Crown your Customers

Revolutionise quality management from field to shelf

From a retail point of view, all those involved in a business, work for the same person; the customer who walks into a supermarket and that buys the products businesses produce and distribute. We have to surprise customers everyday by giving them excellent products at competitive prices. To quote Feargal Quinn of

Superquinn supermarkets in Ireland: “We have to crown the customer!” And what better way to do that than by offering superior quality.

Ask yourself this question: “Have I ever met a consumer who demanded bad quality?” I didn’t think so.

Consumers reward superior quality by buying more. There are many examples
that prove that a consistent focus on superior product quality across the
cool chain leads to higher sales and profitability., This strategy can lead to
enormous growth in sales, especially of items that are more perishable. Focusing on quality in the retail channel is one of the best ways to add value and to drive sales.

Quality has an equal impact on cost. In a supermarket alone, an average
retailer has to account for shrinkage levels of between 4 to 8 per cent in fruit and vegetables . With the millions of euros in sales that most retailers enjoy, it is clear how large the impact of quality is. Optimising the cost of shrinkage is the single biggest opportunity for a retailer to reduce costs in the cool chain. Actually, it is the single biggest opportunity to reduce integral costs for all partners in the cool chain.

It is thus easy to see that investing in quality pays off, both in consumption and in costs. So why are we not all more committed to quality? How can we bring quality management and quality awareness to a higher level across the cool chain? If we are all focused on satisfying the consumer, how can we make quality management a key driver for consumer satisfaction?

We need to make quality management tangible!

That begins by taking our scientific understanding of how perishables behave after harvest and using it to maximum advantage. Instead of developing graphs of respiration rates at different temperatures or at different oxygen levels, we need to actually translate that information into a more actionable concept: ‘shelf life loss’.

A temperature graph during transport only highlights if a certain temperature has been exceeded, but even the brightest professor can not estimate the effect of a specific temperature regime on shelf life loss. For that you need to have mathematical formulae that actually calculate shelf life loss. A number of leading companies in the industry are very advanced in developing these shelf life loss models and incorporating them in RFID temperature technology. This will revolutionise the way we look at cool chains and perishables.

AN IDEA OUT OF COLD STORAGE The effect of temperature on biological processes has been known for many years. Two European chemists, Van ‘t Hoff and Arrhenius, had modelled the effect of temperature on chemical reactions in the 19th century. This model, which has become known as the Arrhenius equation, has proven very accurate in describing temperature effects in a very large range of chemical processes. And since aging of perishables is, in essence, simply a combination of temperature-related chemical reactions, the Arrhenius equation also applies to these commodities.

Only recently have leading scientists started to apply the Arrhenius formula to the modelling of ageing of perishables and shelf life loss of specific products. This has greatly increased the transparency and control over shelf life loss since each product can now have its own tailor-made model to track shelf life loss from field to shelf.

So how do companies develop their shelf life loss models? With control over shelf life loss, we encounter another opportunity: to harvest products at higher maturity. This very often improves eating quality but by definition, shelf life is shortened. With shelf life loss under control, we can start to optimise taste. The effect this can have on the perishables industry is enormous.

Collaboratively monitoring and managing shelf life loss is a very powerful way to drive quality throughout the cool chain. Once shelf life loss of a specific product is controlled, it is very easy to link that to shrinkage data in the retail store.

Suddenly, we no longer talk about scientific data such as respiration
rates, but we talk dollars and euros. Suddenly, we create a mutual and tangible responsibility and thus a shared accountability for quality in the cool chain and we can balance that with optimum eating quality.

I will even go one step further. When we are able to monitor shelf life loss and we know the cost involved, we can translate this concept into product specifications. Retailers can then agree with their cool chain partners that all oranges arriving at their depot need not only meet their normal quality specification, but that they also must have a remaining shelf life of, for instance, 5 to 8 days when stored at room temperature. That best guarantees optimum eating quality for consumers while optimising shrinkage in the store and maximising profit across the cool chain.

Science fiction? Not really. Technologically, we are not very far away from this world. Shelf life models are being developed and RFID temperature integration is close to becoming commercially available and leading retailers increasingly focus on ‘taste’ as an important point of differentiation.

More importantly, we will need to all feel part of this ‘partnership for quality: from field to retail shelf’. We will need to learn to deal with the transparency and responsibility it creates and we will need to move away from the world where temperature monitoring during transport is only done to ‘check’ whether transport was according to specification. Instead, temperature monitoring has to serve optimisation of shelf life and taste! We should never forget that in the end we are all working for the consumer. Let us give the customer excellent products by revolutionising the way we manage quality in the cool chain by staying together in this ‘partnership for quality’.

Jelger de Vriend has extensive experience in the fresh produce world: from the banana farms of Latin America to European retail shelves. He worked for Chiquita Brands, Albert Heijn and Royal Ahold, covering areas from postharvest technology, agricultural production to retail merchandising. In 2007, he set up Innovative Fresh; an innovation company for the fresh produce world. Contact him at: jdevriend@passion4produce.com This article was first published in Cool Times, the quarterly newsletter of the Cool Chain Association.