For the first time in a year, Gifford’s Ice Cream is making Maine’s most famous ice cream after a fire ripped through production facilities, forcing the company to rely on co-packers. To get back up and running, the family-owned ice cream company carved out a smaller production area—roughly 30% of actual size once the factory is fully restored—and has two lines running to produce quarts and bulk flavors for its wholesale customers and ice cream stands. A brother and sister are part of the fifth generation of ice cream makers running the company and churning out distinctive flavors in ‘40s-era Cherry Burrell freezers. On this episode of From the Cold Corner, Lindsay Skilling, CEO of Gifford’s, and JC Gifford, COO, share the latest on the rebuilding process, becoming the official ice cream of the New England Patriots and more.

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As one of the largest foodservice distribution companies in the country, US Foods, Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ 2024 Distributor of the Year, helps 250,000 foodservice clients across the country succeed every day. Gene Carbonara, vice president of ecommerce and digital, at US Foods, joins the podcast to share more about how the distributor is using technology to enhance ecommerce and more.

FOOD ENGINEERING Editors Derrick Teal and Alyse Thompson-Richards and Refrigerated & Frozen Foods Editor Kelley Rodriguez discuss the major trends affecting food manufacturing in 2024 and what they expect to see in 2025. They cover food safety, automation, sustainability, mergers & acquisitions, and more. 

A private label powerhouse, Cafe Spice produces its own branded RTE meals as well as co-manufactured and foodservice products for customers including Whole Foods, Kroger and Amazon. The company late last year began manufacturing from a 70,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility in Beacon, New York, near their original, 50,000-square-foot site in New Windsor. The Beacon site, which now accounts for nearly 90% of the company’s output, is in its first phase of operation, with additional production lines coming in 2025. Cafe Spice has been named R&FF’s 2024 Processor of the Year. Sameer Malhotra, CEO of Cafe Spice, Ryan Bakst, R&D manager, Giovani Gomez, vice president of quality, and Virgilio Felix, chief operating officer, sit down with the From the Cold Corner to share more.

Their clean-label massive mozzarella sticks are a branded menu item at major concert venues like Madison Square Garden and in just over a year have made it into 3,500+ retail doors. The NFRA recently celebrated Big Mozz as the winner of its inaugural Penguin Pitch competition. Matt Gallira, CEO and founder of Big Mozz, discusses transitioning from a concert staple, to a foodservice superpower, to a retail CPG, bringing to the masses.

Justin Cook, lead Consumer Products researcher at Deloitte, joins From the Cold Corner to share more about Deloitte’s research into the refrigerated and frozen consumer and how F&B manufacturers and processors can work with grocers to win a bigger share-of-stomach.

Cold storage providers and distributors are always looking for ways to cut carbon footprints and boost the bottom line. For cold storage companies and 3PLs, energy is typically the second-highest operating cost behind labor. Technology can play an important role in combating rising energy costs by cutting consumption and helping cold chain operators identify their weak points. On this episode, we’re talking technology in cold foods distribution with Jason Massey, CEO and co-founder of Ndustrial, and Damaris Grütter, director of U.S. & Canadian markets at Stoecklin Logistics.