Gourmet News • July 2022

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VOLUME 87 • NUMBER 7 JULY 2022 • $7.00 • Cheese Conference Returns in Person, With Changes, July 20-23 in Oregon PAGE 6

• Some Like It Hot (Some Not): Boldly Tasting Lola’s Hot Sauces, Salsas PAGE 8

• Survey: Consumers Accept E-Commerce Delivery Delay for Sustainability PAGE 10

• Certified-Sustainable, Nutrient-Rich Wild Alaska Pollock Takes Center Plate PAGE 11

• Burger King, Cargill to Help Restore Grasslands, Wildlife in Southern Great Plains PAGE 12

• San Diego County Wine Sales to Exceed $44M, Active Wineries See Increase to 160 in 2021 PAGE 14

N E W S P A P E R

F O R

T H E

G O U R M E T

I N D U S T R Y

No Quick Fix to Soaring Food Costs, Experts Say Ecuadoran Chocho

BY A.J. FLICK

Like the Ring of Fire that sets off a volcanic chain reaction, there was no singular event at any particular time that led to soaring food costs around the world. The current crisis is rooted in situations that barely attracted attention years ago – such as the United States getting shut out of container shipping – that was exacerbated by more recent events – including inflation, splintered politics, pandemic shutdowns and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The signs were obvious to anyone in the specialty food industry, but American consumers began realizing the impact upon their

budgets this spring.

“With inflation still elevated,

consumer spending growth is showing signs of losing some momentum,” according to the experts at Morning Consult.

“Persistent supply chain disrup-

tions continue to impact the availability of essential goods like groceries.”

As complex as the cause was and acute as the economic pain is, there’s no quick fix.

“Even if monetary policy measures to tame inflation are successful,” according to Morning Consult, “already high prices are likely to remain elevated for some time.

Consumers’ response to inflation is therefore likely to play a major role in shaping the outlook for the U.S. economy.”

Behold the humble mustard. It can be bright yellow, brown,

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• Featured Products PAGE 19

• Advertiser Index PAGE 22

speckled, spicy or mild. It’s the condiment of choice for many consumers and considered a mandatory ingredient on some foods.

No wonder mustard has a museum devoted to it.

“Mustard is a condiment that, when you taste it with other foods, enhances the flavor,” said Barry Levenson, founder and curator of the National Mustard Museum in Middleton,

BY A.J. FLICK

Wis., just outside of Madison, for the benefit of anyone who might not have tasted mustard.

Levenson cautioned against ignoring mustard’s glory.

“On a hot dog, for example, in Chicago, if you put that red stuff on it, you’re in trouble,” he said, only half in jest. “At a lot of hot dog stands, they will refuse to put ketchup on a hot dog.”

Levenson, who knows more about mustard than most people – he even wrote the book on

A plant-based protein that’s free from gluten, dairy, lectin, artificial fillers and additives to mask the natural flavor; contains healthy fat for nutritional needs; and has a sustainable, better-for-the-Earth source?

Meet chocho, which could be a game changer on the plant-based protein market.

Credit Ecuadoran Ricky Echanique, a fifth-generation farmer and former professional tennis player, for bringing chocho to the world’s attention by founding Mikuna, a superfood protein company.

“Ricky didn’t set out to start a food company,” said Mikuna CEO Tara Kriese. “He had a problem with his autoimmune system that ended his professional tennis career and decided to try a plantbased diet.”

Echanique was familiar with chocho, a lupin that had been harvested for eons in Ecuador for its health benefits as well as a staple for impoverished people who relied heavily on meat-forward diets. Not many outsiders were aware of the plant, since it grows in remote areas.

Not only did Echanique see an

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In Wisconsin, Mustard Takes the Cheese

BY A.J. FLICK

Enters Plant-Based Protein Market

Winter Holidays Create Demand for Chocolates, Candies Holiday trends come and go, but something can be relied on year after year: the new candies and chocolates.

The U.S. chocolate market is valued at nearly $50 billion a year, according to Statista, with the seasonal chocolate market accounting for $3.3 billion, with an annual sales growth of 13.5 percent.

