The PLMA whose member companies work with many retailers and wholesalers in the Pacific Northwest and supply private label food, household and kitchen, health and beauty, and other traditional supermarket and drug chain products. The recipes were developed by Chef Diane Kniss and are based on recipes offered by retailers around the U.S. and Canada.

Article Excerpt

Innovation is the lifeblood of survival in business, yet it is oftentime one of the hardest things for companies to achieve. We see it all the time – a company takes great pains to amass the industry’s top talent, only to reap lackluster results from its all-star team.

Different – Different ideas are the rare projects that no one else has thought of before and have few, if any, predecssors or roots to trace. These ideas often meet resistance, especially in organizations with “not-invented-here” syndrome.

The mp3 player presented and entirely new mode of consuming music, and to some degree, Apples’ idea to market the device as sexy and cool, are innovations that redefined a whole industry.

Other examples of Different ideas are as grand as the Internet or as small as Hahn’s marketing of yogurt cream cheese.

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New York Times Article by Ariel Kaminer

Article excerpt.

Listening to that national conversation from New York, you might wonder, what took them so long? School lunches in the city began a radical transformation six or seven years ago, with the Department of Education’s decision to think of them as food rather than as a government service. From there, it made sense to regard the cafeterias as restaurants, and the children as customers.

“If you have a restaurant,” says Jorge Collazo, the department’s executive chef, “you don’t keep offering dishes your customers don’t buy.” So out with the mystery meat and the boiled noodles in ketchup. But making the food taste better — and look and smell better — was only part of the challenge.

Whatever scary memories the lunch line summons for you, in New York today it can be a surprisingly enlightened place, with whole-grain pasta, salad bars, fresh fruit and low-fat, low-sodium recipes. No fried food, no artificial ingredients, no trans fats.

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An interesting poll by Harris Interactive that details the impacts of age and healthy eating habits. According to the poll, when purchasing food and beverages, U.S. adults are aware of basic nutritional facts of these products and how to manage their weight. In addition, Americans think that locally sourced produce is an important aspect of food choice. At first glance, the good news is that U.S. adults show a high level of , but whether or not awareness translates into behavior is still in question. Read the rest of the article.

1. Jason’s Deli

225 locations in 28 states, mostly in the Mid-Atlantic, South, and Southeast

You’ll be thrilled with the ingredients. This inexpensive, family-friendly spot serves up organic produce, nitrate-free lunch meat, and whole-grain bread on both its kids’ and adult menus. Last year, it became the only restaurant chain in the country to ban high-fructose corn syrup and artificial colors in all its food. “With the food dyes out of our mac ‘n’ cheese, for instance, it’s no longer bright orange, but our taste tests show kids prefer the new version,” says Pat Herring, director of research and development.

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Franklin Foods is committed to providing better-for-you cream cheese products to consumers and culinary professionals. Learn more about our Hahn’s Yogurt & Cream Cheese and Hahn’s Bakers Cheese at franklinfoods.com.

By Craig Espelien

Which is the better way to promote your private label brands: shielding, or branding?

For our purposes here, let’s call “shielding” the protection of store brands’ price image by reducing their shelf prices whenever a like item from a national brand goes on sale. Some say the like item should be placed alongside the advertised national brand in the circular and on display.

We’ll call “branding” the treatment of the private brand as a stand-alone with its own structured marketing and merchandising platform. In other words, it doesn’t rely on the national brand to dictate promotional windows. (Okay — I am a proponent of pre-empting the brand by putting the private brand in the ad and on display a week before the major national brand will appear.)

While neither approach is right or wrong, let’s explore how consumers shop and the impact each choice has on their purchase patterns.

Read the entire article at Frozen & Dairy Buyer Magazine.