Gourmet News

Middleby Acquires Colussi Ermes Automation, Food Safety Solutions

Published July 27, 2022

The Middleby Corp. has acquired Colussi Ermes, a leading worldwide manufacturer of automated washing food safety solutions for the food processing industry. Located in Pordenone, Italy, the company has approximately $50 million in annual revenues.

“Colussi Ermes is a highly respected, global leader directly addressing food safety and sanitation, a top priority across the entire food processing industry,” said Tim FitzGerald, Middleby CEO. “Colussi has the broadest offerings of automated washing solutions, covering a wide array of applications. Their washing solutions are in demand due to technology that reduces labor needs, decreases water and energy usage, minimizes chemical use and operates in a small footprint.

“The Colussi washing systems complement our existing food processing solutions and are incorporated in many of our current customer projects. This acquisition will support a significant opportunity for collaboration with brands presently in our portfolio, to deliver best-in-class, full-line solutions to our customers.”

Colussi Ermes provides automated washing food safety solutions for global food processors in many specialties including bakery, confectionary, protein and fruits and vegetables.

The Middleby Corp. is a global leader in the foodservice industry. The company develops and manufactures a broad line of solutions used in commercial foodservice, food processing, and residential kitchens.

Supporting the company’s pursuit of the most sophisticated innovation, the state-of-the-art Middleby Innovation Kitchens showcases and demonstrates the most advanced Middleby solutions. In 2022 Middleby was named a World’s Best Employer by Forbes and is a proud philanthropic partner to organizations addressing food insecurity.

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Giant Food to Launch Loop Packaging in D.C.

Published July 27, 2022

Giant Food will bring Loop’s innovative packaging solution developed by TerraCycle to its customers. Beginning this fall, customers in the D.C.-metro area will be able to purchase the products they use every day in durable, reusable containers that can be found in Loop branded displays in participating Giant stores.

“Giant is committed to taking sustainable actions that reduce plastic waste from our landfills and improve our environment,” said Diane Couchman, vice president category management, non-perishables at Giant Food. “We are excited to partner with LOOP, a global leader in eliminating waste, to offer our customers a program that allows them to shop their favorite products and help our environment.”

Loop is the first platform to partner with brands and retailers to offer consumers a way to go from single use to reuse with their purchases. Through the platform, customers can purchase their Loop-ready products in refillable, reusable containers found in branded displays in participating Giant stores.

After consumers finish the products, they return the empty containers to a Loop Return Point at Giant. From there, the containers are sent to Loop to be sanitized, then returned to brands to be refilled and returned to the store for future purchase.

“Loop’s goal has always been to grow, scale and be accessible to consumers around the world,” says Tom Szaky, founder and CEO of TerraCycle and Loop. “With world class retailers, like Giant, bringing Loop to their physical brick and mortar locations, we are giving consumers what they’ve been asking for since Loop was introduced in 2019 – the ability to purchase the products they use every day in durable, reusable containers, with the convenience of shopping at their local market.”

To ensure that all the reusable containers used in the Loop process maintain advanced cleaning and sanitization, Loop consults with Ecolab Inc., a global leader in cleaning and hygiene solutions and services, for on site design and equipment, as well as the chemistry of the cleaning processes.

Loop’s movement to an in-store retail model began in Paris with Carrefour in December 2020. In May 2021, Loop launched in-store at AEON in Japan and in-store at Tesco in September 2021.

Loop launched in-store at Kroger-owned Fred Meyer stores in the Portland metro area in February 2022. Loop launched a reusable packaging partnership with McDonald’s in the United Kingdom and with Burger King and Tim Hortons in select restaurants in the United States and Canada, respectively.

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Justice Department Ending ‘Brazen’ Poultry Plant Wages Scheme

Published July 26, 2022

The Department of Justice filed a civil antitrust lawsuit regarding poultry plant wages in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland against a data consulting firm and its president, as well as three poultry processors, to end a long-running conspiracy to exchange information about wages and benefits for poultry processing plant workers and collaborate with competitors on compensation decisions in violation of the Sherman Act.

