Articles

As registered dietitians, no one has to tell you twice about the health benefits of pulses, but how can you break down barriers keeping consumers from adding pulses into their grocery carts making them part of their everyday eating habits?

During a recent symposium in Minneapolis, NPD staff shared insights on today's consumers, and how their habits impact the food industry.  Key insights and implications for the work of retail dietitians are highlighted here.

The 2018 Food Retailing Industry Speaks report explores those issues that impact food sales positively or negatively, describes some of the strategies retailers are using to differentiate themselves, and looks at the growing impact of e-commerce. Several of the results are encouraging for the current and future role of retail dietitians:

As retail dietitians you know the powerful health benefits that pears provide, yet too often, this unassuming fruit goes unnoticed by shoppers. How do you increase pear consumption among your shoppers – and produce sales for your stores? Stemilt Growers, a long-time leader in premium pears, recommends tapping into unconventional themes and creating special events with “hidden holidays” to highlight this nutrient powered fruit.  

My title is Nutrition Specialist. I work on the Quality Assurance team helping to ensure that all Giant Eagle’s private label food products display nutrition information that is both accurate and compliant with FDA and USDA guidelines.

A study conducted by FMI and Rodale in 2016 showed that 71% of parents said they would like to eat dinner with their child every night. Unfortunately, the frequency of family meals is low (FMI U.S. Grocery Shopper Trends, 2018). Conflicting schedules, a dislike of the food served, and the varied schedules of a busy family are often the key excused cited, however, positive momentum is being seen.

As retail dietitians, we regularly navigate a tricky path between managing business requirements while providing meaningful and effective wellness guidance for supermarket shoppers. This is a task that is complicated enough under the best of circumstances. But as many of us have experienced in retail, the only constant is change itself. There have been many ‘disruptors’ recently, from the rise of e-commerce to the growth of small format stores, but perhaps one of the most intimidating disruptions happening at retail is the increase of retail mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the last few years. However, these types of changes can bring great opportunities to you and your wellness initiatives if you maintain a flexible perspective while aligning with your retailer’s new strategic plan.

Change, evolution, progress. Powerful words. It’s been said that failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be. The nutrition industry is especially at risk of this. Why? Because nutrition is inherently personal.

Not only are Instagram Stories fun and creative, but they’re great for growing consumer engagement, building brand awareness, and driving traffic to your store. Perhaps you are looking for ways to improve how you use Instagram Stories to create captivating content for your shoppers, or are curious how to even begin? Regan Miller Jones, RD shares tips for effectively using Instagram Stories in your work as a retail dietitian:

Join us, as Modern Table hosts a webinar on the changing landscape of the pasta consumer, as pasta evolves from a “no food” to a “go food”.