Each buyer spends more than $19 on seasonal chocolate, compared to $8.44 on non-chocolate seasonal candy, according to Statista. The next biggest holiday per buyer is Easter, with each buyer spending $17 on choco-

lates and $10 on other candy. Halloween brings in $14.79 for chocolates and $11.50 for nonchocolates.

While lots of chocolate Easter bunny ears get nibbled off, the big difference with the winter holidays is that candy in bunches makes for great holiday gifts.

This year, Nassau Candy decided to put a sweet spin on edible holiday gifting with its Clever Candy Gingerbread House Candy Kit and Elf Activity Kit.

“The Gingerbread House Candy Kit doesn’t come with a house,” explained Dana Rodio, director of brand strategy.

In developing the kits, the Nassau Candy team discussed what’s on the market and what sells.

“Gingerbread is not something we do,” she said. “But those kits tend to come with a limited amount of candy. And, as kids will do, when you’re making the gingerbread house, you’re also snacking on the candy and have to buy more candy.”

Nassau Candy’s solution was to package gingerbread house-suitable candies, such as nonpareils for roof shingles, that weigh about a pound – with instructions Continued on PAGE 18

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JULY 2022

FROM THE EDITOR

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Whether you like mustard or think ketchup is the only condiment a person needs, I hope you take a look at our feature this month on the National Mustard Museum and next month’s National Mustard Day. It was a fun feature to put together, largely because I got to talk to the museum’s founder and curator, Barry Levenson. In one of those small-world moments, it turns out the widow of a rabbi who Barry knew in his youth in Connecticut is a friend of mine.

Barry wrote an entertaining book on mustard, “The Art of Mustard,” that showcases many of the museum exhibits with lighthearted text and some eyebrow-raising facts. For instance, probably like most of you, I thought mustard gas was actually made from mustard.

“People often ask if it is the volatile oil of mustard that made mustard gas, used by the Germans in World War I, so deadly. No. Mustard gas was really a chemical compound (diethyl dichloride) that was not made from any part of the mustard plant. It was called ‘mustard gas’ by British soldiers who believed the stinging sensation of the gas reminded them of hot English mustard from back home.” (“I heard the Germans were working on a new generation of gas called mayonnaise gas,” Barry told me. “It made its victims limp and very boring.”)

You might be surprised to learn that Barry was a successful attorney when he got the idea to quit and create the Museum of Mustard. He mentioned that his brother is a retired doctor who is a serious collector of Japanese art deco, which has made him wealthy, while Levenson has appeared on Oprah Winfrey’s TV show.

“My mother, when she was alive, would say that she had two sons – one who’s rich and one who’s famous,” Barry said, crediting

his wife for her support in his condiment career.

Barry practiced – perhaps this isn’t too much of a surprise – food law, even writing a book, “Habeas Codfish.” There’s another in the works, he said.

“There’s a lot of fraud involving food,” he said (last month, we featured an article on food fraud). “The plant-based food movement brought up so many legal issues about who would regulate them, what they can be called, environmental concerns.”

Barry still teaches law students about food law.

“It’s a popular course in which eating in class is not only allowed, but required,” he said in all seriousness, citing a recent lawsuit over whether Kellogg’s Strawberry Pop Tarts can be called that when the ingredients are strawberry food coloring, pears and dried apples.

Barry never strays far from his favorite topic and his mission to educate the world about mustard.

Barry wrote a children’s book, “Mustard on a Pickle,” illustrated

by Chris Miles, extolling the virtues of the colorful condiment. For higher learning, he founded Poupon U, which even has its own songbook, including this cheer: “Who needs Harvard, who needs Yale?

At Poupon U, you’ll never fail.

Stanford, Princeton? Big mistake!

Poupon U’s a piece of cake.”

Barry even conferred upon me a degree, Doctor of DiddleySquat, with highest honors in useless information. So, I’ve got that going for me.

