Oser Communications Group

FROM THE EDITOR KITCHENWARE NEWS & HOUSEWARES REVIEW n MARCH 2018 n www.kitchenwarenews.com Periodicals postage paid at Tucson, AZ and additional mailing office. Kitchenware News & Housewares Review (USPS012-625) is published 12 times per year (Jan., Feb., March, April, May, June, July, Aug., Sept., Oct., Nov., and Dec.) by Oser Communications Group, 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ, 85715 520.721.1300. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material or prices quoted in newspaper. Contributors are responsible for proper release of proprietary classified information. ©2017 by Oser Communications Group. All rightsreserved Reproduction, in whole or in part, without written permission of the publisher, is expressly prohibited. Back issues, when available, cost $8 each within the past 12 months. Back issue orders must be paid in advance by check. Kitchenware News & Housewares Review is distributed without charge in North America to qualified professionals in the retail and distribution channels of the upscale kitchenware and tabletop trade. For subscriber services, including subscription information, call 520.721.1300. Printed in the USA. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Kitchenware News & Housewares Review, 1877 N. Kolb Road, Tucson, AZ 85715. PUBLISHER Kimberly Oser SR. ASSOCIATE PUBLISHER Jules Denton-Card jules_d@oser.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Lorrie Baumann lorrie_b@oser.com EDITOR Micah Cheek micah_c@oser.com SR. ASSOCIATE EDITOR Robin Mather robin_m@oser.com ASSOCIATE EDITOR Greg Gonzales greg_g@oser.com ART DIRECTOR Yasmine Brown GRAPHIC DESIGNER Jonathan Schieffer CUSTOMER SERVICE Caitlyn McGrath MANAGERS caitlyn_m@oser.com Sarah Glenn sarah_g@oser.com CIRCULATION DIRECTOR Tara Neal CIRCULATION MANAGER Jamie Green jamie_g@oser.com Kitchenware News & Housewares Review is a publication of Oser Communications Group Inc. 1877 N. Kolb Road • Tucson, AZ 85715 520.721.1300 www.kitchenwarenews.com www.oser.com FOUNDER Lee M. Oser OSER COMMUNICATIONS GROUP editor from the We're seeing and hearing a lot of messages about food waste lately as activists on the issue point out that wasted food is a major contributor to global warming. The good news here is that food waste is a fairly tractable problem that all of us can do something about. That means that when you teach your customers how to do their part, you'll be perceived as part of the solution rather than part of the problem. We know that demand for variety and abundance of food creates waste at home. Many of our adventurous eaters are also novice home cooks who don't know much about how to store food or how to repurpose ingredients when they bought the whole head of lettuce for the four leaves they needed for the lettuce wraps they had on their menu plan. That is, even if they knew that they should make a meal plan before they shopped for groceries. As much as 55 percent of food purchases are unplanned, which leads to over purchasing and food spoilage. Nearly 80 percent of food waste comes from perishable foods, which include prepared fresh deli items, meats, fruits and vegetables, seafood, milk and dairy, and some grain products such as bread and bakery items. Pound per pound, fruits and vegetables are among the least expensive and fastest spoiling foods, constituting over 40 percent of total food waste. Seafood and meat, which are more expensive to buy, are wasted less often. I've been doing a lot of thinking about this lately because I've been buying my vegetables through a local program called Produce on Wheels – Without Waste, or POW-WOW. It's managed by a food bank that operates in the communities along the U.S.-Mexico border. The food bank intercepts produce that comes across the border for sale in the U.S. but is then rejected by its intended buyer. Sometimes this is because it's all an odd size. Sometimes it's because it's not pristine. Sometimes there's no visible reason at all for the rejection, so I speculate that the farmer's yield was a little better than expected, so he's got more to sell than the market could handle. Whatever the reason, this food is donated to the food bank, which distributes it first to those who really need it and then sells the rest at bargain prices to the rest of us to raise cash to fund its operations. From week to week, I never know what I'm going to be getting, but, since the point is to avoid waste, I have to be prepared to handle whatever I end up with. I have a lifetime of cooking and food preservation experience to draw on, but even so, I've been a little surprised at how much stuff I have actually had to buy over the past several weeks to make the best use of it all. There was a Saturday afternoon run to the store to pick up a few extra trays for my dehydrator. I've had to replenish the bags for my FoodSaver vacuum sealer. I bought a couple of cookbooks so I'd have new pickle recipes after I'd made and canned about as much bread and butter squash as I figured I could use in a year. I've had to buy pickling spices and produce from my grocery store to round out the ingredients for some of those new recipes. Last weekend I had to make an emergency run to the store for more wide-mouth pint jars after I decided to ferment the green beans instead of adding them to my freezer. I even bought a new solar dehydrator to take advantage of some of that global warming, and I can hardly wait until Instant Pot is ready to ship its new Max model that's rated for pressure canning – the information that this is just about to launch was one of the most exciting things I heard at the International Housewares Association's show preview for the press. Folks, what we have here isn't just a problem – it's a marketing opportunity. You too can help your customers get excited about performing makeovers on ugly produce with home canning lessons, dehydration demonstrations and fermentation fiestas. They'll leave your store knowing that you share values that matter to them. That's how you engage the Millennials in the Age of Amazon. KN Lorrie Baumann, Editorial Director 4 KITCHENWARE NEWS & Housewares Review

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