Chipotle’s supply chain turnaround is in full effect

Chipotle has built a new supply chain team and made several operational changes in order to stage a comeback after the restaurant chain’s food safety issues reappeared in the form of a norovirus outbreak in August, which reportedly sickened 700 people. 

Carlos Londono, the new head of supply chain, was tapped for the role in the spring of 2018. “Our new supply chain team is now fully in place and we set to find efficiencies later in the year by strategically reviewing this sourcing of all of our ingredients,” CEO Brian Niccol said on a recent earnings call.

Read the full story at www.SupplyChainDive.com.

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How Bulletproof brews a transparent coffee supply chain

The supply chain has never been so marketable. Same-day delivery, 2-day shipping, recyclable packaging, sustainable sourcing, free trade, free returns — they all endear consumers to one product or retailer over another. But few brands are fundamentally built on the quality of their supply chain.

Enter Bulletproof. 

“We do definitely sell the supply chain and the purity of the products,” Keith Bone, VP of supply chain, quality and regulatory operations at Bulletproof 360, told Supply Chain Dive. “The simplicity of the products that we’re making and selling is a key component of the success we’ve seen to date.”

Read the full story at www.SupplyChainDive.com.

Walmart asks lettuce suppliers to trace products using blockchain

Walmart is turning to blockchain to trace leafy greens, an increasingly common move for any industry that needs to increase visibility from coffee to shipping containers.

“Suppliers will be required to capture digital, end-to-end traceability event information using the IBM Food Trust network,” according to the company. The letter to suppliers describes the software as both user-friendly and low-cost.

Read the full story at www.SupplyChainDive.com.

4 technologies tackling food waste in the supply chain

Food waste statistics are easily misunderstood. Between all the stakeholders, consumers contribute the largest quantity of food waste — 27 million tons per year or 43% of the total, according to Refed, a U.S. nonprofit tasked with reducing food waste.

That stat alone has led to educational campaigns and ugly produce delivery services encouraging consumers to waste less​ and change the way they think about fresh produce.

But a recent analysis by the Boston Consulting Group determined the role of private sector companies is the “most critical” in the fight against food waste. Supply chain infrastructure and efficiency alone could reduce the amount of food wasted by $270 billion (in value) of what the report estimates to be a $1.5 trillion problem by 2050.

Read the full story at www.SupplyChainDive.com.

FDA Addresses Cultured Meat in Crucial First Step for New Industry

“There are no great mysteries when it comes to cell culture. This technology has been around for a long time,” said Jeremiah Fasano, a consumer safety officer focused on biotech and food additive safety at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Fasano was speaking at a July 12 public meeting in Maryland where scientists, lobbyists, and entrepreneurs gathered to discuss a crucial hurdle between much-hyped cultured meat products and consumers: regulation.

The purpose of the meeting was to “give interested parties and the public an opportunity to comment on these emerging food technologies.” The technologies in question are the processes often referred to as cellular agriculture, which scientists and entrepreneurs are working to use to create slaughter-free meat products at scale – often called cultured meat or lab-grown meat. 

Read the full story at www.AgFunderNews.com.

Former Whole Foods Co-CEO Walter Robb Joins S2G Ventures as Exec-in-Residence

In the wake of Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods just over a year ago, some of the company’s brightest talent have been entering the agrifood tech investment ecosystem.

Former vice president of grocery Errol Schweizer is now on the board of farm to consumer delivery service Good Eggs, insect farm Aspire Food Group and a large handful of other startups. Former global director of local brands product innovation Elly Truesdell is now chief strategy officer at consumer packaged goods (CPG) investor Canopy Foods.

But, the brightest talent of these departures is former Whole Foods co-CEO Walter Robb, who saw the acquisition through and left the company to form Stonewall Robb Advisors in 2017 to advise, invest in and mentor individuals and organizations committed to social justice and animal welfare.

Today, Chicago-based agrifood VC S2G Ventures announced that Robb will serve as executive-in-residence at the firm, helping the team identify new investments and mentor portfolio entrepreneurs who are moving the food system toward sustainability and health.

Read the full story at www.AgFunderNews.com.

Five Cultured Meat Startups Raise Funding as Fledgling Industry Comes into Focus

So far in 2018, at least five startups using cellular agriculture, the science behind cultured meat that can be used to manufacture many animal products in a lab setting, have raised funds as this fledgling industry diversifies and grows.

First in January, SuperMeat, an Israeli cultured meat startup, raised a $3 million seed round to develop its cultured chicken product. Also that month, Tyson Food Ventures joined Memphis Meats’s $17 million Series A round, originally announced last August.

In March, Wild Earth,  a Berkeley, California-based startup focusing on pet food raised a $4 million seed round. Just a few weeks later, The Wild Type, a San Francisco-based startup raised a $3.5 million seed round to focus on culturing salmon.

Perfect Day Foods, a California startup using cellular agriculture to produce dairy products raised a $24.7 million Series A round earlier this month.

And though its not quite funding news, it is also notable that, JUST (formerly Hampton Creek), which has forecasted that it would have a cultured meat product on shelves this year, lost its director of cellular agriculture and another leading researcher in January, who then incorporated a company called Mission Barns, according to Gizmodo. The JUST positions have since been filled. 

Read the full story at www.AgFunderNews.com.