​Newly confirmed cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) affected commercial turkeys in Minnesota and more commercial chickens in Iowa even as mitigation efforts continued in many U.S. states.

Using data powered by Earnest Research, we can draw some conclusions throughout the latest Covid-19 waves on consumer behavior going forward. ​Click here to read the full article. 

If you’ve found yourself struggling to find Pillsbury dough or Totino’s pizza rolls lately, it’s not you. It’s General Mills. The company has been struggling to meet demand for its refrigerated pizza and dough in the United States. Read the full article here. 

Less than 25% of U.S. adults strongly trust information about where their food is grown and how it is produced, despite a constant deluge of data, according to a new survey from the University of Minnesota's College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS).

The benchmark that tracks wholesale food inflation continued to climb in February to reach its highest index for the cost of food at home since June 1975, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The latest Food-at-Home Producer Price Index (PPI) was up 13.4% from levels in February of 2021 and 12.8% higher than January 2022 data, the agency announced. The two-year rate was 16.2% higher from the January two-year climb of 12.3% and represented the highest two-year increase since November 1980.

The specific index for beef and veal actually fell to 22.8% last month vs. 43.9% in January, while the pork index rose slightly, to 4.7% from 4.1%, and processed young chickens declined to 26.7% from 29.1% the previous month. The index for processed turkeys, however, rose to 52.2% from 48.4% in January 2022.

The report noted that the data cover only edible products even though inflation in the food-at-home industry is being driven by price increases in the cost of non-food items like labor, logistics and packaging, as outlined by J.P. Morgan analyst Ken Goldman. 

Inflation grew worse in February amid the escalating crisis in Ukraine and price pressures that became more entrenched. The consumer price index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, increased 7.9% over the past 12 months, a fresh 40-year high for the closely followed gauge, according to the Labor Department's Bureau of Labor Statistics. 
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Officials announced Monday that they have identified bird flu in a commercial flock of 50,000 turkeys in northwest Iowa, the state's second case of a virus that has been identified in multiple U.S. states.
Iowa agriculture officials and the U.S. Department of Agriculture confirmed the case in Buena Vista County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) north of the case identified March 1 in a backyard flock of 42 ducks and chickens in Pottawattamie County. Click here to read the full article. 

The morning meal is in the spotlight as school nutrition programs across the country celebrate National School Breakfast Week, held March 7-11.

In honor of the week, Chartwells K12 Vice President of Culinary Peter Gilhooly spoke with FSD about the special dishes that will appear on Chartwells K12 menus as well as what’s trending in school breakfast. Click here to read the full article from Foodservice Director.