In June, food inflation fell for the third month in a row. Will that soon translate into cheaper shopping carts too? At least supermarket food prices seem to be stabilising. The turnaround is partly due to food companies. Indeed, they have partly absorbed the increased costs with lower margins.

Retailers threatening to take products off the shelves, extended payment terms, pressure during negotiations... These are all unfair market practices that food companies can face. In a new Guide, Fevia now gives its members insight into how to protect themselves against them.

The 1D barcode or barcode has been around for 50 years. Now that this one-dimensional barcode has proved its worth for half a century, a successor is ready that will give consumers, manufacturers and retailers much more information, namely the 2D barcode.

Food safety is crucial for public health. To guarantee that food safety, a conclusive system for 'traceability' for food companies is an absolute must. However, keeping all info on processed products manually is both time-consuming and error-prone. Investing in software that automates traceability is therefore a better option

The food industry has always known challenges. But whoever says challenges also says opportunities. To seize those opportunities, the food industry can fortunately look to technology. For instance, specific ERP software for the food industry is constantly evolving, leading to more insight, more flexibility and higher productivity. However, a few points of attention are important here.

Until recently, there were two platforms to track the weekly evolution of cutting prices in the pig sector: the FEBEV Meat index and the Fenavian Vindex. This led to confusion. After a two-year integration process, both federations are now ready to work with the same pork index.

In 2006, Belpork launched its online tracking system Tracy. Many years later, an upgrade of this tool was imminent. One of the innovations is the integration of the digital food chain information form, or e-VKI for short. This will be the replacement for the BePork declaration form.

Last year, 2 per cent fewer animals were slaughtered in Belgium than in 2021. The decline was noticeable for all animal categories (except goats). With a 9 per cent drop, the number of pigs slaughtered dropped to its lowest level in 30 years.

Resilience, that quality virtually all companies threw into the fray during the successive corona waves. Digitally resilient companies succeeded a lot better than their peers that had not yet jumped on the digitisation train. Even now that corona no longer sticks in the wheels, digitisation remains a must for any self-respecting food company. There are three big reasons for this.

Food companies use Business Intelligence (BI) to analyse and understand their business data. The goal is to adjust their marketing and sales strategies, produce more efficiently and reduce their costs.

Food traceability is very important for the safety and quality of the products we consume. In the food industry, it is crucial that companies are able to identify and trace the origin of their products so that any problems can be quickly identified and resolved.

The food industry has specific workflow management requirements, from receiving to distribution. An integrated software solution can help automate and track every aspect of this workflow.

Since the 1980s, De Drie Wilgen has been selecting the very best local fruit to produce what are now more than 35 varieties of organic fruit juices.

Have you digitised your company's processes step by step? Then you are ready for the next step: automating your processes. This also applies to smaller companies, by the way.

Digitisation is a form of change. Specific to any change is that resistance can never be ruled out. How you can respond to this as a company, you will read in this blog.

Today, we already digitise to our hearts' content in our private lives. And we have to keep up in our professional lives too. The digitisation story may look a little more complex, but at the end of the ride it leads to more efficiency…

For more than two years, the food industry has had crisis after crisis on its plate. For quite a few companies, therefore, the next crisis threatens to be the shock wave too many. So says an interview by Trends with umbrella federation Fevia.

In response to the energy crisis, rising labour costs and the faltering supply chain, the government approved a number of measures to support food producers. However, more will be needed to ensure food production and supply this winter.

An iVox survey commissioned by the Flemish Centre for Agri Marketing (VLAM) shows that 96% of the population of our country still eats meat. At the same time, the number of meals with meat is decreasing, which means that meat consumption will decrease in the long term.

After surveying more than 3,000 Belgian cattle farmers in the past three years, Belbeef has presented the first sustainability monitor. It maps the efforts made by the sector to work in a more sustainable way

A few statements and tweets from Environment Minister Zuhal Demir made the agri-food sector crawl into the pen. In an open letter, the sector provided the correct figures and information about meat production in Flanders to avoid further polarising the social debate.

How can you find which spices have been used in any final product? Raw materials and product flows are more complex and the number of product variants increases. How do you deal with it as a food processing company?

Many activities take place in both the cold room and the cutting room. Actions and manipulations cannot always be absorbed by a “standard” software solution. That is why Food IT-Solutions has various mobile solutions to manage animal and carcass data.

For the fourth time since brexit, the accompanying control measures for food and drink exports to the UK are being postponed, this time until the end of 2023. The digital certification is still not ready.

In April, the FAO food price index fell for the first time in a long time. Have the rising costs of production thus reached their ceiling or are we on a plateau until the next rise knocks?

Since the bankruptcy of Qualibeef and AMB in August 2019, the activities of the Bastogne slaughterhouse have been at a standstill. More than two years later, two buyers have finally been found.

After Flanders and Wallonia, it is possible that ritual slaughter without stunning will also be banned in Brussels. This is causing great concern at the Abattoir in Anderlecht, where 80% of the animals are slaughtered without stunning.

After the scarcity of raw materials and rising costs during the pandemic, the food chain finally seemed to be recovering somewhat. But since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, profitable production has again become very difficult for many food companies. The result of this crisis is a stress test for the entire food chain.

Consumers recognise the intrinsic quality of Belgian Blue meat. However, in restaurants it is often foreign meat that is on the menu. With the new Blue Vallon label, BBB Promotion, Faircoop and BELGIUMeats want to promote Belgian white and blue meat in the catering industry.

In March, the price of pork rose by more than 30%. The reason? A sharp increase in demand and a decrease in supply. This makes for more expensive shopping baskets for consumers, but for pig farmers the higher prices finally offer some perspective.

