fits our vision of ‘Driving Healthy Distribution.’”
The company’s latest expansion project adds 1,628 pallet spaces of multi-temp refrigerated storage, as well as the addition of an updated railcar siding to the state-of-the-art distribution facility originally built in 2004. These additions bring the total area of the facility to 287,375 square feet and the dock has gained almost 30% more doors and space for receiving, inspecting, and shipping fresh produce.
“It comes down to serving our customers. What we’re most excited about with this addition is the improved flow and efficiency to help us turn the dock fast and keep outbound deliveries on time,” said Jason Hollinger, General Manager of Four Seasons Produce, Inc.
According to a press release, Sunrise Transport, the fleet serving the Four Seasons Family of Companies, has also added 4,000 square feet on to their truck garage which maintains over 120 tractor trailers and straight trucks that make deliveries in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions.
In addition to the warehouse expansion, Four Seasons Produce has redesigned their website, www.fsproduce.com. The site is now mobile responsive and crafted to help potential customers and employees quickly learn more about the produce distributor. Four Season’s current independent retailer, natural food store and wholesale customers will find valuable content such as weekly market updates, information about the organic and conventional products and brands offered, as well as grower profiles for local and regional farms.