Take care and stay safe! GN

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JULY 2022

Cheese Conference Returns in Person, With Changes, July 20-23 in Oregon

BY A.J. FLICK

Cheesemakers across the nation are gearing up for the first in-person American Cheese Society Annual Conference since 2019. The 39th annual event is set for July 20-23 in Portland, Ore. It will be the first in-person ACS conference for Executive Director Tara Holmes, who has been at her post for about a year.

“There have been lots of changes made,” said Holmes, who has been working hard to prepare attendees for the changes so they’re not disappointed.

Perhaps the biggest change is removing the judging competition from the convention.

“The judging competition includes upwards of 1,300 cheeses,” Holmes said. “In the past, the judging competition and the conference have happened concurrently.

But it’s too big of an undertaking for the staff and committees to be in different locations for two major events.”

The competition took place May 19-20 in Minneapolis, with winners to be announced at the annual conference.

“We’re hoping the judging competition stays at the same location every year,” Holmes said, “so we don’t have to recreate the wheel every year.”

The biggest drawback to separating the judging competition and convention is the much-loved Festival of Cheese, in which leftover cheese is sold, won’t be a part of the Portland meeting.

“Everyone understands from a food safety perspective, it was a concern,” Holmes said.

Meet the Cheesemaker will be “bigger and better” at the conference, she said, which has sparked interest from Portland cheesemakers.

“All the local cheesemakers are invited,” Holmes said. “We’re expecting a really big crowd.”

Moving the conference each year is a pri-

ority for the ACS. “I genuinely think that is one of the biggest highlights,” she said. “ACS is all about highlighting smaller cheesemakers, many who are not distributed on a national scale. It’s a treat to meet small cheesemakers at different venues every year.

“We’re hoping to highlight other producers, like a local beer brewing company, to showcase the area we’re in. It’s an opportunity for folks who are not familiar with Portland to find out more.”

Several local tours are scheduled for July 20, for the city of Portland, Willamette Valley wine country and the city of Salem. A Cheese Crawl is set for the evening of July 21.

And considering the location, the annual conference’s theme is “Blazing the Trail for Cheese.” The schedule includes a welcome program on “An Agricultural Tour From the Oregon Trail to Modern Day,” a tasting session and discussion on “A Distinctive Fermentation Community: Oregon’s Na-

tional Leadership” and session on “What Grows Together Goes Together: Oregon’s Dynamic Geological History and Terroir.”

On July 21, the inaugural winner of the Daphne Zepos Research Award, Mary Casella, will present “Women’s Work: The History and Legacy of Women in Dairy.”

Casella was inspired to examine the history of women working in dairy, who were often under-appreciated if not downright looked down upon, according to the ACS schedule guide.

“Women have played such an important role in American artisan cheesemaking,” Holmes said.

The conference kicks off with a reception whose marquee sponsor is Tillamook.

“It’s the can’t-miss event,” Holmes said.

“We’re going to do it up big. There’s going to be fantastic food and I’m hearing even some Tillamook ice cream.”

The 2023 conference is set for July in Des Moines, which last hosted in 2016. GN

Vanilla’s Complexities Complicate Global Supply Chain, Virginia Dare Says Beyond the difficulties brought on to the global supply chain by pandemic and an invasion, the vanilla industry faces its own challenges that are as distinctive as the bean from which it’s derived.

“The vanilla supply chain is as complex as the flavor itself,” extract company Virginia Dare said in a recent whitepaper, “Vanilla Expertise: Navigating the Challenges of Natural Vanilla.”

“Reaching tens of thousands of individual growers in remote areas that are not served by road networks is a logistical challenge. Knowing where to find growers who employ the best agricultural practices and who will harvest only mature vanilla beans is another challenge. As demand has surpassed supply in recent years, this has been exceptionally difficult for suppliers. With any natural commodity, weather events and market factors contribute to unpredictability in sourcing, and natural vanilla is a prime example of this.”

Sourcing is a prime consideration in vanilla extraction, according to the whitepaper.