The lawsuit also alleges that two of the poultry processors violated the Packers and Stockyards Act by engaging in deceptive practices associated with the “tournament system,” which pits chicken growers against each other to determine their compensation. At the same time, the department filed proposed consent decrees with Webber, Meng, Sahl and Co. and its president, G. Jonathan Meng, as well as Cargill Inc., Cargill Meat Solutions Corp., Sanderson Farms Inc. and Wayne Farms LLC.

“Through a brazen scheme to exchange wage and benefit information, these poultry processors stifled competition and harmed a generation of plant workers who face demanding and sometimes dangerous conditions to earn a living,” said Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General Doha Mekki of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “Today’s action puts companies and individuals on notice: the Antitrust Division will use all of its available legal authorities to address anticompetitive conduct that harms consumers, workers, farmers and other American producers.”

“I’m so pleased to see the close partnership between the Department of Agriculture and the Justice Department has led to enforcement that is good for farmers,” said Andy Green, USDA’s Senior Advisor for Fair and Competitive Markets. “This resolution yields significant reforms to the poultry tournament system, including ending one of its most troubling aspects around deceptive base prices, and enhancing transparency in contracting, earnings and inputs that will protect and benefit growers — as USDA has proposed in our Packers & Stockyard Act rulemaking.”

If approved by the court, the proposed consent decree with data consulting firm WMS would ban WMS from providing surveys or any other services that facilitate the sharing of competitively sensitive information in any industry. Meng is also subject to the terms of the consent decree in his individual capacity.

The proposed consent decree with defendant poultry processors Cargill, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms would prohibit them from sharing competitively sensitive information about poultry plant wages. It would also:

Impose on the poultry processors a court-appointed compliance monitor who, for the next decade, will ensure their compliance with the terms of the proposed decree;
Grant the court-appointed monitor broad authority to ensure their compliance with all federal antitrust laws as they relate to their poultry processing facilities, workers at their poultry processing plants, chicken growers, integrated poultry feed, hatcheries, transportation of poultry and poultry products, and the sale of poultry and submit regular reports on the processors’ antitrust compliance;
Permit the Antitrust Division to inspect the processors’ facilities and interview their employees to ensure compliance with the consent decree; and
Require the companies to commit to pay $84.8 million, collectively, in restitution for poultry processing plant workers who were harmed by the information exchange conspiracy.

These terms would expire 10 years after the consent decree is approved by the court.

Additionally, the proposed consent decree with Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms would resolve alleged violations of the Packers and Stockyards Act, which prohibits, among other things, deceptive practices in poultry markets. As alleged in the complaint, poultry processors use a “tournament system” to adjust a chicken grower’s “base payment” based on how well the grower performs relative to other growers. The poultry processors, however, control nearly all the key inputs, including the chicks delivered to the growers and their poultry feed, that often determine a grower’s success.

In allocating this financial risk to their chicken growers, Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms failed to provide information that would have allowed growers to evaluate and manage their financial risk. The proposed consent decree would:

Prevent Sanderson Farms and Wayne Farms from penalizing chicken growers by reducing their base payments as a result of relative performance, while still allowing for incentive, bonus and other types of payments to growers;
Require expanded information disclosures in grower contracts, consistent with proposed transparency rules set out by the USDA; and
Prohibit retaliation against growers who raise antitrust concerns with the court-appointed compliance monitor or the government.

The lawsuit is part of a broader investigation into anticompetitive labor market abuses in the poultry processing industry. Anyone with information about poultry industry collusion, competitors sharing non-public compensation information, anticompetitive conduct violations against workers or any other violations of the antitrust laws is encouraged to contact the Antitrust Division’s Citizen Complaint Center at 1-888-647-3258 or antitrust.complaints@usdoj.gov.

Information about anticompetitive practices in livestock and poultry markets can also be submitted to the USDA and Justice Department Agricultural Markets Enforcement Partnership at www.farmerfairness.gov.

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