World Perspectives

Too Small to Matter

Vending Impact on Food Safety: Food industry research firm Technomics says that the retailer meal solutions (RMS; prepared meals for takeout) category in grocery stores is growing 6-13 percent annually, depending on the venue, and that it is a growing profit center versus the usual low margin rest of the store. Basically, Americans are eating more meals prepared away from home but not necessarily in a restaurant. Since Centers for Disease Control (CDC) data suggests that most foodborne illnesses occur as a result of poor handling practices in the home kitchen or local restaurant, large chain retailers with a strong focus on proper food handling should result in lower foodborne illness. In fact, they could have a larger impact than the Foo...

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Illuminating the value of technical research

On behalf of a commodity producer organization, WPI evaluated the outputs from a project that featured a $5 million investment into technical research over multiple years. WPI’s team captured the results of this extensive effort and synthesized them for presentation to the organization’s governing board; among the findings uncovered and presented for the first time was the development of genomic traits proven, via rigorous testing, to provide crop yield advantages of 50 percent or more to U.S. farmers in times of drought. Capturing measurable results from long-term efforts can be challenging. Educating clients on the dynamics of success measurement when quantifiable results are not readily available requires deep client-consultant collaboration and an ability to consider both near- and long-term client aspirations with market/policy dynamics – attributes that WPI brings to every consulting engagement.

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