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.

Rodolfo Haenni, VP of market & strategy development and Rafael Posada, director of sustainability at Tekni-Plex, a material sciences company and Meg Sutula, director of marketing at Clover Sonoma dairy, join From the Cold Corner to discuss the evolution of sustainable packaging and circularity.

Ben Rubin, co-founder and CEO of SnoFox Sciences, a data science and analytics company and Dan Postlewaite, manager of sustainable development and senior project engineer at US Cold, join From the Cold Corner to discuss energy-saving and sustainability in cold facility construction. 

Allison Bodor, CEO of the American Frozen Food Institute (AFFI), Bryan Freeman, executive chairman of REAL Good Foods, and Lucy Durbin, first vice president of the National Food Facilities Group at CBRE, join From the Cold Corner to discuss current issues impacting the frozen foods industry and a look at what’s ahead in 2022.

Ayeshah Abuelhiga, CEO of Mason Dixie Foods, joins us to discuss her clean-label, ready-to-bake line of frozen biscuits and breakfast sandwiches. The daughter of two immigrants from countries with very big food cultures, Ayeshah turned a love of soul food into a booming biscuit business, recently raising over $6 million in a Series A funding round. Mason Dixie products can be found in over 8,000 locations nationwide, including Whole Foods, Target and Publix.

Led by CEO Theresa Motter, Van’s Kitchen is a certified women-owned and minority-owned egg roll manufacturer supplying over 10,000 supermarkets and convenience stores across the U.S., with $45 million in annual sales. The Dallas-based company weathered the COVID pandemic, signing over 10 new distributor, supermarket and grocery accounts for a 40% increase in sales year-over-year. Read the full story here. 

Helena Lumme, founder and president of Hälsa Dairy-Free Scandinavian-Style Oatgurt, and Mika Manninen, founder and CEO, join the Cold Corner to discuss winning the 2021 R&FF Best New Refrigerated Products Contest. They also talk about how the rapidly-growing company is addressing sustainability, innovation, and plans for 2022 and beyond.