On our latest Cold Corner Podcast, Lauren Edmonds, newly elected president of the Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) joins Editor-in-Chief Michael Costa to discuss the RFA’s plans for the coming year, plus how the pandemic is still affecting the refrigerated foods industry through price hikes and shortages on ingredients, a shrinking labor pool, and more. They also discuss Edmonds’ company, St. Clair Foods, and their move to an automated production facility.

The Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) announced new leaders at their recent Virtual Awards Ceremony. Lauren Edmonds of St. Clair Foods will take over as President, following Josh Knott of Knott’s Foods’ term in office. Karen Bishop Carbone, Boston Salads & Prepared Foods Corporation, will serve as Vice President and Conference Chair. Tom Davis, Lakeview Farms will continue his role as Treasurer, and Mark Rosenfield of Reser’s Fine Foods will serve as the group’s Secretary and Chair of the Communications Committee.

The headline for last year’s Top 25 Refrigerated Foods Processors Report read, “Refrigerated Foods to Reign Supreme in 2020”. In no other year than 2020 could a headline that bold be an understatement. 

The Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) reports a collective donation of $8,000 to Feeding America during 2020’s National Deli Salad Month (July).  Member companies committed to donating both monetarily and with in-kind donations as a collective effort to combat hunger in their own communities.  Hands-on volunteer work was also encouraged. Their July fundraiser resulted in a total of $8,000 for Feeding America, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization.   Hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of food is also donated to local food banks each year by these businesses.

Our annual July State of the Industry issue is now ready to read in our redesigned digital magazine--even easier to navigate than before. We also feature our annual North American Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Warehouse Guide. put together with the help of the Global Cold Chain Alliance. In this issue, we dive deeper into how COVID-19 has not just impacted, but altered many areas of the cold foods supply chain the first half of 2020. It's a mid-year snapshot that also serves as a map for what will likely continue the rest of the year.

In 2014, Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) proclaimed July as National Deli Salad Month. This designation has been officially recognized and established and each year, throughout the month of July, food manufacturers promote and feature such summer staples as potato salad, macaroni salad, dips, chilled desserts, protein salads, ready-to-eat sandwiches and more. 

This week on our From the Cold Corner podcast, I spoke with Josh Knott, president of the Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) and Knott's Fine Foods in Paris, Tennessee. We discussed worker safety, supply chain slowdowns due to COVID-19 precautions, and how panic buying and fear of perceived food shortages by consumers can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Refrigerated and frozen foods manufacturers use packaging graphics, text, colors, geometries, internal volumes, clarity, opacity, and ergonomic designs as nuggets of information to persuade consumers that the products they see are safe, will deliver pleasurable eating experiences, and may be enjoyed in specific or universal locations. Fundamentally, packaged messages must communicate to shoppers at the point of sale that there is a reason to believe in a product so that it is wanted.

The Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) has announced the release of an updated Shelf Life Protocol, available now to both members and non-members. The RFA Standardized Protocol for Determining Shelf Life of Refrigerated Foods was originally developed in 2002 and subsequently revised in 2009. The purpose of the standardized protocol was to enable individual manufacturers, and/or their customers if they so desired, to determine their product shelf life and compare their stated shelf life with the shelf life of similar products produced by other manufacturers.

The 40th annual Refrigerated Foods Association (RFA) Conference was held at the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Resort in Orlando, Florida, on February 23-26, 2020. The conference included timely presentations and outstanding networking opportunities and social events, including a service project that provided 400 kids’ packs for Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida.