Happy Holidays from ADC!

 

U.S. Food and Drug Administration Finalizes Menu Labeling Requirements

On November 25, 2014 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) finalized requirements for the Menu Labeling Rule, which requires restaurants, supermarkets, convenience store and other establishments to post calorie information for foods on display, self-service items and items that appear on menus or menu boards.  Compliance is required by December 1, 2015.  To read full details of the final rule, click here.

Applied Data Corporation (ADC), a leading supplier of software solutions for the fresh food industries, offers solutions within their InterStore Fresh Item Management (FIM) software suite to help covered retailers comply with the Menu Labeling Rule.  

ADC’s NutriGen Recipe Manager analyzes product recipes to generate accurate nutritional labeling information.  NutriGen centrally manages recipes, combining vendor supplied sub-assemblies, such as a cake base, with a retailer’s raw materials, such as icing.  When used with ADC’s InterScale Scales Manager, the nutritional labeling information is sent to barcode labeling scales, printers and other media, i.e. in-store digital displays and websites.

Within InterStore retailers can also deliver demand-based production plans to their stores or central production facilities, containing the required recipes, via the P-Cubed Production Manager. 

InterScale, NutriGen and P-Cubed are all available within the InterStore suite, meaning retailers only need one system to meet the requirements of the Menu Labeling Rule.

To learn more about the proposed regulation or ADC’s software solution, please contact our office at +1.813.849.1818 or visit www.AppliedDataCorp.com.

Proposed Meat Grind Traceability Regulation Could Be Law As Soon As Early 2015

On July 16, 2014 the USDA's Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) proposed a regulation to require retail stores to keep records containing information on the suppliers of source materials used in the meat grind production process*. Industry sources predict the rule could become law as soon as early 2015 and be enforced as soon as late 2015.

Applied Data Corporation (ADC) has been providing retailers with grind traceability solutions for over 5 years with their Meat Grind Traceability Management module and has been following the proposed regulation very closely.

On October 21, 2014, ADC submitted official comments to the proposed regulation**.  These comments were to provide FSIS with information on current solutions available to meet the regulation, as well as to identify requirements in the regulation that would put an unnecessary burden on retailers.

In their comments, ADC emphasized that FSIS should explicitly accommodate the use of electronic recordkeeping for meat grind traceability data because such solutions are already being used by retailers across the country and meet the requirements of the proposed regulation.   

ADC’s Meat Grind Traceability Management module is an electronic, automated system that captures and records source materials through the meat grind process, providing the information that both retailers and regulatory agencies need to quickly and effectively identify potential source materials that could cause or contribute to an outbreak, at any time.

The Meat Grind Traceability Management module is installed at a retailer's headquarters and features an easy-to-use browser user interface that enables retailers to quickly implement the software with little investment in additional hardware.  The software captures all of the required information from the primal’s barcode with wireless handheld devices.

*Read about the proposed regulation here.
**Read ADC’s comments on the proposed regulation here.

190 Store Chain in the Southeastern United States Implements InterScale Multi-Threaded Scale Communications Program

ADC announces that a 190 grocery store chain headquartered in the Southwestern United States has implemented the InterScale multi-threaded scale communications program at its centralized data center.

The multi-threaded scale communication program represents a new generation of InterScale, which allows the retailer to communicate to all of the scales, across all of their stores in parallel from one to many centralized servers, thereby greatly reducing the time it takes to get information to and from their scales.

“We are very happy to have completed our upgrade to the multi-threaded scale communication program within InterScale,” said a representative from the retailer.  “The first time we used the program, we saw that it was able to send a full file to all of our scales across all stores in a quarter of the time it previously took, which was extremely exciting to witness.”  Previously, the older-generation program, which processed one scale after another, was much slower.

“This is our first customer to implement the centralized multi-threaded scale communications program within InterScale and we are pleased with the results they are seeing,” said Steve Loveridge, CEO at ADC.  “We believe the multi-threaded scale communication program is an important new feature within the InterScale system and look forward to hearing similar success stories as more clients upgrade.”

"ADC's Recipe for Profitable Fresh Foods Retailing"

In the third installment of Retail Times’s definitive Guide to Profitable Fresh Foods Retailing, we explore how retailers and food service operators can best manage their recipe databases for items prepared in-store and how to comply with forthcoming new EU food labeling regulation.

Read the full article here.

InterScale Scales Manager Boosts Retailers’ Margins in Fresh Foods

The second article in conjunction with Retail Time's definitive Guide to Profitable Fresh Foods Retailing, we explore how retailers and food service operators can optimize their fresh food sales and margins with scales management software.

You can read the article here.

ReFresh 2014 Conference Considered a Huge Success

ADC held the 13th annual ReFresh Fresh Item Management (FIM) Conference from September 22-25, 2014 at the Sheraton Sand Key in Clearwater Beach, Florida.  This year’s ReFresh attendees represented sixteen retailers from across the United States and Europe, making it the highest attended conference to date.

The ReFresh agenda included a variety of subject matter expert presenters, FIM software presentations, a retailer presentation and retailer chaired discussions.

For the second year in a row, the conference started with a Welcome Reception on Monday, October 7th, allowing attendees to meet with ADC associates and sponsors prior to the conference starting.

Sessions started on Tuesday, October 8th with a welcome and introductions, followed by an InterStore Overview presentation, which highlighted ADC’s InterStore FIM software suite hierarchy, as well as a look at ADC’s InterScale Scales Manager software system.

Additional FIM software presentations included in-depth looks at Production Planning, Recipe Management, Meat Management and Shrink Management tools.

Other highlights of the agenda included:

• “The Fresh Value Proposition” by Bruce Peterson, founder and president of Peterson Insights.  Bruce’s presentation discussed what factors motivate shoppers in fresh departments, as well as the future role of fresh. 
• “Super Natural Growth: The Rise of the Natural/Gourmet Grocery Segment” by Rod Hawkes, a Senior Extension Associate at Cornell's Food Industry Management Program.  Rod's discussed the rapid growth in the natural/gourmet grocer segment over the past four years, including the dominant players in this market space and the growing competition. 
• “Federal Regulatory Update: What Retailers Need to Know” by Erik R. Lieberman, president of U.S. Food Imports LLC and principal of Lieberman PLLC.  Erik shared the latest information on key regulations impacting retailers, including the proposed ruling on Meat Grind Management and the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).
• “Reaching Shoppers at the Meat Case” by Karen Shearer, Strategic Account Director at Midan Marketing.  Karen shared the results of consumer focus groups that were conducted to help identify issues in the meat department, and reach industry-wide solutions aimed to assist shoppers and increase meat sales.
• “The Power of Fresh” by Anne-Marie Roerink, Principal at 210 Analytics.  Anne-Marie discussed trends in the produce and meat departments of supermarkets, as well as key shrink statistics.

Retailer Feedback:

•  “ADC brought together a very informative, creative and fun group of individuals.  Tons of FIM info received and lots of contacts made.  Presentations and guest speakers were all great.”  – Christy Fajerson, Brookshire Grocery Company.
• “I was very impressed with the presenters and breakdown of the ReFresh conference.” – Lon Herget, Associated Food Stores
• “Overall the conference was great.  It was informative and had great subject matter experts.  It was awesome talking with other retailers and I enjoyed all of the great speakers.”

Sponsor Interaction – This year’s ReFresh had 10 industry sponsors, including DBK Concepts/Zebra, Brdata, Datamax-O’Neil, Bizerba, Hobart, Janam, NBI Digi, Rice Lake Retail Solutions, Specialty Printing and Truno.