Lost in the Supermarket

Today we're gonna talk about vitamins. We're gonna talk about supplements, and we're gonna talk about a retailer who's really changing the way we're gonna be consuming our foods forever. With me, Elisa Sloss, senior VP of Health Markets and dietitians at Hy-vee. She oversees the sales, merchandising, and educational efforts of the company's more than 190 health market departments. It's a store within a store concept that features a strong and varied selection of organic products, specialty foods, all of what's designed to help support customers' dietary needs and health conditions. She also leads the company's team of retail dietitians whose mission it is to support customers in their health journey. Hy-Vee's dietitians support thousands of customers through store tours, virtual and in-person dietitian sessions and meal prep classes and workshops to help customers find foods and products to support their unique health goals. The team also offers routine health screenings for customers and employers, including biometric and cholesterol screenings and free A1C screenings. Also, joining us is Angie Nelson, a pharmacist and senior VP of Pharmacy at Hy-Vee. She's been with Hy-Vee over 20 years and began working as a registered pharmacist and over the years promoted to pharmacy manager, store director, pharmacy supervisor, vice president of pharmacy operations, and now the senior VP of Pharmacy. You can't get any higher except, you know, CEO. Now, Angie's helped implement artificial intelligence technology and machine learning models across Hy-vee's pharmacy space to improve patient adherence. And she's been named one of Progressive Grocers top women in grocery, twice. A drugstore news top women in health, wellness and beauty, and one of mass market retailers Most influential Women. She's also a member of the Hy-vee Hall of Fame. 

Nora Minno is an award-winning registered dietitian and certified personal trainer based in New York, NY. Over the past 10 years, Nora has built a reputation in the fitness and nutrition space as a credible expert developing communications and marketing strategies for top CPG companies, professional sports teams, global health apps, and leading healthcare groups. Her work, writing, and advice have been featured in national outlets including The Today Show, Women's Health, Health Magazine, and Well + Good and she appears regularly as a trainer on Daily Burn’s Emmy-nominated show DB365.

Welcome to Lost in the Supermarket. Whether you're a shopper or whether you're the CEO of a major food company or a retail organization, the number one concern that everybody has when you walk in a supermarket, it's about the produce department. Think about it for a moment. What you've got is you've got these fabulous colors, you've got this great aroma. Basically it's putting you in a great mood for a great shopping experience. So today I'm really thrilled to have with us Chris Jorgenson. Not only is Chris one of the state of the art produce managers in the nation, but he just won the International Fresh Produce Association Produce Manager Award of the year. 

Mylk Labs is a woman & minority-owned food start-up based in California. Born out of the need for convenience, founder Grace Cheng created a better-for-you oatmeal cup that uses only 4-6 ingredients, a lot less sugar and no added flavors-- ever.Grace Cheng is a fashion model, first-time entrepreneur, and founder of Mylk Labs. Juggling two different career paths, Grace emphasizes the importance of eating healthy on the go and using the knowledge gained as a USC Alumna, she's now sharing her secret go-to breakfast while traveling the world as the face of many prestigious brands.

It was about a month or so ago at the RDBA virtual experience that I met our next guest. Chef Barton Seaver is a seafood expert. World Oceans Day is coming up in just a few days from now. So I couldn't think of a better person to talk to about sustainability, about seafood and with the background, that chef Barton has.

Our food supply is in the headlines every day – as prices soar, shortages increase and a war 6,000 miles away has the head of the U.N. Food Programme predicting that it’ll get even worse. U.S. farmers are working hard to establish a safe and secure food supply domestically while climate change is creating new challenges every day. One of our core crops comes from the hard work of our US soy farmers; so I invited Mac Marshall from the United Soybean Board to give us the lowdown.  Mac serves as the Vice President, Market Intelligence for the United Soybean Board (USB) and U.S. Soybean Export Council (USSEC). His background includes serving as a staff economist at the US Bureau of Labor Statistics with a focus on agriculture commodities. Mac serves as an industry source of market information and analysis here and globally. I can think of no one better to give us the real take about what’s going on.

Food packaging is in the news. Over the past year, there have been more than 250,000 news reports about food packaging. Topics including edible packaging, eco-friendly packaging, phthalates, and single-use plastics are creating headlines and generating interest.  This webcast and podcast is designed to help retail RDs cut through the headlines and gain clearer understanding about food packaging benefits and risks related to food safety, health threats, food waste, environmental impact and more. During this segment, David Smith offers an overview of the current food packaging industry and highlights some of the most common misconceptions. David also provides insights into the myriad of challenges food companies face when evaluating packaging choices, such as compatibility with food ingredients, material sourcing, integration into food processing, food protection/safety, consumer perception, recycling, and reuse.

Throughout history, food processing has played a critical role in building a safe, accessible, healthy and sustainable food system.  More recently, there has been growing criticism and confusion among health professionals, researchers and media regarding the benefits associated with the consumption of processed foods, especially against the evolving scientific discourse around ultra-processed foods.During this podcast episode, Phil Lempert interviews food scientist Eric Decker, Phd, about the historical role processed foods have played to ensure we have a safe, accessible, healthy and sustainable food system. Dr. Decker describes the benefits and techniques of food processing and highlight how it can improve compliance to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Lastly, Dr. Decker shares insights that retail dietitians can use when communicating with consumers about processed foods.

