Products on the Market
Vegan food manufacturer, Upton’s Naturals, has teamed with Dot Foods, the largest food industry redistributor in North America. The new relationship will increase availability of the brand’s popular 100% vegan meat alternatives for distributors, restaurants and foodservice customers nationwide. Providing super versatile, clean-ingredient, heat-and-eat meat substitutes for the ever-growing population of people embracing plant-based diets, here’s how the company’s offerings breakdown:
- Original Jackfruit: versatile, whole-food swap for pulled pork or shredded chicken
- Banana Blossom: unseasoned, packed in brine, delicious battered and fried to make fish & chips
- Seitan: high-protein meat substitutes made with vital wheat gluten, ranging from a new Updog vegan frank to traditional seitan chunks, strips, crumbles, gyros and bacon
- Chickless: patties that taste great grilled, breaded and fried for sandwiches, plus strips perfect for chicken tenders or salads
- Vegan Char Burger: a unique blend of seasoning gives this burger fresh-off-the-grill-flavor
Hot Off the Press
With the pandemic canceling many onsite dining options at colleges, senior living facilities, camps and conferences, many food and hospitality providers felt the immediate impact. In fact, the 2020 enrollment of first-year students, and avid users of meal plans, was down 16% in the fall semester.
In response to these challenges, many food & hospitality providers turned to technology to help with an ongoing demand and labor shortage due to quarantine precautions. Creative Dining Services, a Michigan-based food & hospitality provider, quickly saw the value of technology by implementing touchless payment, self-ordering at registers and mobile ordering. Transitioning to new software enabled the organization to better serve their clients – higher education institutions, Fortune 500 companies, senior living facilities and conference venues – while seeing additional key outcomes, including:
- Seamless transition to remote work across 70 locations in 14 states – supporting 100% electronic payment of invoices and 3-4 day close cycles
- Eliminated 350 hours a week of manual accounting work at all 70 client locations
- Accounting department reduced staffing costs by 20%
- AR collections time reduced by 12% driving $760,000 in improved cash flow
