The beginning of the new year means time for a change and a fresh start. So that’s exactly what we’ve done here at Snack Food & Wholesale
Bakery. As you peruse our pages this month, you’ll first notice our new cover. In fact, the entire issue has a new graphic approach and a new organization to how our articles are treated. We collectively revived the look and feel of the print issue of the magazine and also have renamed our weekly enewsletter “The Weekly Mix” to better reflect what we present and represent.

The way the articles in the print issue flow remains much the same, but many of the covers will focus most on the star of the show, the bakery and snack food products themselves. Our art director, Patty Catini, updated the typefaces and the layouts of the articles with a cleaner, more contemporary style. She also revamped the table of contents. And we continue to include our monthly contributing columns from Judi Adams, president of The Wheat Foods Council; Robb MacKie, president/CEO of the American Bakers Association; Shelley Case, nutrition expert and author; Gale Prince, author and president/founder of SAGE Food Safety Consultants; Sylvia Melendez-Klinger, registered dietitian and founder of Hispanic Food Communications; and Jim Munyon, president of AIB International.

This year, Judi Adams’ column will be renamed Health & Wellness, as she will focus on assorted health-related issues and topics, such as her discussion this month on superfruits. Do we really get enough of these particular items in our diet, she asks? While consumers continue to hear about superfruits, there’s no official U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) or Food and Drug Administration (FDA) definition for the word. The term began cropping up in the last decade, but there’s no official dictionary definition yet, either. Unofficially, superfruits are thought of as having superior nutritional content and many health benefits. 

And we are also introducing a new column called Future Foodie, written by Elyse Buckley, a Master of Science candidate at the Grain Science department of Kansas State University. Buckley studied abroad last year and has traveled throughout Europe. She had an internship with Flowers Foods in 2009 and spent time on a production line at one of Flowers’ bakeries as well as in its research and development department. Currently, Buckley is studying and working in two labs on campus: One is with small Kansas food manufactures she is helping to get their products to market (observing and assisting with ingredient labeling, process certification and product/process troubleshooting); and with a hard winter wheat quality control lab where flour is analyzed to select early-generation wheat varieties for bread production. We welcome Buckley and welcome back the rest of our illustrious columnists and really appreciate all of their help each month.

We also renamed the Production Technology articles Processing Technology to better reflect the subjects we’ll be including in that space and added more articles on packaging and packaging equipment and related topics, as well as warehousing, distribution and sustainability. We have always written about these subjects; but now, they are organized in specific sections of the magazine. And you’ll be able to find topics more easily with our table to contents (see pages 2 and 4), as the features and departments will be easier to navigate with our fresh, inviting new presentation.

Business Buzz is the title of our news section, which outlines things happening in our industry with people, places, suppliers and programs. And you’ll find that our features look better than ever. These articles are beautifully illustrated with photos by Vito Palmisano. They are also reiterated on our website, www.snackandbakery.com. We have also been creating videos of our plant visits each month, which are also available on our website homepage in the SnackFood & Wholesale Bakery TV section. So enjoy our new format, the new year and all of the new opportunities that await.