Top 10: Onion outbreak, supply chain issues continue, Wegmans voted a great place to work - SmartBrief

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Top 10: Onion outbreak, supply chain issues continue, Wegmans voted a great place to work

Food retail stories, along with food safety and supply chain news, made appearances in this week’s top 10, with supply chain taking almost a third of the spots on the list.

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Top 10: Onion outbreak, supply chain issues continue, Wegmans voted a great place to work

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Food retail stories, along with food safety and supply chain news, made appearances in this week’s top 10, with supply chain taking almost a third of the spots on the list.

Supply chain issues are spreading across foodservice, schools and the consumer packaged goods industries, with news about restaurants struggling with sourcing takeout packaging coming in as the fourth most-read story this week, out-of-stock percentages trending higher with consumer packaged goods, and the Richmond County School System in Georgia giving parents a heads up that while school meals haven’t been affected by supply chain issues yet, it is a possibility.

In more uplifting news, 89% of Wegmans Food Markets employees voted the company a great place to work, according to the rankings from Great Place to Work and Fortune magazine. Pivots driven by the pandemic that have helped assure safety and health were considered in the voting, with Target, Nugget Market and Publix also finishing in the list’s top five.

Most-read this week was news about Kroger’s future — the food retailer is using a robot-powered warehouse in Florida to establish a foothold in the market without owning any physical stores in the state, a strategy the grocer also will use in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Using an online-only strategy helps Kroger set itself apart, with CEO Rodney McMullen explaining that “[b]y going into the market with a shed, it’s really offering something that’s not offered in the same way today.”

In food safety, news about a partial list of retail establishments, which includes several Walmart stores, that may have sold onions from Mexico linked to an ongoing Salmonella Oranienburg outbreak being released by the FDA came in as the second most-read story this week. Another popular story covered the results of the FDA’s Food Safety and Nutrition Survey for 2019, which revealed that people are more concerned with risks related to raw meats than they are with produce. The data also showed that most consumers are aware of salmonella and E. coli.

Check out the complete list of the top 10 most-read stories in food and beverage this week:

  1. How Kroger’s Fla. strategy is shaping its future
  2. FDA names stores that sold onions linked to outbreak
  3. Wegmans is again the No. 1 place to work in retail
  4. Sourcing takeout packaging is a struggle for restaurants
  5. FDA report: Meat risks dominate consumer concerns
  6. Consumer Brands: Out-of-stock products increasing
  7. Federal support needed to remedy supply chain disruptions
  8. Hershey to buy Dot’s Pretzels, co-producer for $1.2B
  9. Ga. parents advised about possible school menu changes
  10. Dine Brands shares growth plans for IHOP, Applebee’s

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