SCOTTSDALE, Arizona – The International Foodservice Manufacturers Association (IFMA) unveiled a new brand identity at the 2024 iteration of its Presidents Conference: IFMA The Food Away from Home Association.
The 72-year-old organization unveiled the rebrand in a video that traced its history before explaining the reasoning for the change. IFMA noted it was necessary, considering the changes that the food away from home category had seen since the pandemic.
Economic conditions at the time laid bare the need for manufacturers, operators, distributors, and service providers to engage in true partnership in order to find success.
“We know that manufacturers remain at the core of all we do, and by adding new categories of membership – notably operators, those in the supply chain, and service providers to our industry – we can better engage the entire ecosystem. It’s critical we all work together – not in silos – to address critical issues that advance the industry,” said Ben Wexler, President of Custom Culinary and 2024 board chair, in a press release.
IFMA The Food Away from Home Association will continue a soft rollout of the brand through January. A full rebranding of the organization will follow. Additionally, it plans to champion cross-industry initiatives to collaborate on important issues.
“It’s important to us that we maintain our legacy as IFMA while growing to serve a more dynamic and transformed foodservice community,” said the organization’s President and CEO, Phil Kafarakis. “Our new name is purposeful and sets a clearer and more powerful message about who we are as an organization.”
David Haaf – President IDDBA
Embracing the FAFH Sector
IFMA The Food Away from Home Association noted that its definition of “food-away-from home” (FAFH) is concurrent with USDA’s Economic Research Service definition: food purchased and consumed outside of the home.
The group said the category covers a broad range of establishments, including restaurants, fast-food outlets, cafes, bars, schools, hospitals, and other institutions. Additionally, it includes ready-to-eat foods from grocery and convenience stores, such as deli or prepared items.
For scale, in 2023, consumer spending on FAFH reached $1.5 trillion, accounting for 58.5% of total U.S. food expenditures – a record high that highlights Americans’ increasing preference for dining out due to lifestyle changes and convenience factors.
This full ecosystem was on display for the entirety of the Presidents Conference, with representatives from all four member categories taking the stage as IFMA’s new brand identity was unveiled.
Amid pyrotechnics and an impressive light show powered by the audience’s cell phones, Teri Trullinger, incoming board chair and Cargill Foodservice’s group Vice President of Field Sales, shared the new branding.
“Friends, look around. This is our community. Since we are evolving to (serve) everyone represented on this stage and in the audience, we’re taking a bold new step.”
Additionally, at an award ceremony highlighting the achievements of some of the organization’s members, a drone light show highlighted the new branding and the themes of a larger community.
Therese Gearhart – President & CEO WFF
Bringing the Full Ecosystem Together
The trend of bringing the industry together continued with many of the information sessions offered at the event.
Kafarakis hosted a number of panel discussions, including one with retail representatives including Amazon Fresh’s Andrew Sasser and Hy-Vee’s Aaron Wiese, on how important the away-from-home part of their businesses was becoming.
“We’re not a grocer who happens to have a foodservice business; foodservice is a core component within our stores – 73% of consumers do repeat orders. If we provide a great experience, we know they’ll come back,” Weise said.
Andrew Nodes, Instacart’s Vice President of Business and Supply, shared how experience from food retail could help inform food away from home. He highlighted the early struggles of food retail as it worked to become digitally integrated, and shared how advertising on the company’s platform could help meet consumers where they were.
“The onslaught of digital transformation that the grocery industry has gone through over the course of the last decade, it’s only going to take a fraction of the time for food away from home to adopt a lot of these things,” he noted.
Additionally, Kafarakis spoke with Performance Food Group CEO George Holm on the many different aspects of his business including Green Rabbit, a frozen and perishable distributor for retailers across the U.S.
“We don’t require recently acquired companies to [change their models],” he said. “We don’t even press them for a name change. … With our new acquisitions, we learn as much from them as they will learn from us.”
Michelle Korsmo – President & CEO NRA, Mark Allen – President & CEO IFDA, and Phil Kafarakis – President & CEO IFMA Food Away from Home Association
Championing Cross-Industry Initiatives
By pulling the various sectors of the FAFH ecosystem together, IFMA The Food Away from Home Association hopes to drive discussions between stakeholders to improve operations across the board. The new logo for the association includes four intersecting swirls intended to represent segments of the industry teaming together through the work of the association to empower, nurture, and connect the entire ecosystem.
“Our expanded membership enables us to be the industry connector, creating a gathering spot where challenges that face all segments can be addressed. We’ll be leveraging the breadth of membership to meet our mission to lead a dynamic, transparent, and engaged food-away-from-home community,” Trullinger said.
One of the first initiatives the renamed association will focus on will be addressing food waste across the segments of food away from home. In a panel discussion moderated by IFMA’s Charlie McConnell, the Healthcare Foodservice Leadership Council’s Michael Vetro noted more could be done for the sector if the different supply chain partners collaborated on their efforts.
Jennifer Hatcher, FMI’s Chief Public Policy Officer and Senior VP of Government and Member Relations, presented on the current regulatory environment and said it was the most active she had ever seen it.
One of those regulations was FMSA Rule 204, which had a compliance date of January 2026. IFMA The Food Away From Home Association noted it would be working to keep its membership informed of the rule as the deadline approached, and GS1 US hosted an info session on the subject to best support compliance.
Members of IFMA Food Away from Home Association Communities
