Welcome to this week’s Food Exec Brief, your strategic intelligence roundup for food and beverage manufacturing leaders. This week, we’re covering:
The majority of food and beverage manufacturers (95%) are struggling to find skilled operators and technicians, supply chain roles requiring AI skills grew 387% between 2023 and 2026, and the WHO’s latest Lancet study finds chemical hazards account for 73% of all deaths tied to contaminated food.
Nestle opened a $330 million automated distribution center in Arvin, California, ADM committed $103 million to replace aging systems at its Decatur headquarters, and Kraft Heinz restructured into three global regions after abandoning its breakup plan.
Proposed tariffs targeting forced labor violations now reach 60-plus economies, a bipartisan Senate bill is moving to shore up domestic food supply chains, and 17 state attorneys general are suing to block California’s packaging mandate.
Tariff proposals target 60 economies, and Congress moves on supply chain infrastructure
Proposed tariffs of 10% to 12.5% on imports from 60 economies accused of failing to prohibit goods made with forced labor are the latest addition to an already crowded trade agenda. The USTR’s investigation covered economies representing more than 99% of U.S. imports. What makes this round different is the legal architecture is built for durability. Former USDA chief agricultural negotiator Darci Vetter pointed to the persistence of Section 301 tariffs after 2020. Once those tariffs landed, she noted, the industries they protected adjusted to them, and removing them became politically difficult. Industry experts say the current proposals follow the same design. (Learn more)
Four senators introduced the American Food Supply Chain Resiliency Act, a bipartisan bill that would make the USDA’s Resilient Food Systems Infrastructure Program permanent and create a new Regional Food Systems Hubs Program. Senators Schiff, Klobuchar, Hyde-Smith, and Justice are backing the legislation, with sponsors moving to attach it to the Senate farm bill expected this month. The bill targets small and mid-sized producers and focuses on building processing capacity, distribution networks, and market access in the middle of the supply chain. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Trade policy has shifted from episodic disruption to a structural variable with a long half-life, and the farm bill attachment signals Congress is treating supply chain infrastructure as a national priority.
95% of manufacturers can’t find the workers, and AI is raising the bar faster than most training programs move
An estimated 95% of food and beverage manufacturers are struggling to find skilled operators and technicians, according to PMMI’s 2025 Inside the Workforce Gap study. When manufacturers do bring in new hires, onboarding stretches across months. High turnover, an aging workforce, and increasingly complex technology are compounding the shortage. The study found another hard cost: when experienced operators retire, their process knowledge leaves with them. (Learn more)
Gartner analyzed more than 35 million job postings, including 600,000 in supply chain, and found that demand for AI skills in supply chain roles grew 387% from 2023 to 2026, faster than AI hiring across any other industry. Mid-senior-level positions account for about 58% of supply chain roles requiring AI capabilities. Gartner now advises chief supply chain officers to prioritize internal upskilling over external hiring, since entry-level workers represent an underutilized base for building AI fluency. (Learn more)
Why it matters: The workforce gap is widening, not stabilizing, and AI is raising the skill floor for supply chain roles faster than most manufacturers have training programs in place to meet.
Kraft Heinz drops the split, ADM puts $103M into Decatur
Kraft Heinz reorganized its global operating structure into three regions, effective July 1, consolidating North America, Europe and Pacific Developed Markets, and Emerging Markets, while merging supply chain and procurement into a single function. The company named Janelle Aydin global chief procurement and supply chain officer. The restructuring follows CEO Steve Cahillane’s February decision to pause the September 2025 breakup plan and redirect those resources toward $600 million in U.S. brand and R&D investment instead. (Learn more)
ADM is investing $103 million to modernize its Decatur, Illinois headquarters, the company’s North American base and one of the world’s largest integrated agricultural processing hubs. The project replaces 40,000 control systems across three plants, upgrading soybean crushing and refining operations, storage elevators, and corn milling capabilities with current automation technology. The investment will create 50 new jobs and retain more than 1,000 existing positions. It’s supported by Illinois’s EDGE program. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Kraft Heinz traded the cost of its own breakup for brand investment, and ADM is replacing 40-year-old control infrastructure. Both companies are choosing operational capability over structural change.
