Welcome to 2015, the year of ...
At this point, there’s no way of intelligently completing that sentence. But with a solid economy as underpinning, manufacturing in general should have a pretty good year.
Regardless of the larger economy, the food and beverage industry seems to plod along recession-proof. But also somewhat recovery-proof. That’s the good and the bad of being in this business. It takes a lot to move the needle either way.
We’ve packaged a couple of forward-looking stories in this issue. The most statistical is our annual Manufacturing Outlook Survey. We’ve been taking this survey of how plant operations people foresee the new year for 14 years now. Never has the level of optimism been this high (76 percent). It was 67 percent – a very good rate – last year and, for comparisons sake, 44 percent in 2009.
Our annual product development outlook chronicles trends that should be familiar: cleaner labels, adventurous products for millennials, palliative health for baby boomers and, of course, more protein.
And our cover story looks at four big issues for the year, three of which really look to be landmark moments. Partially hydrogenated oils have been suspect for years; for at least that long, some consumers have been asking for GMO labeling. It looks like both will be at least partially resolved in 2015. And you can debate the impact of the Dietary Guidelines, but they only come around once every five years, and this is their year. Transparency – that’s a softer and longer-running issue, but it should be on everyone’s list of concerns for 2015.
