Readers Respond
As we continue to try to improve Fresh Cut, I’m always looking for reader comments – and many of you have responded to my requests with e-mails for story ideas and topic suggestions.
But to add to this and include more opinions, we recently conducted a survey of our readers. From this survey, we received many good comments and suggestions, and I look forward to continuing on this path for the magazine.
Among those who took the survey, 20 percent were processors and about 16 percent were equipment and input suppliers and growers. The rest were split among produce distributors, restaurants, grocers, packer/shippers, foodservice distributors and others. This just shows me that our readership is very broad and Fresh Cut needs to expand its editorial coverage to include topics of interest to everyone.
By a wide margin, the most requested article topic was for new products. Everyone wants to know what’s out there now and what’s on the horizon. Keep an eye on our industry news section where we feature some of the newest items. We also offer a product showcase and a new product section toward the back of the magazine that will give you insight into what’s new. But remember, if you have a new product you want to tell the industry about, let us know. We can’t report on something we haven’t heard about yet. And we’re as eager as you to hear what’s fresh out there.
A not-so-distant second topic was industry trends and innovations. These, along with the third and fourth categories – packaging and new varieties, respectively – also could be classified as fresh ideas. Following industry trends and reporting on them is what we do. As we get closer to the new year, it’s natural to look at trends and the future. We’ll be looking at what the industry is doing and where it’s going. To do your job, you need to know what’s going on out there and what’s driving consumer buying and eating habits. And to do our jobs, we need to know that, too.
A very close fifth topic of interest for survey respondents was food safety. Food safety plays a role in every step of every process for your industry. And food safety practices can make you or break you. In the future, we’ll continue to cover food safety with special sections throughout the year dedicated to the topic. But we’ll also cover food safety throughout the year with our other industry features. For example, in this issue’s “A Rainbow of Flavor,” Doug Ranno, COO of Colorful Harvest, talks, among other things, about the food safety requirements for the company.
So as you continue to look at the driving forces in the industry and the newest products out there, continue to turn to Fresh Cut as the only monthly source dedicated solely to the fresh-cut industry.
And let us know what you’re doing. Let us know how we’re doing. E-mail me at [email protected], call me at (616) 887-9008 or send me a fax to (616) 887-2666. As always, I’m eager to hear – or read – what’s on your mind.
