Westland/Hallmark: 2008 Beef Recall; A Case Study by The Food Industry Center

A Humane Society video, made secretly at the Westland/Hallmark plant in late 2007 and released in early 2008, led to the recall of 143 million pounds of beef. This case study illustrates the complexity of the food industry and the food recall process. Although ultimately, the incident had more to do with animal welfare than food safety — no sicknesses were tied to the recalled beef, it resulted in changes to the nation’s food safety procedures. The 2008 Westland/Hallmark beef recall, the largest beef recall in U.S. history, is a stepping-off point to examine the beef supply chain generally and the ground beef supply chain specifically.Agribusiness, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Livestock Production/Industries,

Dispatches from a Wasteful Nation: How America Squanders its Food and Leaves Citizens Hungry

America is becoming increasingly wasteful with its food, as almost half of the products grown or produced in America are not eaten. This waste of resources costs farmers, food companies, individuals and the U.S. government more than $100 billion each year. The majority of these losses could be avoided, possibly helping feed hungry citizens and reduce the American trade deficit. The purpose of this study is to illuminate the phenomenon of food waste, examining how and why America squanders so much edible food. To do so, this series of three journalistic articles will investigate food waste in farm, retail and household settings

Planting the Seeds for Public Health: How the Farm Bill Can Help Farmers to Produce and Distribute Healthy Foods

Analyzes provisions in the 2008 Farm Bill that impede farmers' production and strategic marketing of fruits and vegetables. Recommends policy changes to remove such barriers, improve consumer access to healthy foods, and help prevent childhood obesity

Improvement of packaging as one of the key terms of the efficient economy development

This paper presents the analysis of the modern packaging technology in the United States, summarizing and featuring the important points and aspects that can be implemented in Russia. The paper emphasizes the important role of packaging in advertising, marketing, distribution and shipping of products, as well as its necessity in order to maintain the products and packaging integrity during shipment and distribution. The level of packaging identity in Russia is close or may be a little bit above zero; the paper gives the detailed analysis of current state of the Russian packaging industry, food distribution and the current trends in packaging improvement. The study provides the basic ideas on structuring logistics management in the US, which plays an important role in business process in the majority of the industrialized countries, giving specific examples and figures from the latest scientific sources

Create Better Health Curriculum

CBH is a comprehensive nutrition curriculum designed to teach adult SNAP-Ed participants how to eat well and be active on a budget. CBH combines nutrition and physical activity recommendations from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Each lesson has three components: a nutrition topic based on the current Dietary Guidelines for Americans, a physical activity discussion based on USDA recommendations, and a Create recipe demonstration and sample. The components are woven together in eight lessons that are designed to keep participants engaged, while actively learning the skills needed to create a healthier lifestyle

An Exploratory Analysis of the Issues in Accessing Local Food Products among Relais & Chateaux Chefs

This study is an exploratory examination of the perceptions of chefs affiliated with Relais & Chateaux properties in Canada with respect to their relationships with suppliers, the importance of local ingredients in menu design, and other issues associated with their work as chefs in some of the top restaurants in Canada. Their understanding of the concept of “culinary tourism” is also explored. For the purpose of this study, culinary tourism is conceptually defined to be “any tourism experience in which one learns about, appreciates, or consumes branded local culinary resources” (Smith and Xiao, 2006, p. 4). Data for this study were obtained from three sources: (1) a closed-ended questionnaire, which inquired about acquisition, production and consumption issues associated with restaurant chefs (2) in-depth personal interviews with chefs that enabled the researcher to gain a holistic view of the role and results of chefs interaction with local food producers, and (3) a content analysis of Relais & Chateaux menus that served as a template to how chefs brand producers in their restaurants. A total of 11 chefs completed the survey and were interviewed between the months of June, 2007 and August, 2007. The comments by the chefs in the interviews were classified into 9 themes. The themes that emerged include producer relationships, producer communication, local ingredients, cuisine, restaurant staff, culinary tourism, knowledge of clientele, culinary products and Relais & Chateaux brand. The interviews resulted in a number of insights into chef relations with local food producers as well as the potential of culinary tourism as a tourism experience provided by Relais & Chateaux chefs. Chefs spend considerable time and effort facilitating relationships with local producers in order to create quality. These chefs expressed the importance of quality and relationships with local producers while highlighting the need for communication among properly trained waiters. Chefs used both menus and guests’ interaction with waiters to communicate the use of local ingredients in their restaurants. The chefs focus on local affiliations to products as a way to promote local producers. However, once relationships with a local producer are developed, some chefs maintain that relationship even if the move out of the area. Many chefs reported that increased interaction among culinary tourism stakeholders, at a regional level, was needed in order for regional producers to brand their products in the market place. With this it was recommended that bi-yearly meetings involving restaurateurs, producers, farmers and artisans is needed to better network their product offerings. In each case, the goal of the Canadian Relais & Chateaux chef is to improve upon the branding of Canadian food ingredients. The research revealed the positive impact that this group of chefs has had in promoting grass roots food products for an increasingly popular tourism market. Findings of this research suggest that chefs are involved in the production, education, facilitation and communication of local ingredients in the restaurant setting which raises issues of their role in the branding of local food ingredients for the culinary tourist in order to promote a healthy culinary tourism product. The study concludes with suggestions for further research in this area

