MEAT+POULTRY Podcast – Détails, épisodes et analyse

Mark Bianchetti, president of the People’s Choice Beef Jerky has seen the California-based business and the area around it change throughout his life.

Nestled in the heart of downtown Los Angeles’ fashion district, People’s Choice has been a player in the specialty meat snacks industry for nearly a century.

Continually expanding its presence, not only on the west coast but beyond, the company continues to work on growth and change in the snack space.

In this episode of the MEAT+POULTRY podcast, Bianchetti shares his journey in leading the business, alongside his son Brian, and daughter, Sara, as he prepares to pass the torch to the next generation to take the family operation into the future.

With a commitment to honoring its roots, People’s Choice is also unafraid to explore new flavors and ideas suggested by its customers.

An example of that innovative approach is the development of a new product, Jerky Crisps, which creatively combines a chip-like product in a thin piece of meat.

Over the last few years, Chomps has grown into a steady player in the meat snack space.

One of the critical components of the brand’s success is the attention to detail in operations and finding the right partners to produce a quality product.

For this episode of the MEAT+POULTRY podcast, we talk with Rashid Ali, co-chief executive officer and Zach Meyer, senior director of operations.

During this discussion, Ali describes what it’s been like to watch Chomps grow and succeed with his co-founder Pete Maldonado.

Meyer and Ali examine how the company determines the necessary elements to build new meat snacks and maintain the original ones.

Rashid discusses how this e-commerce first company also picked the proper retail locations to grow its consumer base and create a new sales channel for Chomps.

As IPPE gears up for another full event in 2023, Nath Morris, executive vice president of the show for USPOULTRY, shared plans for the industry’s annual gathering in Atlanta.

During this episode of the MEAT+POULTRY podcast, Morris explains the essential planning and topics that USPOULTRY has been getting ready over the past few months. He also highlighted the importance of exhibitor participation and educational programs at the show including TECHTalks.

Morris mentioned that international registrants have made a comeback at this year’s IPPE after travel restrictions and the Omicron variant spreading in January 2022 decreased attendance by about 30%.

He also discussed the value of having three integrated trade shows at the same time with USPOULTRY, NAMI and the American Feed Industry Association.

Near the end of the conversation, Morris described how he’s seen industry shows change since COVID-19 and how important they’ve become as meeting points for poultry and others working in the meat industry.

Make sure to check out MEAT+POULTRY 2023 Processor’s Handbook before heading to the show.

After closing campuses in a frenzy during the spring due to the coronavirus pandemic, college and universities around the United States are bringing students back on campus while also staying socially distanced in the classroom.

Although some programs can be done remotely, meat science departments have a difficult time completing its necessary classes without in-person interaction

In this episode of the podcast, MEAT+POULTRY contributor and Texas A&M professor Jeff Savell tells listeners about how College Station, Texas is handling blended learning.

Savell discusses what students and staff have thought about the procedures to put their department back on campus.

He also talks about the different interactions with students and how it dramatically changes from in-person to Zoom.

Later, Savell looks at what meat education could look like the future.

Crowd Cow, an online purveyor of meat and poultry, started with two long-time friends offering their customers sustainability, transparency and origin stories combined with the convenience of the internet. In this episode of the MEAT+POULTRY podcast, co-founder Joe Heitzeberg explains why he believes online sales of fresh meat, poultry and other foods have jumped from niche to the “new normal” because of the pandemic – and maybe the lasting impact of a music file-sharing service called Napster.

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has turned the meat and poultry industry on its ear, forcing companies to experiment with various strategies and new ideas to survive the crisis while planning for the new normal whenever the dust finally settles.

The daily challenges created by the virus have forced everyone to adopt new mindsets and adapt new ways of working, socializing and maintaining productive lives. Temple Grandin, PhD, is no exception. A professor of animal science at Colorado State University, the world’s foremost expert on livestock handling for the meat and poultry industry and an inspiring speaker and voice for the autism community, Grandin’s life has been turned on its ear thanks to COVID-19.

In this week’s MEAT+POULTRY Podcast, Grandin discusses how she has pivoted her personal and professional life in the coronavirus era.

This week MEAT+POULTRY recorded one of the stories from the August edition of the magazine. Listen to the Small Business Matters feature.

For most small meat processors who have ventured into off-premises catering, the COVID-19 pandemic hit like a ton of bricks. Cancellations were massive and unceasing across the industry.

For Hess Meats Inc., a 105-year-old country meat shop in Willow Street, Pa., catering had become the main sail that powered their small family business. Then in mid-March, the ship seemed to have fallen off the edge of the Earth when large gatherings were prohibited.

Third-generation operator Lloyd Hess bought out his brother Paul’s share of the business in 2016, and last year turned over 51% of the ownership to his own son, Eric.

“We were just getting into our booking peak for catering for weddings and I got 19 cancellations in one day,” Lloyd said. “We do about 75 weddings a year and many were able to be rescheduled for later in the year or even into next year, but it almost brought us to our knees.

The World Series of Barbecue run by the Kansas City, Mo.-based American Royal remains one of the country’s biggest barbecue competition events every year. Teams from across the United States descend on the Kansas Speedway for top prizes in barbecue cooking.

But like many other major meat events, the Royal could not risk the safety of the competitors and thousands of spectators by holding its event in 2020.

In this week’s podcast, MEAT+POULTRY talked to Glen Alan Phillips, president and chief executive officer of the American Royal, about the process of trying to hold the Royal and ultimately having to cancel and start planning for 2021.

Phillips shared what the American Royal will have to do for the rest of the year to possibly hold some of their smaller livestock events in person while maintaining local guidelines.

There is also a short discussion on the American Royal’s new complex in Kansas City, Kan., that was scheduled to break ground earlier in 2020, but has been delayed due to the pandemic. Phillips talked about the vision for this new agricultural center in the heartland.

There’s a whole lot of pivoting going on in the food industry these days as retail operators tackle supply chain challenges and foodservice operators try to stay afloat.

We’ve all heard that the global pandemic is driving radical shifts in consumer shopping behavior. Euromonitor International, a leading provider of global strategic marketing intelligence, said the pandemic has spurred unprecedented levels of channel shift among consumer spending habits, and these shifts have pushed companies across industries to make significant operational adaptations to meet new consumer demands.

MEAT+POULTRY listened in to the Consumer Federation of America’s Virtual National Food Policy Conference held in July. Featured in a panel discussion of how COVID-19 is changing the US food system were Tom Bené, president and chief executive officer of the National Restaurant Association and Leslie Sarasin, president and CEO of FMI: The Food Industry Association who spoke about how their members are faring as the pandemic drags on.

Like many other events this year, the Southwest Meat Association convention did not look the same in 2020, thanks to the coronavirus pandemic. Instead, a team led by Joe Harris, president and chief executive officer of the Southwest Meat Association (SMA), set up a command center at ABF Packing in Texas to run its virtual convention.

During this week’s MEAT+POULTRY Podcast, Harris discusses how SMA pulled off the quick switch from an in-person plan to a virtual convention.

Harris describes the feedback he has received from the speakers and sessions from the event. He also shares what SMA has done for small meat processors during this difficult time and what his group plans to do for the rest of the year.

Check out all the information on the convention here.