“Just like a great wine, vanilla extract is

the complex expression of soil, sun, rain, and region. Its flavor reveals secrets of chosen varietals, harvest times, aging, and production methods. An expert can tell what kind of vanilla was used to produce an extract and from where it came.

“Vanilla is, in some ways, even more complicated than wine. Unlike grapes, vanilla beans try to hide their incredible taste attributes. These can be coaxed out only through an extremely long and complex process that unlocks the rich flavor that nature makes possible,” according to the whitepaper.

“Most consumers are surprised to learn that the natural curing method for vanilla beans involves hot baths, sweating in blankets, sun drying that lasts for weeks, and aging in wooden boxes that can go on for years. They’re even more surprised to learn that almost all vanilla beans come from individual family plots and not industrial plantations.”

Vanilla’s appeal is so strong that demand has made a joke of the myth that it’s too bland. Nearly two-thirds of Americans say vanilla is their favorite ice cream flavor, ac-

cording to the whitepaper, crediting the International Dairy Foods Association.

“The universal appeal of this amazing flavor means that demand for it naturally increases with population growth,” according to the whitepaper. “And as more consumers seek to replace or remove artificial ingredients from their diet, demand grows even more.”

As clean label awareness increases, some companies are transitioning from using imitation vanilla flavoring to pure vanilla extract, according to Virginia Dare.

“While the two product types share the distinctive vanillin chemical compound, imitation flavoring lacks the nuance, depth, and complexity that comes from real vanilla’s hundreds of natural flavor compounds. Thus, formulators essentially move from having a handful of flavor levers at their disposal to having hundreds,” according to the whitepaper.

Adding to the supply chain complexity, according to Virginia Dare, is the fact that the United States is the largest importer of pure vanilla extract.

“At the same time, it is governed by a

very highly defined Federal Standard of Identity specifying what can be called ‘extract’ based on the quantity of beans used, their moisture level, and even the way they were cured,” according to the whitepaper.

Noting how consumers are increasingly aware of a product’s sustainability, the whitepaper notes that the geographic limitations in vanilla growing regions put additional pressure for sustainable farming and production practices to ensure long-term market stability.

“We strive to be the best possible stewards of the market for natural vanilla that we can be,” Henry Todd, Virginia Dare’s VP-International, is quoted in the whitepaper. “Virginia Dare’s smallholder vanilla farmers and its customers all live in the same market ecosystem and both need to be nurtured such that they thrive. We’re all interdependent stakeholders, which is why we make unrivaled efforts to make sure our customers’ long-term interests are aligned with those of our producers to the fullest possible extent. Doing so is what makes a market sustainable.” GN

US Foods to Open Fourth S.C. Chef’Store Location US Foods Holding Corp. will open a Chef’Store in Spartanburg, S.C., this fall. The new 33,000-square-foot store will join three locations across South Carolina.

Chef’Store is a one-stop-shop for restaurant operators, food industry professionals, community groups and at-home chefs to quickly stock up or replenish ingredients and supplies in various sizes and of-

ferings. The store will offer more than 4,000 restaurant-quality products at competitive prices, including fresh meat, produce, dairy, deli items and frozen seafood.

Customers will also be able to shop for baking ingredients, beverages, catering essentials, janitorial supplies and other restaurant essentials. Chef’Store is open to the public seven days a week with no

membership required.

“Spartanburg is a thriving city with a vibrant restaurant and culinary scene,” said John Mathews, US Foods vice president of sales and marketing, “and we look forward to serving the community with competitively priced, restaurant-quality products.”

The three existing locations are in Charleston, Myrtle Beach and Columbia.

US Foods acquired Smart Foodservice Warehouse stores in April 2020 to accelerate growth in the cash and carry market and rebranded all Smart Foodservice Warehouse stores to US Foods Chef’Store in February 2021. With the addition of the Spartanburg location, US Foods will have 83 locations across the continental United States. GN

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Some Like It Hot (Some Not): Boldly Tasting Lola’s Hot Sauces, Salsas REVIEW BY A.J. FLICK

Always eager to try something spicy, I was happy to receive six jars of salsa and four bottles of hot sauce from Lola’s to taste.

