FMI - OMEGA - West Virginia Oil Marketers & Grocers Association

As 2015 comes to a close, we took an opportunity to look back at what sparked our readers’ interest this past year on the Voice of Food Retail blog. We’ll present the top blog posts across categories over the next few days. Thank you for reading and please subscribe to the Voice of Food Retail blog for more relevant content in 2016! As the first installment, we look at our most popular posts related to FMI’s signature research and education. A common theme remains operational performance; putting in place the right people and resources to stay ahead.

FMI executed some exciting campaigns related to consumer affairs and health and wellness in 2015. As the champion for feeding families and enriching lives, FMI launched a national campaign that encouraged more mealtimes at home using items from the supermarket and also built complementary programming to demonstrate how the grocery store is a wellness destination. FMI continues to defend the reputation of the industry and serve as a spokesperson on industry issues.

From hot topics like food waste to research insights into consumer shopping behavior pertaining to fresh foods, FMI’s sustainability- and fresh-food-related blogs offered actionable insights to help grocers improve and strengthen business operations and align with consumer demand.

The regulatory landscape in 2015 offered innumerable opportunities to help FMI members navigate the intricacies and implications surrounding the Food Safety Modernization Act. Food safety remains a number-one priority for food retailers and FMI has committed to helping its members manage risk.

Government relations activities in the food retail industry had significant cross-over with the Food Safety Modernization Act and other regulatory issues, such as chain restaurant menu labeling, but blog readers in 2015 were much more interested in the challenges associated with employees, country of origin labeling requirements and payments systems.