Bay State Milling Co. hosted the Baking Industry Roundtable, held at 606 Congress restaurant in Boston. Bay State’s Dave Kovacic and other Bay State executives shared their perspectives on ingredient pricing and supply.

We also do a lot of vegan. We have a 21-day rotating menu for our regular guests, but last semester, we started a 21-day rotating cycle for a vegan menu. It's proven popular.

Gumpel: As we talk about it, students are not putting cash down. It's interesting to see trends when money is not an issue. So, they can do their own thing, but when people are putting money down, it all changes.

You know what? The quietest group that has the most impact on my future is diabetics. Diabetics are out spending money, and I don't mean to be disrespectful, but there's a portion of the diabetic community that is diabetic because of poor eating habits. Sugar substitutes, diets and smaller portion sizes are all part of our future.

BM: What are your biggest barriers to innovation, to going after some of these new opportunities you see on the horizon?

Trilevsky: As you're growing, it becomes far more complicated to whip up a new product. It's frustrating and not as much fun because now the quality assurance department looks at all the ingredients, and then you have to run it through software to verify the nutritional piece. What once was a very simple process is now six weeks, and there is simply not enough time to get everything out with ingredient purchasing and other requirements.

Piantedosi: We're a privately-owned, family company, and we'll go out and spend millions of dollars on equipment. It's scary. A lot of our equipment needs to be replaced, and you're looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars for each piece of equipment. Everyone thinks the equipment eliminates labor, but it really doesn't because we put quality people on the lines to check the product.

BM: So you've automated with more equipment, but you really didn't get the labor savings you expected?

Piantedosi: We never do because you bring in more mechanics. You bring in more maintenance people to manage the new equipment; you need qualified technicians.

Dischino: So, you have an extra person before the proofer, after the proofer and during the moulding. Then, you need a controller at the other end to check what the other guy is doing. By the time you're down the line, instead of six people, you have 13. You can only increase output so much because the oven is designed to handle so many pounds of dough. You can only do so much because the oven is the boss of the whole bakery.

Piantedosi: In our product there are variables. We have a customer that is adamant that it has to be a certain length or certain color, so there are going to be variations. We're not making pads of paper; we're making something that fluctuates.