Even for someone like me, who starts her day with hot sauce or salsa splashed on her eggs, that’s a lot of salsa and hot sauce to try. It was a perfect excuse to assemble another tasting panel – my friends – who even agreed to a blind taste test!

Craig Ludwiczak took it as an excuse to host taco night at his house. Robert Ulsrud, Pat Shafer and Bruce Tilley answered the call (who doesn’t like tacos?), so we gathered at Craig’s house recently.

I set the tasting up so that even I didn’t know which flavors were being presented.

All I told them about the hot sauces was that the words “reaper” and “ghost pepper” were in there somewhere. They were intrigued.

I poured the hot sauces and scooped the salsas into little cups, with tortilla chips provided for those who wanted something to eat with the hot sauce. We had a lot of water available and Bruce served up Margaritas with freshly squeezed lime. He brought cilantro and jalapeño to add some kick to the tequila. I brought a bottle of Torani’s new simple syrup, Bergamot, which added just the right sweet tang to go with the lime.

I gave everyone a little notebook to write down their impressions, while I took notes myself. Some opinions were a challenge to translate. I passed along the warning that Lola’s puts on the hot sauces: “Shake well.

Pour slow.”

Craig had an immediate verbal reaction to the first hot sauce.

“Write that down,” I teased.

“Cak! Cak! Cak!” he wrote down.

“Way too hot to enjoy it,” Robert wrote.

“I tasted nothing but hot, which is not enjoyable at all.”

“Really hot,” wrote Pat, who is not a big fan of hot sauce.

Two of us, though, loved Hot Sauce #1.

Yes, it had a kick, but I liked it. Bruce did, too.

“Mild to medium,” he thought of the heat. “Moderate flavor. I like it a lot.”

Hot sauce #1 was Lola’s Carolina Reaper.

I tasted a lot of tomatoes in hot sauce #2, which I didn’t think was too hot.

“Still too hot,” Robert said. “All I can taste is HOT!” Yet Pat found hot sauce #2 “mild” and Bruce thought the heat was “medium.”

“Smoky flavor,” Craig wrote. “Tolerable heat. Not bad.”

Hot sauce #2 was Lola’s Ghost Pepper.

Craig thought hot sauce #3 was “too hot for me,” with the heat sneaking up on him. Still, he found it had a “tangy, almost fruity flavor, yet smoky, if that makes sense.”

For me, this hot sauce, which was thick and mild, reminded me of enchilada sauce.

Bruce liked it, saying it was medium to hot on the heat and “flavorful.”

Pat and Craig weren’t fans of #3 hot sauce.

“Not bad, but just not very good taste to me,” Craig wrote.

Pat tasted too much vinegar and thought it was too hot.

Hot sauce #3 was Lola’s Original.

Bruce tasted a lot of spice in hot sauce #4, though it wasn’t one of his favorites.

He said the vinegar taste was strong, which Pat also tasted and didn’t like.

Craig didn’t think #4 was spicy enough.

Robert was hesitant to try it after sniffing the cup.

“Just smelling it was too much,” he wrote. “I can’t even think about tasting it.”

I thought it was too thin and had a strange aftertaste.

Hot sauce #4 was Lola’s Trinidad Scorpion.

Now, on to the salsas, which was a more popular category than the hot sauces for the tasting panel.

Bruce detected something sweet, “maybe mango,” in salsa #1, which he deemed “very mild.”

I thought it was sweet, too, and had great texture.

heat, just enough!!!”

“Nice and sweet,” Craig said. “Slightly smoky.”

Bruce tasted vinegar and spices, saying the heat was medium, but he wasn’t a big fan.

“Sweet and bland,” he wrote. “Did not like.”

“Sweet! Mild! Delicious!” Craig ruled, finally finding something he really liked.

Pat found it sweet and mild. Robert said the salsa strayed too far from some heat.

“MILD, MILD, MILD,” he wrote. “Not bad, but not very flavorful.”