Today, we're gonna talk about the future. We're gonna talk about indoor farming. We're gonna talk about aquaculture. And with me is Jason Green, the CEO and co-founder of Upward Farms based in Brooklyn, New York, and a breakthrough vertical farming company who brings whole ecosystems into controlled environmental agriculture, through aquaponic farming of leafy greens, fish, and a robust and beneficial microbiome. Back in 2013, Jason and his partners started upward farms. They were the only large scale vertical farm that offers locally grown, washed, and ready to eat USDA certified organic leaf greens and best aquaculture practices, certified fish upward farm grows and packs superior quality microgreens that are bursting with delicious flavor and nutrients that are best selling products at whole foods.

Microsoft and Bayer recently announced a strategic partnership to build a new cloud-based set of digital tools and data science solutions for use across the food and agriculture sector. These new capabilities will be available to businesses – from startups to global enterprises – to accelerate innovation, boost efficiency and support sustainability across food value chains. Through this partnership Bayer will work with Microsoft to co-develop new solutions that address critical industry scenarios such as farming operations, sustainable sourcing, manufacturing and supply chain improvement, as well as ESG monitoring and measurement. In this session, representatives from Bayer and Microsoft will share more about the new partnership and how it's poised to benefit food, agriculture and adjacent industries.

Decarbonization is key when it comes to combating climate change, and agriculture plays a major role in it. To support farmers in driving sustainability across the entire value chain, Bayer collaborates with Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Bushel in Project Carbonview – a data solution that will help ethanol producers in the United States report, analyze and assess their end-to-end supply chain carbon footprint. This new solution marks the latest development by Bayer – who is working to build a portfolio of farmer-facing programs to complement our existing Bayer Carbon Initiative, a program which incentivizes the adoption of climate-smart practices, creating new revenue streams for growers who use technology to keep carbon in the soil – and out of the atmosphere.. Join Max Dougherty- Carbon Business Development Lead for Bayer- Crop Science as he chats carbon, farming, and what this could mean for the value chain.

The Future of Food is Now. The Bayer Marana, AZ site is a smart greenhouse facility aimed at driving tailored solutions for the future of agriculture. This site focuses on seed production and agricultural innovation, leveraging the latest in automation to optimize plant density and workflow. Join us as Megan Dickens provides a short virtual tour and dives into sustainability practices and how research taking place now shapes the future of agriculture.

Have you ever thought about how plant breeding can help mitigate food waste, improve sustainability, and improve flavor? These are a few things plant breeders think about when creating new varieties of some of your favorite produce. Bayer's High Rise™ Broccoli series has been 20 years in the making.  Developed in collaboration with growers, the High Rise broccoli series offers supply chain-wide benefits from field to store to table.

Today we talk digital commerce. It’s the focus of every grocery retailer – from one store operations to the largest chains with thousands of stores. Here’ to give us an update and a look into the future is Barry Clogan, Chief Product Officer at Wynshop / Mi9 Retail a retail veteran with 20+ years of experience working internationally in retail, grocery, and extensively in e-commerce. In his previous role as President at MyWebGrocer, Barry helped the world’s largest grocers launch online grocery services and execute their multichannel strategies. Before joining MyWebGrocer, Barry spent five years at Tesco, where he led the rollout of the world’s largest online grocery business across eight international markets.

Technology, technology technology. It's all that the grocery industry is thinking about. How to increase efficiencies better than the shopper experience and create bigger basket size today. My guest is Spencer Price co-founder and CEO of Halla. Halla is the taste intelligence company and creator of the only human preference engine that's designed for grocery. Its tastes intelligence uses AI to redefine personalization and to predict what individual shoppers will actually want to buy next in real time.

The growing belief among consumers that nutritious foods are only those made with minimal, easy-to-pronounce ingredients presents a new challenge and educational opportunity for retail professionals: demonstrate that all of our food is chemically composed and ingredients like monosodium glutamate (MSG) – unfamiliar as they may sound – can be safe and offer real health and flavor benefits. This episode takes a deep dive into MSG's history, science, and benefits (like sodium reduction) as a way to equip retail professionals with the facts and support educated food decisions.ReferencesMSG Safety, Facts and Science (KnowMSG.com)MSG and Sodium Reduction: Research and Resources (KnowMSG.com)Guidance for Industry: Voluntary Sodium Reduction Goals (FDA)

My guest today is Matt Schwartz , the CEO and co-founder of Afresh, an AI technology company, that builds solutions specifically for the complexity of fresh food to radically reduce food waste. One of our nation's biggest problems and multiply groceries profitability, and make fresh nutrient dense food accessible for everyone. He started Afresh, because his deep experience working in food led them to believe that improving the food system is our single best path to improving human and environmental health.