"An example of energy saving and sustainable water management", was the verdict during the visit of Minister of Agriculture and Food Hilde Crevits to our customer Denis-Plants from Beervelde on 4 April.

A few weeks after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, shortages of raw materials needed for production are looming and energy prices have risen to unprecedented levels.

After months of negotiations, the Flemish government finally reached a consensus on the nitrogen dossier at the end of February. In the agricultural sector, however, there is great concern and uncertainty about the nitrogen deal.

Resilience, that quality virtually all companies threw into the fray during the successive corona waves. Digitally resilient companies succeeded a lot better than their peers that had not yet jumped on the digitisation train. Even now that corona no longer sticks in the wheels, digitisation remains a must for any self-respecting food company. There are three big reasons for this.

The goal of this Tournai start-up is to create a complete agricultural chain for the processing of vegetable proteins and thus to provide an answer to the increasing demand for vegetarian food.

The highly contagious omikron variant threatens to jeopardize the production capacity of food companies. Not only do many staff drop out due to illness, many employees also have to quarantine.

In the middle of last year, Minister Crevits proclaimed 'Food connects farmer and citizen'. As full links within the food chain, many Flemish food companies have meanwhile hooked up.

The Belgian food industry cannot escape the sharp rises in costs. Nevertheless, the sector wants to continue to contribute to a sustainable food system with high-quality food and drinks. Fevia presented a brand new sustainability roadmap for this during its annual meeting.

At the beginning of December, Flemish farmers took action in various places against the lack of a clear nitrogen policy from the Flemish government. The agri-food sector shares that concern, as the impact on agriculture will no doubt permeate the entire agri-food chain (from suppliers to processors).

Since 2018, numerous slaughterhouses and slaughter lines for short-chain farmers have disappeared in Belgium. This means that these farmers have to drive many kilometers to have their animals slaughtered. And that is at odds with the whole idea of ​​the short chain.

The Frankfurt Messe is traditionally the place to be during IFFA to keep up with current and future trends within the food and meat industry. That will be no different from 14 to 19 May 2022. An overview of the most important themes that will be discussed during this three-year international trade fair.

In 2013, Maastricht University presented the first in vitro burger. Since then, hundreds of millions of euros and dollars have gone into research into the optimization of the production process and the commercialization of cultured meat. However, it will have to wait for a breakthrough, possibly until 2040.

The corona crisis and African swine fever have given the Belgian pig sector a major blow. To alleviate the suffering of our pig farmers, Delhaize will grant them a crisis contribution until the end of this year.

The European Parliament has rejected the proposal in which the Green Group had called for the complete ban of certain antibiotics in animals. This does not alter the fact that the European Commission is actively considering how the use of antibiotics at European level can be reduced and, above all, harmonized.

After the discovery of African swine fever in our country in September 2018, the export of Belgian pork to countries outside the EU was completely restricted.

At the end of July, the last sheep slaughterhouse in the province of Antwerp closed. The closure of local slaughterhouses is gradually becoming a trend and makes the local slaughter of sheep, goats, pigs or poultry for the short chain in certain regions more and more difficult. Structural solutions for local slaughter infrastructure are therefore imperative.

You may find it logical that you regularly have your car or machines serviced. The same goes for taking out insurance that you may never need. Very often, however, this line is not extended to the systematic maintenance of business software. However, that is also absolutely necessary.

A cyber attack recently shut down a large part of the American meat company JBS. JBS, originally Brazilian, is active worldwide in meat processing and has slaughterhouses for beef, pork and poultry.

Michael Gore, general manager of FEBEV, prepared a contingency plan during the pandemic to best cope with the outbreak effects of the pandemic.

The Belgian food industry also did not escape the corona crisis in 2020. The closure of the catering and food service sectors and the decline in export markets hit the sector hard. Fevia, the federation of the Belgian food industry, advocates targeted support for companies to emerge from the crisis in a healthy way.

On January 1, 2021, the previous Belgian quality standards Certus and CodiplanPlus were converted to the new BePork standard. The Belgian standard supplier Belpork combines the previous separate standards for pork (Certus) with those for live pigs (CodiplanPlus).

EU food law states that production procedures must be preserved for years, which is impossible with a manual system.

Consumers rely on the quality and safety of the meat they buy and eat. Meat producers make it possible with Tracking & Tracing systems to track and trace a product through the entire production process and in further distribution.

The increase in meat consumption, the focus on vegetable proteins, the story about meat substitutes and much more.

Belgium is a forerunner in terms of food safety and controls. The Belgian meat suppliers meet the strictest European quality standards, supply fresh and high-yield meat, which also makes them very attractive for export.

The Corona of Covid-19 virus and the far-reaching measures taken by the government not only affect our society, but also the employment of our employees.

To limit the risk of contamination, we are forced to adjust our internal operations where possible.

Customer service is no longer just responding to e-mails, phone calls and live chat. Centralizing communications is an absolute necessity to give our customers the service they deserve.

On February 17th, professor Graham (university of Alberta, Agricultural, Food and Nutritional Sciences - AFNS), also the CDO of Alpha Phenomics, came over for a 3 day visit to Belgium.

In December 2019, Alpha Phenomics welcomed Andrea Biondi, CEO of Biondi Engineering, and Willy Goossens, CEO of Food IT-Solutions, to experience all that Alberta has to offer and to meet several collaborators in both Calgary and Edmonton.

Proudly we would like to present our engagement in Alpha Phenomics. An Alberta (Canada) based company whose single focus is to improve the efficiency of animal protein production.