According to Don Ratliff, UPS and Regents’ Professor in the H. Milton Stewart School of Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) and executive director of ISyE’s Supply Chain & Logistics Institute, “‘quality sell-time’ is the critical performance driver with respect to perishable food products. In his article, “Quality Sell-Time of Perishables,” which appeared in the October 2010 Food Logistics’ column Cool Insights, Ratliff explains that quality sell-time is “the period of time when the seller has a product available to sell while it is at the peak of its quality life and with enough remaining ‘quality-consume-time’ to meet customer’s expectations.” This is important at every stage of the food supply chain, but is particularly critical for retailers. Click here to read the article.