My guest today is Kevin Brown CEO and the co-founder of Innit. Now, Kevin has more than 20 years experience in food tech, search security and cloud sectors, and wants to announce a new partnership that they have. That's really going to change the way we think about grocery shopping. There's no question that during the pandemic we've had a lot of retailers invest in a lot of technology. And to be honest with you, the reality is that some of the retailers have thrown away a lot of money because they just haven't really looked at what that customer experience is all about.

Brad Charron is CEO of Aloha, an employee-owned and operated company committed to making the healthiest, best-tasting plant-based protein products on the planet. A classically trained CPG operator, Brad has worked on powerful entrepreneurial brands including Chobani, Under Armour and KIND Snacks.

Today with me is Kimberly Griffith, a Clinical Research Partner for Thryve.  She is also a microbiome researcher and Functional Medicine nutritionist that uses science-based, individualized approaches to promote optimal wellness for each individual. Her persistent focus within lifestyle medicine application and research is firmly founded within the microbial community, understanding health effects from gut, skin, oral and vaginal dysbiosis and how best to optimize each biome for ideal health and wellness. Kimberly is a board Certified Nutrition Specialist and holds a Masters of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine, alongside continual education within microbiome research.

One of my favorite topics to discuss on Lost in the Supermarket is innovation in our food world and to interview those insightful game changers. On today's episode, we have Keith Belling, CEO and Co-Founder of Right Rice. Keith is one of those innovators who look just a little bit differently at our foods which opens up a whole new way of looking at our grocery stores.

Phil Lempert Interviews Amy's Kitchen  co-founders Rachel and Andy Berliner.  Started in 1987, Amy’s, for the first time, was named one of the Top 50 Brands in the U.S. in the Prophet Brand Relevance Index based on a survey of 13,000 consumers.  Join us as we discuss the past, present and future for Amy's.

SupermarketGuru and RDBA CEO interviews co-founders and best friends Hannah Hong and Mollie Cha from Must Love, a modern-day non-dairy ice cream brand.

Today, we're going to talk about regenerative farming, which is a rehabilitative approach to agriculture that focuses on top soil regeneration, improving the water cycle enhancing ecosystem services, increasing resilience to climate change and strengthening the health and vitality of farm soil with me is the CEO co-founder of Nutrition for Longevity, Jennifer Maynard. Jennifer worked in the biotech and pharmaceutical specialty medicine areas for over 20 years. After putting two decades of her passion into changing people's lives through modern medicine, she felt her knowledge and experience would be better served focusing on food as medicine. The term that we hear a lot of these days, even though progress has been made with medicine, the battle with chronic illness is being lost. In order to address this, she founded greeter greens or regenerative organic farm as the first step to bring this movement front and center and to help focus on the root of our health challenges. Once the farm was fully operational, she co-founded nutrition for longevity of farm to fork meal kit company that focuses on bringing nutritionally tailored meals to the masses direct from her farms.

Adam Melonas is the Founder & CEO of Chew, a food innovation lab that boldly redefines what is possible in the world of packaged food and drink by creating products that are delicious, nutritious, sustainable, profitable, and scalable. Through his work and “anything is possible” mindset, Adam and the team partner with the world’s largest food and beverage manufacturers to overcome barriers to innovation by creating game-changing snack food and beverage items. 

During this unprecedented time in our lives, you are probably seeing more customers shopping your stores who are concerned about how much they are spending on groceries. Retail dietitians can provide guidance to these shoppers while offering solutions for purchasing foods that will deliver the most nutrition for their money. It is important, however, to make sure communications are respectful, positive and meaningful. Join us as we talk with Nestlé, the largest food and beverage company in the world, to discuss how they develop products that deliver taste, nutrition and value to today’s shoppers and their recommendations and resources for connecting with budget-minded customers.

Mike Wystrach is co-founder and CEO of Freshly, a weekly subscription service delivering healthy and fully prepared meals directly to customers’ doorsteps.•Freshly is a weekly subscription service delivering fresh, chef-cooked meals that can be heated and served in 3 minutes directly to customers' doors. All that is needed is a microwave, fork and plate to get a satisfying lunch or dinner on the table. •Between August 2019 and summer 2020 the company grew from delivering 600,000 weekly meals in the U.S. to well over 1 million•In April 2020, the company launched Freshly for Business•In October 2020 the company was acquired by Nestle for up to $1.5 billion – Nestle had already been an investor •Customers can get meals as cheap as $8.49 per meal

Today its all about Thanksgiving – and what we can expect to find in our grocery stores and what we will be serving during this year’s very unconventional celebration of our foods.With me to figure out the 2020 version of Thanksgiving is, Stephanie Schultz, MSM, RDN, CD, who is leading the charge among those changing what it means to be a dietitian in a grocery company. ... In her first five years with Festival Foods, Schultz built a traditional retail dietitian program and took on food safety and regulatory management. She was the first winner of the Retail Dietitians Business Alliance RD of the Year Award, and frankly just one of the smartest and nicest people I know.

On Today's Lost in the Supermarket episode, Phil talks with Jason Hosking, CEO & Co-Founder of Hivery, The worlds first category management optimization solution.

In today's episode Phil interviews Nick Nikitas, CEO and co-founder of Rosie.  Rosie is a locally focused e-commerce company where shoppers can find and discover anything they might want to buy from local stores.