Doylestown, PA, and Toronto – The FingerPrints point of sale (POS) system and related assets from Posera have been acquired by SICOM, a provider of POS systems for quick-service and fast-casual restaurants.

Saskatoon – Software company 7shifts, which makes a platform for scheduling, communication and labour-cost control, has secured US$3.5 million in funding from Tandem Capital and existing investor Relay Ventures.

Ottawa – Among accommodation and food services employees, average weekly earnings grew 3.5 per cent to $388, mainly the result of gains in full-service restaurants and limited-service eating places, according to a report from Statistics Canada.

Norwalk, OH – Franchise and independent pizzerias in Norwalk, Ohio, weigh in on how much they and their customers embrace technology. The Norwalk Reflector reports. | READ MORE

Toronto – Spilling a drink, sending the wrong drink to a table or punching in an incorrect order with the kitchen were all examples of mistakes that cost employees tip money, according to staff at chef Susur Lee's restaurants – a practice that is forbidden under Ontario's Employment Standards Act. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Training your employees to answer the top three questions your customers ask them will lead to loyalty to your restaurant, according to customer service expert Shep Hyken. Hyken shares an anecdote that reveals insights about an employee's lack of training.

Toronto – New Canadian research suggests the risk of heart disease is higher among those whose jobs involve mainly standing compared with those who mainly sit. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Simcoe, Ont. – Hungry for ideas to help your pizzeria and your product stand out? Canadian Pizza is highlighting marketing tips during Market Your Pizzeria Week! from Sept. 25 to 29.

Attracting and retaining quality staff is not only good for the bottom line, it's good for customer service. Marketing expert Marc Gordon shares five ways to best attract and retain great staff.

Victoria – The shortage of chefs in Victoria is so bad one restaurant is shutting down its operations for the month of August. A culintary arts instructor points to the high cost of living. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

Toronto – A fight that broke out at a Toronto Pizza Pizza restaurant and was later filmed and posted on YouTube began with a complaint that an order was taking too long, a witness said. The Toronto Star reports. | READ MORE

Orlando, FL – More than half of U.S. workers would rather find another job than be promoted by their company. How many employees would honestly recommend their employer as a place to work? A place to eat? And are companies putting as much importance behind these statistics as they do guest satisfaction? Aaron Allen and Associates explores foodservice employee engagement in a restaurant blog. | READ MORE

Vancouver – New software from pizza and delivery point-of-sale developer SpeedLine Solutions is designed to help restaurant chains save time and improve brand consistency by letting chains manage a master menu with local variations across multiple units and regions.

HD View Technologies has launched a proprietary point-of-sale (POS) software designed for franchises and multi-location restaurants and will work with U.S. brand Pizzafire to install the new system.

Ironwood Gourmet has added to its line of renewable, environmentally friendly kitchen products a 14 x 14 inch pizza peel made of acacia wood.

Moneris Solutions Corporation has introduced a range of iPad Point-of-Sale (POS) Solutions to help retail and restaurant businesses operate more efficiently.

EquipmentWallet has launched a new website designed to connect small businesses seeking equipment financing and leasing with equipment finance companies that suit their needs.

More and more restaurants are looking to increase sales using outside delivery services, but with that opportunity may come concerns about tampering, food safety and maintaining product quality.

Taste for Luxury Rare and Precious Foods has a delicate cheese called Dolce Nuvola made with full-fat, pasteurized milk.

Barrie, Ont., entrepreneur Shelby Taylor has developed a chickpea-based pasta that ticks the boxes of several special diets.

Canadian operators can now upgrade their AMI jukeboxes by adding a music video kit to connect their NGX digital jukebox models to nearby televisions.

If you're looking to jazz up your charcuterie board, Piller’s has a new line of cured meats.

Mobile app and platform ClickDishes works with local restaurants to give customers in-app ordering, streamlining to-go ordering, dine-in eating and payment services.

Dragontail Systems’ Algo Dispatching System uses a patented algorithm to manage the food preparation process from order to delivery.

Leamington, Ont. – Dominos Pizza of Canada chief executive Mike Schlater and his wife Lilibeth picked up the tab for the London Health Sciences Centre’s new brain surgery robot, forking over a $500,000 donation Tuesday. The Windsor Star reports. | READ MORE

Los Angeles – Eric Vose launched Vivace Pizzeria from his Los Angeles food truck about a month ago to feed his obsession with leopard-spotted wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas. The Los Angeles Times reports. | READ MORE

The most successful small businesses share an important quality: they make themselves part of their communities. Entrepreneur magazine lists getting involved among its top 25 common characteristics of successful businesses and Forbes says those who succeed long term are often motivated not by profit but by being able to work where they live.

Regina – Among three different sets of owners, west Regina pizzeria Juliana Pizza has always had a Peter. Today, it’s Peter Yannitsos, who bought Juliana Pizza with his cousin-in-law Paul Howie back in September 2006. The Regina Leader-Post reports. | READ MORE

When you talk to Carlo Raillo get ready to listen because you will learn.

Thunder Bay, Ont. – The owners of a new restaurant on the south side of Thunder Bay, Ont. are hoping their business could be part of an entertainment revival in the area. CBC News reports. | READ MORE

New York – Scott Wiener loves pizza so much he gave up having a regular job to found a tour of pie hotspots in New York. He's so obsessed with it that he has collected over 1,300 pizza boxes from around the U.S. The Independent reports. | READ MORE

When in Rome, you do as the Romans do. For Roberto (Rob) Federici, owner of Ciao Roma in Woodbridge, Ont., that means sampling fresh, delicious pizza made in hole-in-the-wall pizzerias in the land of his heritage.

