4 Ways the iFoodDS Produce Quality Insights Solution Can Benefit Growers, Shippers, and Processors

Consumers have high expectations of their produce. According to a 2020 Charleston/Orwig study, nearly 60% of consumers want assurance that their produce is fresh, and 54% want assurance that it’s safe. In an effort to foster consumer trust and confidence in our food, retailers and food service companies are setting high quality standards for their suppliers. This can pose challenges to growers, shippers, and processors who supply grocery retailers and food service, as well as those that have multiple buyers with different product specifications. It also means that suppliers need to drive accountability from their growers in order to meet buyer standards. However, technology solutions like the iFoodDS produce quality insights software can help. Here are four ways that iFoodDS is helping suppliers exceed customer expectations, reduce costs, and increase sales.

1. Become More Efficient with Product Evaluations

As a supplier to grocery retailers and food service providers, you’re held to high quality standards by your buyers. If you find yourself searching for an easier way to evaluate products according to their specifications, the solution isn’t out of reach. With the iFoodDS produce quality management software, you will have the tools you need to consistently deliver higher quality products to your customers. You can match your inspection results to your buyers’ unique specifications, thus helping you quickly determine who to ship to after your inspector finishes grading and inspecting each product. If inspection resources are limited, training the novice inspectors quickly and thoroughly is critical. With iFoodDS’ easy-to-use tools for quality scoring, novice inspectors can become pros in no time, reliably turning out expert-level product evaluations. By easily uploading and managing product images for better visibility into produce quality, you will save valuable time and resources with a more efficient inspection process.

2. Confidently Accept and Ship Products That Meet Quality Expectations

In many cases, rejections can result in the reduction of value of a shipment by 60% or more, which can be not only wasteful, but quite costly, as well. With a quality insights solution like iFoodDS, you will reduce rejections and increase volume sold, resulting in more revenue and reduced costs. Assessing products against various retailers’ specifications will help reduce rejections by the retailers and give you the ability to ship your highest quality produce where quality is valued most.

Reduce rejections by keeping everyone on the same page, saving you valuable time and money. Assess incoming product with specific retailer specifications in mind. Grade your growers so you know what to expect in advance, but also give them visibility into their performance so they are clear on your expectations. This helps avoid bringing in products that you must reject when it comes in, or pay for, only to have it rejected later by your grocery retail and food service customers. In only a short time, you will be able to recognize the value as higher quality produce comes in and your inspection results reflect that high quality. This reduction in rejections will increase your overall volume sold and earn valuable brand trust with your customers.

3. Drive Accountability and Improve Relationships

Are you able to share your data in real-time? With the iFoodDS produce quality management software, you’ll achieve greater transparency with your network of growers, and be able to share grower scorecards with them. Furthermore, you have the choice to pay for products based on the quality that was delivered and ultimately have an easier time communicating what changes your growers need to make. This allows growers to address quality issues before their next shipment. With real-time data and reports that can be shared across the business and with external organizations, both shippers and their growers will benefit. This also helps foster stronger partnerships as growers can better understand why their produce is being rejected or why a buyer is requiring improvements. With the iFoodDS solution, quality data can be pushed to growers directly, thus they have visibility into their inspection data, and even see how they compare to other growers. This visibility provides them with useful information and incentivizes them to continue improving the quality of their produce.

“The iFoodDS grower scorecards provide both transparency into quality and a common ground for suppliers, retailers, and food service companies to work together in a data driven environment to improve quality,” says Todd Berg, VP of Product Management at iFoodDS.

4. Improve Your Brand’s Reputation and Increase Customer Loyalty

Your brand’s reputation is your most valuable asset. When you consistently demand, and supply, high-quality produce, a high-quality brand reputation will follow. By maintaining consistency in quality, you reduce the chance that your product will be rejected, strengthening your reputation over time and creating preference for your brand.

For example, what if you could be given a fast pass by your grocery retailer or food service provider due to consistently high inspection results? With the iFoodDS Quality Management solution, you can supply the quality they expect and have the data to prove it. In doing this, you earn their trust, reduce the need for lengthy inspections, and feel confident your rejection volume will decrease significantly. As noted in UC Davis case study Driscoll’s: Harnessing Digital Technology to Deliver Delight, “reducing market claims [by identifying potential problems in advance] will increase grower returns.”

In order for suppliers to meet the high standards of their retail and food service customers, delivering consistently high-quality produce is critical. Further, the increase in urgent change requests to meet supply and demand challenges related to COVID-19 requires a digital solution that enables immediate communication and the ability to pivot quickly based on retailers’ needs. A technology solution like iFoodDS can help keep costs down and increase sales by supplying the necessary tools to evaluate products efficiently and make meaningful, data-driven decisions.

Perfection Fresh, a grower, packer and supplier we work with here at iFoodDS, has noted that “by implementing this game-changing solution [iFoodDS], Perfection Fresh is further enabling our retail customers to deliver on their ambitions to provide their customers the freshest products, anytime, anywhere.” 

Greenskin Avocado, another grower, packer, shipper we work with, has had a similar experience. National Supply Chain Manager at Greenskin Avocado Finn Gray notes “the increase in efficiency of our quality assurance program has allowed us to measure quality data and trends on a daily, weekly, or seasonal basis in a more comprehensive manner than we were able to before working with iFoodDS. We can use that data to make more impactful business decisions.”

With iFoodDS, become confident that your next delivery of produce will meet your expectations before it arrives, and that it will meet the standards expected by your grocery retail and food service partners.

Contact sales@iFoodDS.com or request a demo to learn how our produce quality management solution can help you strengthen your supply chain relationships and enable continuous operational improvements.