Baking & Snack - May 2017 - 14

General Mills spending more on food safety
General Mills, Inc., Minneapolis, increased its spending on food
safety to $16 million in 2016, up from $13 million in 2015. The
company in its 2017 Global Responsibility Report, issued April
11, said 8% of its essential capital investment in 2016 went toward
projects related to food safety.
"Safety is a priority focus for our company leadership and part of
our culture," General Mills noted in the report. "Leading with safety
- both that of our employees in the workplace and the food they
make - is one of the key operating principles that guide our work."
General Mills has a legacy of food safety leadership, dating back
to the 1950s when the company established a raw material vendor
management program. In the 1970s the company developed food
safety programs for quality engineers at production facilities, and

in 1996 it pioneered allergen labeling on all products.
In 2016, General Mills increased training to support compliance
with the US Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA)'s Preventive
Controls Rule.
"General Mills played a key role in providing industry perspective during development of the FSMA - the most sweeping change
to US food safety regulations in 100 years," the company said. "To
prepare for the FSMA requirement that each food safety plan be reviewed by a Preventive Controls Qualified Individual (PCQI), 125 of
our employees participated in PCQI training; four employees were
trained as lead instructors and one person was certified to train the
trainers, helping us to scale this knowledge across the organization."
- Monica Watrous, Food Business News

Portability reigns king in traditional and new snacks
Portability and transparency are two leading trends in the world of
snack packaging. Now, more than ever, packaging matters.
These trends are being fueled by the way consumers think, and
data from IRI, show that people are thinking differently about how
their snacks are packaged. At SNAXPO, held April 1-4 in Atlanta,
Sally Lyons Wyatt, executive vice-president and practice leader,
noted a recent IRI study that shows 35% of consumers say they
want sustainable packaging on their products. Breaking the number
down by age reveals more than 50% of those consumers are 25 to 44
years old. Of those wanting sustainably packaged snacks, 47% want
biodegradable packaging.
Attributes like sustainability, biodegradability or recyclability add
to the transparency of the product, Ms. Lyons Wyatt said. When combined with claims and certifications like Non-GMO Project Verified,

gluten-free and organic, products are seeing growth in the market.
In traditional retail locations, smaller portions are rising in
popularity as they lend themselves more to portability. According
to Euromonitor International, 1- to 3-oz packages of savory snacks
reached almost 40% of total unit sales in the US by package size in
2016. Meanwhile, 4- to 6-oz packages made up about 16% of unit
sales, 7- to 9-oz packages made up 19%, and larger packages were all
below 15% and have been declining over the past five years.
"Portable formats are really excelling in the market. We've seen
strong growth from smaller pack sizes in savory snacks," said Jared
Koerten, senior food analyst, Euromonitor International. "The push
for portability is not limited to snacks, as staple foods are going to
innovate in this area as well."

Industry gathers for opening of Middleby Bakery Innovation Center
Marianne Kirkegaard, president and CEO, CSM Bakery Solutions,
Sandy Springs, GA, issued a challenge to the baking industry at
the opening of Middleby Bakery Group's new Bakery Innovation
Center (BIC) in Plano, TX: innovate more. She said the baking industry needs an innovative push, and the new Middleby BIC may
do just that. "Bakers can now come together and ideate around
new solutions, and that makes me very excited for the industry,"
Ms. Kirkegaard said.
The 30,000-sq-ft facility is home to a new series of production
lines including a 17-ft-wide Middleby 960 Hurricane tunnel oven
and a new Emico high-capacity makeup line. In addition, two
Auto-Bake lines will be available to produce a variety of bakery
products such as pan bread, special buns, baguettes, artisan bread,
muffins, cakes and cookies. The facility is the first of its kind for
bread, buns and sweet goods and offers opportunities for bakers to
test ideas in a protected environment.
Len Kilby, president, global sales, Middleby, and Mark Salman,
president, explained that the new facility allows bakers to identify

14 Baking & Snack May 2017 / www.bakingandsnack.com

product processing techniques before investing in a new production line. He described the facility as an extended research and development center for bakers around the world.
"We're going to get together bakers and suppliers and develop the
best products with the best brains in the industry," Mr. Salman said.
For more information about the Middleby BIC, visit
www.middlebybic.com.

http://www.middlebybic.com http://www.bakingandsnack.com

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