Ben Ames has spent 20 years as a journalist since starting out as a daily newspaper reporter in Pennsylvania in 1995. From 1999 forward, he has focused on business and technology reporting for a number of trade journals, beginning when he joined Design News and Modern Materials Handling magazines. Ames is author of the trail guide "Hiking Massachusetts" and is a graduate of the Columbia School of Journalism.
Food retailers and their freight carrier partners will face new technical, financial, and operational requirements that will be phased in starting in 2023 when safety regulators formalize a list of 16 sensitive food types that must be kept in precise temperature ranges during transportation.
Known as Section 204, the new list from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will add to current mandates under the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA) that require shippers and carriers to ensure that certain foods stay cool during transit.
The change will happen in January 2023, 60 days after the final rule is published this November, but the FDA will give companies a period of two years to comply, according to iFoodDS, a Seattle vendor of software solutions used by produce companies to manage food safety data programs. That means that retailers, wholesalers, and their trading partners must maintain records of every movement of the specific food categories from the point of origin to the point of sale to the consumer, beginning in 2025.
The FDA compiled its list by comparing the risk factors for a wide range of food types, based on their frequency of outbreaks, severity of illnesses, likelihood of contamination, and other factors. The resulting list of 16 “high risk foods” incudes certain cheeses, vegetables, fish, crustaceans, and ready-to-eat deli salads.
The NGA said that once Section 204 is published, it will take time to adopt new technology and change processes to fully implement end-to-end traceability. The trade association says it will use the new partnership to provide resources for that process as its members prepare for the switch.
“Food safety is of paramount importance to independent grocers and their supplier partners,” Greg Ferrara, NGA president and CEO, said in a release. “NGA’s partnership with ReposiTrak is the latest in a series of ongoing initiatives to enhance value for our members by sharing best practices in an area that’s crucial to safeguarding the hard-earned trust that retailers and manufacturers have with consumers.”
Consulting firm Accenture has taken another step to bulk up its supply chain advisory capabilities, announcing Monday that it has acquired Allitix, a California-based consulting and technology company specializing in Anaplan solutions with capabilities across financial planning and analysis, sales performance management, and supply chain.
Anaplan is a Florida provider of corporate performance management (CPM) systems, which it defines as enterprise cloud software that empowers organizations to see, plan, and lead better business outcomes by aligning their strategic objectives and resources.
Allitix provides tailored Anaplan-based solutions across finance, sales, supply chain, and human resources functions, with specific competencies in the manufacturing, consumer, technology, media and telecom, and financial services industries.
“Demand for connected enterprise planning is on the rise, given its ability to unlock business value and spur total enterprise reinvention,” David Leckstein, senior managing director and lead, Americas Technology at Accenture, said in a release. “Allitix’s highly skilled talent, deep domain expertise, and agile approach to implementation complements our broader digital capabilities and further expands our ability to deliver integrated enterprise planning transformations for our clients that drive better, faster insights and bottom-line value.”
Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but Accenture said that the acquisition adds 73 employees, including over 60 Anaplan functional and technical professionals to Accenture Technology in North America, with expertise across solution architecture, model building, integration, and data management.
Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, but Mode Global said it will now assume Jillamy's comprehensive logistics and freight management solutions, while Jillamy's warehousing, packaging and fulfillment services remain unchanged. Under the agreement, Mode Global will gain more than 200 employees and add facilities in Pennsylvania, Arizona, Florida, Texas, Illinois, South Carolina, Maryland, and Ontario to its existing national footprint.
Chalfont, Pennsylvania-based Jillamy calls itself a 3PL provider with expertise in international freight, intermodal, less than truckload (LTL), consolidation, over the road truckload, partials, expedited, and air freight.
"We are excited to welcome the Jillamy freight team into the Mode Global family," Lance Malesh, Mode’s president and CEO, said in a release. "This acquisition represents a significant step forward in our growth strategy and aligns perfectly with Mode's strategic vision to expand our footprint, ensuring we remain at the forefront of the logistics industry. Joining forces with Jillamy enhances our service portfolio and provides our clients with more comprehensive and efficient logistics solutions."
In addition to its flagship Clorox bleach product, Oakland, California-based Clorox manages a diverse catalog of brands including Hidden Valley Ranch, Glad, Pine-Sol, Burt’s Bees, Kingsford, Scoop Away, Fresh Step, 409, Brita, Liquid Plumr, and Tilex.
British carbon emissions reduction platform provider M2030 is designed to help suppliers measure, manage and reduce carbon emissions. The new partnership aims to advance decarbonization throughout Clorox's value chain through the collection of emissions data, jointly identified and defined actions for reduction and continuous upskilling.
The program, which will record key figures on energy, will be gradually rolled out to several suppliers of the company's strategic raw materials and packaging, which collectively represents more than half of Clorox's scope 3 emissions.
M2030 enables suppliers to regularly track and share their progress with other customers using the M2030 platform. Suppliers will also be able to export relevant compatible data for submission to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), a global disclosure system to manage environmental data.
"As part of Clorox's efforts to foster a cleaner world, we have a responsibility to ensure our suppliers are equipped with the capabilities necessary for forging their own sustainability journeys," said Niki King, Chief Sustainability Officer at The Clorox Company. "Climate action is a complex endeavor that requires companies to engage all parts of their supply chain in order to meaningfully reduce their environmental impact."
Supply chain risk analytics company Everstream Analytics has launched a product that can quantify the impact of leading climate indicators and project how identified risk will impact customer supply chains.
Expanding upon the weather and climate intelligence Everstream already provides, the new “Climate Risk Scores” tool enables clients to apply eight climate indicator risk projection scores to their facilities and supplier locations to forecast future climate risk and support business continuity.
The tool leverages data from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to project scores to varying locations using those eight category indicators: tropical cyclone, river flood, sea level rise, heat, fire weather, cold, drought and precipitation.
The Climate Risk Scores capability provides indicator risk projections for key natural disaster and weather risks into 2040, 2050 and 2100, offering several forecast scenarios at each juncture. The proactive planning tool can apply these insights to an organization’s systems via APIs, to directly incorporate climate projections and risk severity levels into your action systems for smarter decisions. Climate Risk scores offer insights into how these new operations may be affected, allowing organizations to make informed decisions and mitigate risks proactively.
“As temperatures and extreme weather events around the world continue to rise, businesses can no longer ignore the impact of climate change on their operations and suppliers,” Jon Davis, Chief Meteorologist at Everstream Analytics, said in a release. “We’ve consulted with the world’s largest brands on the top risk indicators impacting their operations, and we’re thrilled to bring this industry-first capability into Explore to automate access for all our clients. With pathways ranging from low to high impact, this capability further enables organizations to grasp the full spectrum of potential outcomes in real-time, make informed decisions and proactively mitigate risks.”
According to New Orleans-based LongueVue, the “strategic rebranding” brings together the complementary capabilities of these three companies to form a vertically integrated flexible packaging leader with expertise in blown film production, flexographic printing, adhesive laminations, and converting.
“This unified platform enables us to provide our customers with greater flexibility and innovation across all aspects of packaging," Joe Piccione, CEO of Innotex, said in a release. "As we continue to evolve and adapt to the changing needs of the industry, we look forward to delivering exceptional solutions and service."