Nestle’s $330M automated hub opens, and dairy processors are cutting costs through membranes
Nestle USA opened a 700,000-square-foot distribution center in Arvin, California, representing a $330 million investment and featuring the largest automated storage and retrieval system in the company’s global network. Fully operational since May, the facility uses laser-guided vehicles and layer-picking robotics to serve brands including Toll House, Coffee Mate, and Gerber. It’s the second high-tech distribution facility Nestle has added in two years, following a $675 million beverage plant and distribution center in Glendale, Arizona. The Arvin site is part of Nestle’s $25 billion U.S. investment plan. (Learn more)
Dairy processors are incorporating membrane filtration into plant-wide efficiency strategies to cut thermal demand, recover water, and improve product yield. Rising energy costs, sustainability targets, and tightening scrutiny of wastewater management are driving adoption. Membranes are being built in from the start rather than bolted on, with the goal of hitting operational and sustainability targets from the same capital investment. (Learn more)
Why it matters: The Arvin facility shows what full-commitment automation looks like at commercial scale; the dairy membrane trend shows quieter efficiency gains accumulating across the sector at the same time.
Culture claims don’t match floor reality, and a WHO study puts chemical hazards at 73% of food contamination deaths
A survey of more than 170 food processors worldwide found that 76% believe their company has a good food safety culture, but training effectiveness is almost never measured for whether employees can actually apply food safety knowledge in daily operations. Safety metrics tend to be set at the corporate level, with limited visibility at the plant. The disconnect makes it hard to know whether training programs are building the operational capability that keeps product safe, or just keeping the audit scores clean. (Learn more)
A WHO analysis published in The Lancet Global Health found that nine foodborne chemical hazards caused 6.26 million cases and 1.12 million deaths in 2021, despite chemical exposures accounting for less than 7% of total foodborne illnesses. Chemical hazards drove 73% of all deaths tied to contaminated food. Inorganic arsenic was responsible for 57% of those deaths; lead for 42%, mostly through cardiovascular disease. The broader study covering 42 foodborne hazards estimated $310 billion in lost productivity from foodborne disease in 2021. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Most food safety programs are built around biological hazards and audit documentation. Chemical contamination is where the mortality is, and it largely enters the supply chain before manufacturers ever see it.
KIND hits 50% regenerative almonds, and 17 states take California to court over its plastics mandate
KIND sourced approximately 50% of its almond volume from farms using regenerative agriculture practices on a mass-balance basis in 2026, hitting the halfway mark of its commitment to reach 100% by 2030. The company launched the three-year KIND Almond Acres initiative in 2023 with supply chain partner ofi. California produces approximately 80% of the world’s almonds, and KIND says it’s one of the nation’s largest almond buyers. The initiative was designed to generate field-level data on what regenerative practices actually work at scale before expanding them. (Learn more)
A coalition of 17 state attorneys general and the National Association of Wholesale Distributors filed suit to block California’s Plastic Pollution Prevention and Packaging Producer Responsibility Act, which requires reductions in single-use plastic packaging by 2032 and mandates that all such items be recyclable or compostable by the same year. The complaint argues the law imposes extensive requirements on manufacturers, distributors, and shippers of all packaging types. The Circular Action Alliance, named as a defendant, could collect up to $500 million annually from businesses seeking California market access under the law. Nebraska AG Mike Hilgers said the law, if left unchecked, would force consumers to pay more for basic necessities. (Learn more)
Why it matters: Voluntary supply chain sustainability progress and regulatory mandates are running on different timelines, and the lawsuit outcome will determine whether manufacturers plan for California compliance or wait it out.
The Food Exec Brief provides weekly insights for food and beverage manufacturing leaders and publishes every Friday.