Salsa #1 was Lola’s Sweet and Spicy Mango.

Robert finally found something he liked with salsa #2.

“Good flavor,” he wrote. “Very tasty.

Semi, but not too hot.”

Pat thought salsa #2 was “hot, smoky.” I thought it was okay, but didn’t have enough kick for my taste.

“Nice, smoky flavor,” Craig thought.

“The heat comes in late and is fairly tolerable.”

Salsa #2 was Lola’s Sweet Roasted Reaper.

The next salsa had a flavor everyone hit on and liked: bacon.

“Smoky bacon!!!!!!” Craig gushed.

“Mild heat. Will be putting this on my taco tonight.” (Guess which salsa Craig got to keep.)

“Very, very good,” Robert wrote. “Right amount of heat. Very flavorful. Not too hot, just right.”

Pat and Bruce also approved of the smoky bacon flavor.

Salsa #3 was … drum roll … Lola’s Smoked Bacon & Sweet Corn.

The next salsa was another sweet one for me. I thought it would taste good on a shrimp taco.

“Sweet,” Pat wrote. “Very mild.”

“Wonderful flavor,” Robert thought of salsa #4. “Absolutely delish!! Some minor

Salsa #4 was Lola’s Cherry Jalapeño.

The next salsa was the only green chile salsa, but I told my friends it had a little secret, which none of them guessed.

“Mild taste,” Craig wrote. “No heat. You taste the sweetness of the corn at the end.

Enjoyable, but I wouldn’t buy it.”

Bruce tasted tomatillo, but thought it was too mild and bland.

“Okay,” he wrote.

Salsa #5 didn’t make a great impression on Pat, either, noting it was “sweet” and “mild.”

“Bland, but good,” Robert thought.

“Mild. Forgettable.”

“Nothing,” Pat wrote.

Of course, I knew Salsa #5’s secret and I enjoyed the nuance of green chile grown in New Mexico.

Yes, salsa #5 was Lola’s Hatch Chile and Sweet Corn.

Pat finally found a salsa she found “flavorful” and “tomatoey” in our last sample.

I, too, appreciated the flavor of salsa #6 and thought it wasn’t too hot. I liked it. It would be great to scoop it up with a tortilla chip.

“BLAND,” Robert wrote. “No taste.”

“Mild but flavorful,” Bruce deemed salsa #6, saying he liked it.

Craig found the next best thing to bacon salsa.

“The most like standard salsa,” he wrote.

“Slight heat, kick at the end.

“Right up my alley,” he concluded. “I don’t mind a little zing, but when it comes to heat, less is better.”

Salsa #6 was Lola’s Mild. GN

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USDA Scientists Boost Nutritional Bounty With Improved Carrot, Onion Varieties Agricultural Research Service scientists are looking to beef up your salad – not with complementary slices of tender chicken, steak or other meat, but improved varieties of carrots and onions.

Philipp Simon, research leader of the ARS Vegetable Crops Research Unit in Madison, Wisc., is coordinating the effort to fortify those popular salad items and fresh-market favorites with increased levels of beta carotene, anthocyanin and other phytonutrients.

His team is leveraging the latest genomics tools and techniques to identify the specific gene or gene regions for these health-promoting compounds in germplasm collections of onions and carrots so that they can be passed into elite commercial varieties, benefiting farmers in the field and consumers at the dinner table.

On one front, Simon is working to increase the beta carotene content of carrot varieties

now grown, which – along with other carotenoids – ranges from 45 to 200 parts per million. Beta carotene is a key pigment that gives this root crop its appealing orange color.

But when carrots are consumed, the beta carotene becomes something even better: a leading dietary source of vitamin A, which is critical to human health and wellbeing.

Vitamin A deficiency is the leading cause of preventable blindness in 250,000 to 500,000 children worldwide. Vitamin A deficiency in these children also hinders their ability to fight off infection.

Anthocyanin, another pigment which gives rise to purple-colored carrots, is credited with antioxidant activity among other benefits.