Alignment of the supply and demand within a supply chain: A qualitative study

The dissertation "Alignment of supply and demand within a supply chain: a qualitative study” determines the causes of the misalignment between the supply and demand within a supply chain, with specific focus on Kraft Foods South Africa. The costs of a mismatch between supply and demand are growing in many industries. Companies have tried various approaches, however these approaches, while useful, have failed to address a number of the drivers of supply-demand mismatch. The literature study starts with an overview of supply chain management. The study covers the various concepts of supply chain management, the importance of supply chain performance, the challenges of managing supply chains, demand management, supply management, as well as the relationship between supply and demand. The literature study continues to cover the various concepts related to the alignment of supply and demand within a supply chain. The study covers the effects of the misalignment between supply and demand within a supply chain, traditional approaches to align supply and demand and the transformation to a more responsive organisation. The various approaches to decrease the supply and demand lead time gap are also discussed. The literature study concludes with an overview of the supply chain of Kraft Foods South Africa, as well as the global Kraft Foods organisation. The review covers the challenges, the sustainable growth plan, the organisational set-up, sources and product range, geographical layout, people, functions and technology involved in Kraft’s supply chain. The review concludes with an overview of the current alignment between supply and demand within Kraft Foods South Africa’s supply chain. Chapter five discusses the details of the research design and methodology that was followed in conducting the research. Chapter six indicates the findings of the structured interviews with the key players in Kraft Foods South Africa’s supply chain. Chapter seven makes certain recommendations for the supply chain of Kraft Foods South Africa that will assist in improving the alignment between supply and demand.Dissertation (MCom)--University of Pretoria, 2006.Business Managementunrestricte

Food Wastage in the Region of Waterloo, Ontario

Much discussion on alleviating hunger and shaping more sustainable food production practices has focused on the production of food. More recently, an emerging body of literature has begun to focus on food wastage. Food wastage has direct and indirect environmental impacts, ranging from the unnecessary waste of inputs to produce food that will never be eaten, to the environmental impacts of the disposal of wasted food. In industrialized countries like Canada, an estimated 40 percent of food available for human consumption is discarded ¬– half of it from households. In spite of these numbers, only a handful of studies have begun to study food wastage in Canada. A better understanding of the mechanisms that drive up the food wastage levels in Canada is the first step needed to create targeted food wastage reduction strategies. This study aims to answer the question: What factors drive Canadian households to waste food? A combination of online surveys, case study household food wastage collections, and case study interviews are used to gain a better understanding of the behaviours and socio-economic factors that shape household food wastage in Canada. This study confirms many of the findings from other food waste research, but also emphasizes the role of food environments (e.g. retail environments and access to grocery stores) and environmental triggers (e.g. time constraints) in household food wastage. These findings highlight the complexity of the issue of food wastage, and the need for strategies that go beyond targeting household behaviours