As a-ha moments go, the one that conceived Junior’s Handmade Sourdough Pizza in Bowmanville, Ont., was a quiet but significant one. It came when, after years of working in the restaurant industry, Jade Chaput and husband Victor Hanc Jr. planned to get into the pizza business.

Red Tomato Pies is crushing it when it comes to customer service. The fun-loving pizzeria with locations in Williams Lake and Golden, B.C., is a favourite pizza spot for locals and tourists alike.

Berlin – In the southeastern Kreuzberg borough of Berlin, a restaurant parodies Canadian culture and specializes in “Canadian Pizza.” The Globe and Mail reports. | READ MORE

Chef Stefano Manfredi shares recipes and details of his new guide to pizza making, which suggests there's been both a movement back to pizza's origins, before industrial flour milling, and an interest in using modern stone milling, machinery and oven technologies. Good Food reports. | READ MORE

Korea – Probiotics found in Swiss cheeses such as Emmental and Gruyère could help reduce inflammation and subsequently boost immunity, recent studies suggest. The Independent reports. | READ MORE

This pizza recipe from the Culinary Institute of America features shellfish, lemon and a rich, creamy sauce reminiscent of New England clam chowder. It appeared in The Chronicle-Herald. | READ MORE

Italian-Australian chef Stefano Manfredi provides a recipe for a classic parmigiana in the shape of a Roman pizza. The Guardian reports. | READ MORE

Phoenix, AZ – Chef Chris Bianco of Pizzeria Bianco in Phoenix, Ariz., has just published his first cookbook – Bianco: Pizza, Pasta, and Other Food I Like – in which the renowned pizzaiolo discusses how to make his famous pizza dough. Food & Wine reports. | READ MORE

Rome – In a move aimed at protecting Italian farmers, all packets of pasta and rice sold in Italy will have to include labels of origin showing where the produce was grown, the Italian government has ruled. Canadian exporters and farmers fear the move will depress prices in Canada, the world's largest durum exporter. Reuters reports. | READ MORE

Simcoe, Ont. – With summer in full swing, Canadian Pizza asked pizza makers to describe their favourite summer pizza and what they like to wash it down with.

Calgary – Dry-aged beef is a growing trend in Calgary, but you may want to rely on experienced butchers if you'd like a taste, a Calgary food columnist says. CBC reports. | READ MORE

San Francisco, CA – These 17 bright and beautiful pizza recipes from food blog Brit + Co are al fresco-approved, seasonal and ready to be plopped onto your plate. | READ MORE

My conversation with Rodolfo Santo begins with a description of limoncello that is almost a love letter. The version of the drink he loves is a specialty of the Amalfi Coast in Italy, says Santo, who was born in nearby Naples. “The lemons there are bigger and sweeter. If you are driving along the coast and look down, you’ll see a hillside of lemons covered with black nets for harvesting,” he says.

Did you know that women aged 19 to 49 require more than twice as much iron in their daily diet as men? And while you may already be eating foods with iron, depending on what you’re eating with them, your body may not be absorbing much of it. There are two kinds of iron: heme iron and non-heme iron. Heme iron, found in meat, fish, and poultry, is well absorbed by the body. Non-heme iron, found in beans, lentils, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and eggs, is not as well absorbed by the body.  

Here are the answers to Michelle Brisebois' Marketing Insights trivia:

East Yorkshire, U.K. – Rebels’ Smokehouse, a diner and takeaway spot in East Yorkshire in the U.K. has created a Yorkshire pudding pizza it sells for £15.95. The Independent reports. | READ MORE

Chicago – Starters, small plates and sides are growing in popularity as eating habits shift to include more snacking and sharing, according to research from Technomic.

Mississauga, Ont. – Why come out to the Canadian Pizza Show on Oct. 16? Here are 10 reasons.

Chicago – As diners continue to search for savings, discounted meals, coupons and other specials are likely to drive restaurant traffic, says a new report from research firm Technomic.

VANCOUVER -- Lobby groups for the meat and dairy sectors are up in arms over indications that Canada's next food guide could discourage the consumption of beef, butter and cheese.

Chicago – Gen-Xers can now take centre stage as an important customer base for restaurants, according to a study by international information company the NPD Group.

Kingston, Ont. – A group made up of the personal chefs to world leaders and royalty is touring Canada to meet socially, discover trends, discuss food-related issues and promote healthy eating. The Kingston Whig-Standard reports. | READ MORE

Multan, Pakistan – Pakistan's first robot waitresses are serving up smiles for customers at a pizzeria in the ancient city of Multan. The restaurant's owner built the prototypes himself. Phys.org reports. | READ MORE

Kansas City, MI – As the organic, gluten-free, non-GMO and better-for-you trends influence the U.S. pizza market, frozen pizza companies are looking for ways to compete with quick-service, fast-casual and full-service pizza chains and independent pizzerias offering high-quality ingredients and innovative pizza. Baking Business reports. |

Toronto – A study of Canadian online shopping patterns by measurement and analytics company Comscore has found Canadians like to order their pizzas with their phones. The top three delivery sites – Dominos, Pizza Pizza and Pizza Hut – all showed year-on-year growth of at least 25 per cent. Mobilesyrup reports. | READ MORE

Orlando, FL – Restaurants and grocery stores will continue to steal ideas from one another, with grocery stores adding more prepared foods and cafés and restaurants adding more retail items both in their own restaurants and on grocery store shelves. This is one of 10 trends explored by Aaron Allen and Associates. | READ MORE

If you’re looking to gain an edge for your pizzeria, an industry event like the International Pizza Expo is a great place to start.