Source: POLITICO'S MORNING AGRICULTURE, 4/6/20

Foodservice distributors and shuttered restaurants are rapidly rerouting their food to retailers, where a surge of shoppers have left store shelves barren. As businesses and regulators scramble to adapt, it's blurring the lines between what were previously two separate supply chains, Pro Trade's Adam Behsudi and your host report.

Bahige El-Rayes, a partner at consulting firm Kearney, said his clients are seeing a "tsunami of demand shift from foodservice to food retail."

— By the numbers: In 2018, Americans spent about $678 billion at full-service and fast-food restaurants, compared with $627 billion at grocery stores and warehouse clubs, according to USDA data.

— Now, the National Restaurant Association expects the industry will shed $225 billion over the next few months, along with some 5 million to 7 million jobs.

"We have this massive reorganization of how people buy their food," said Pat Westhoff, director of the University of Missouri's Food and Agricultural Policy Research Institute. "Since we're buying more at the grocery store, it means [food items] have to be in that form."

In response: The FDA in March gave restaurants and manufacturers a greenlight to sell packaged foods to retailers without the usual nutrition labeling requirements. Meanwhile, top grocers and foodservice distributors, like Kroger and Sysco, are teaming up to keep store shelves stocked and provide new job opportunities for furloughed workers.