“The first responsibility of a leader is to define reality. The last is to say thank you. In between the two, the leader must become a servant and a debtor”.   Max De Pree, Leadership Is An Art

This is my favorite quote from the book Leadership is an Art. It is an attempt by the author to answer the rather large question, what is leadership?

The thing I love about this quote is that it’s so utterly true. It is the first concise description that I’ve found that explains, wholly and completely the beginning and end of what a leader is most responsible for. If they can just do these things, everything else will fall into place.

Ever heard of winterized olive oil? It’s not commonly discussed, but it’s a good topic to bring up since we’re in the midst of winter.

Winterized olive oil is any grade of olive oil that has had the waxes removed so that it doesn’t solidify in the cold weather (or in the refrigerator). This process is most commonly done on oils that will be used in dressings — it helps an oil-based dressing stay liquid in the fridge.

There’s a few discussions that are at play here. First, what is winterizing? And why would any olive oil need to be winterized in the first place? Lastly, if you’re looking for a winterized olive oil, we can give you some general guidelines and try to point you in the right direction. 

This article was originally a case study published by Omega-9 Oils, and is printed here with permission. Their canola seed, used to produce the oil that this article refers to, is now available from Centra Foods in a non-GMO form as Non-GMO High Oleic Canola Oil.

The Omega-9 Oils team partnered with a national polished casual-dining restaurant chain with an extensive menu.

Many plates include fried items, from “drop and fry” items such as fries and potstickers, to signature hand-breaded chicken, shrimp and fish. The excess moisture and breading from these hand-battered items causes more rapid degradation of the frying oil, which drove interest in and support of a fry test.

The trial compared their current oil, commodity soybean, with a blend of Omega-9 Canola and corn oil.

Did you know that if olive oil gets cold, it turns into a butter-like consistency? This isn’t a big deal if you’re cooking at home — but if you’re negotiating cold winters in a food manufacturing plant, it can be a much bigger challenge. Perhaps you’ve even experienced it.

This poses a great question for production managers: what do you do when bulk olive oil solidifies?

Luckily, there’s lots of reasonably simple ways to handle this in your warehouse. Long story short, you’ll need to heat the oil to liquify it, which will allow you to get pumping. The other good news is that when olive oil solidifies, the quality remains the same, so you have nothing to worry about.

If you’ve ever debated about switching from small cubes (or 35 Lb. Containers) to bulk totes — these are big big ones, 275-330 gallons — this article is for you. Today we will weigh the pros and cons to decide if they will work for your plant.

I’ve personally written a lot about how to use the bulk totes over the last couple of years. You’ll learn bits of information in each one. But I wanted to create an ultimate guide to making this decision — that way, you can understand how everything goes together, what you’ll need in your facility and how you can make the final call.

The term “omega” is usually thought of to be something healthy … a related to food and nutrition… and you should get more of them.

But do you really know what omega’s are? Most people don’t.

The more important question is why do your customers want to eat foods that contain omegas? Because healthy consumers everywhere are aware of the benefits and they are, in fact, looking for products that offer them. Understanding what each type of omega is, and why it’s healthy or unhealthy will give you some insight into your customers’ mindset.

Did you know that your oil is made up of a few different types of fats — some of which are regarded as healthy and some of which are not?

There are 3 common types of fat. The most common example is saturated fat: on a nutrition label, this specific type is listed as a subcategory below total fat on the nutrition label.

Though they’re not often mentioned, there are 2 more subtypes that could be listed in the same area: monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats. These are the types of fats that most people in the oils business take notice of, because they are what is considered “good fat”. On the flip side, saturated fat is commonly considered to be the “bad fat”. (Trans fat seems to be in it’s own category, a widely known bad type of fat that is artificially created through partial-hydrogenation).

By looking at the different types of fat and the ratios of each within an oil, you can determine which ones are healthier and which ones you should limit.

Your order to any supplier is, at the very least, a gentleman’s agreement on both sides. Of course, to be able to get just what you’re looking for, you’ll need to make sure that you include all of the necessary details.

When’s the last time that your ordered a shirt on Amazon and you didn’t have to specify the size, or your shipping address?

Do you remember Centra Foods 5 years ago? What was once a small olive oil company has grown into a large organic and non-gmo oil supplier to manufacturers and food service.

In case you are searching for new oils in 2016, we wanted to spend a moment to review the full list of oils that you can now source from us. It’s not just olive oil anymore!

Have you ever wondered how Centra Foods came to be? Today I’d like to introduce Tom and Tedeen Franz, owners of Centra Foods and Senza Fine, LLC.

Centra Foods is owned by Tom and Tedeen Franz, a husband and wife team who are down to earth, and focused on growing Centra Foods in a way that will make a positive impact on our industry and the rest of the world.

Here is their story.

I don’t know about you, but I always forget to put up my out of office replies. It’s something that I remember to do late at night or early in the morning on the first day of my vacation.

When I do put them up, I’m always in such a rush to get out the door (or back to my breakfast) that I usually go with the generic response you always see.

“I’m out of the office… Please contact so and so.”

But I was recently inspired to do better — hilariously better. And in the spirit of the upcoming holidays, I’ve compiled my favorite list of the best out of office replies I’ve seen.

Creating a marketing strategy is always a challenge — for any brand. But in the food industry, I think businesses encounter really unique challenges to market their products.

As the VP of Marketing and Sales at Centra Foods, I’ve kept a close eye on B2B and B2C companies implementing their own marketing strategies. I also do a lot of research on marketing in the food space, and I think that marketing for food brands in the natural and organic industry requires some unique advice.

I’m going to go over 7 basics that I’d recommend for any natural food brands working in the B2C space. That is, business to consumer — selling directly to retail grocery stores and/or end consumers.

This isn’t a set-in-stone rulebook, but more of a recommendation based on advice from marketing pros, taking into account what other food brands in the natural/organic space are doing.

Alchemy Systems works with some of the biggest brands in the food industry helping them save money, reduce risk and manage their operations. They also provide consulting that helps companies “protect their people, profits and brands”. Their specialty focuses on food safety, workplace safety and operations solutions that will optimize food production front lines.

Recently, I sat down with Holy Mockus, an expert at Alchemy Systems. Holly and I spoke about some of the challenges and trends that she sees in the food industry, and how she would recommend that companies begin to tackle them.

To give you a bit of background, Holly has over 30 years of experience in the food industry at companies like ConAgra, Kellogg, and Sara Lee.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) made an official statement on June 16th, 2016 that partially hydrogenated oils (PHOs) are no longer “generally recognized as safe” or GRAS for use in human food.

This will mean a lot to food manufacturers and restaurants. At a very basic level, all food ingredients must be GRAS to be used in food production, which means that all producers will need to transition to other alternative healthier fats.

This statement comes as a result of their many years of findings on trans fats, a type of fat commonly found in partially hydrogenated oils. 

Ever wonder what all the fuss is about sunflower oil? In the last 2-3 years, the popularity of this oil has skyrocketed in the natural foods industry.

It just takes one stroll down the aisle of a Whole Foods Market — you’ll find tons of products that use sunflower oil as an ingredient.

The bigger question is why — what’s with the big push in popularity over the last few years? Well… lots of reasons.

The demand for non-GMO ingredients has been exponentially on the rise, and sunflower oil is one of few naturally non-gmo oils. It’s also priced reasonably, doesn’t have a strong flavor, and is considered by consumers to be one of the healthiest oil options out there.