Onions, which belong to the genus Allium along with garlic, are also rich in phytonutrients – quercetin and thiosulfinates among them. Thiosulfinates give allium species including onions their pungent

aroma and flavor.

Cutting or crushing onion and garlic bulbs releases the thiosulfinates and exposure to air causes their breakdown into secondary compounds called organosulfates.

That’s not a bad thing, however. According to Simon, there’s some evidence dietary sources of organosulfates help minimize the risk of heart disease, stroke and some forms of cancer.

Fructan, a carbohydrate-storing polymer, is also of interest for its health-promoting potential in the human body (though some individuals are sensitive to it and may experience bloating among other symptoms).

Onions are second only to wheat as a leading source of fructan, which the body cannot digest but which helps nourish populations of beneficial intestinal bacteria.

Using genomic mapping techniques, Simon’s group is hunting for so-called markers that can flag the presence of the

specific gene or genes that ratchet up the production of these phytonutrients in carrots and onions. With these markers figuratively in hand, breeders could use marker-assisted selection to check for the presence of these genes in the progeny of two parent varieties without waiting for the young plants to fully mature, saving time, money and resources.

The researchers are also looking for markers linked to agronomic traits such as pest and disease resistance, opening the door to new varieties that reduce production costs for growers and improve nutritional health for consumers.

The Agricultural Research Service is the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientific in-house research agency. ARS focuses on solutions to agricultural problems affecting America. Each dollar invested in agricultural research results in $17 of economic impact. GN

Survey: Consumers Accept E-Commerce Delivery Delay for Sustainability More than three-quarters (86 percent) of consumers are willing to delay e-commerce deliveries for the sake of improving sustainability if given an incentive to do so, according to Blue Yonder’s 2022 Consumer Sustainability Survey. Of those respondents, 29 percent are willing to delay deliveries up to five days and 28 percent are willing to delay a week or more.

The data also showed the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable impact on consumer sustainability habits. Nearly half (44 percent) of consumers said their interest in shopping sustainably increased since the start of the pandemic.

“During the pandemic, many businesses had to temporarily trade off sustainability for the sake of public health and safety,” said Edward Wong, senior vice president, global retail sector leader. “Essential stores such as grocery eliminated reusable bag use and nearly all brick-and-mortar shops strengthened or in some cases added new

online commerce operations with delivery options. This shifted more sales online that previously would have occurred in-store.

“As retail emerges from pandemic-era practices, sustainability is back in focus.

The findings of this study reflect the paradigm shift toward a more environmentally friendly supply chain as consumers are now willing to do their part to embrace more sustainable shopping habits.”

Retail e-commerce sales are expected to grow by 50 percent over the next four years. To help limit the environmental impact of their online shopping, the survey found that consumers are willing to do their part by recycling, spending more on sustainable packaging or even setting minimum spending requirements on deliveries: • 81 percent of consumers recycle boxes/bags from in-store and online shopping at least half the time and more than half (53 percent) recycle the packaging 75 to 100 percent of the time

• 64 percent are willing to spend more on sustainable packaging, with 44 percent willing to spend up to 5 percent more • 40 percent agree there should be a minimum amount a consumer must spend to qualify for expedited shipping or shipping in general The survey also revealed that social media has influenced over half (52 percent) of consumers’ sustainable shopping frequency. Nearly half (45 percent) said they were slightly to moderately influenced and 7 percent said they were moderately to significantly influenced.

For those influenced by social media, Facebook and Instagram had the biggest influence with 31 percent and 28 percent, respectively. Facebook is the most popular platform for ages 45 and older and Instagram for ages 18 to 44. Surprisingly, TikTok (16 percent) and Snapchat (5 percent) were not as large of an influence with consumers overall. However, these

platforms had a larger appeal for respondents ages 18 to 29, with TikTok at 28 percent.

“Businesses are in a unique position to start making smarter decisions that consider not only profit, but the environment and humankind,” Wong said. “With the use of powerful new technologies, these factors are no longer mutually exclusive.

“Forecasting demand using artificial intelligence and machine learning is one of the most effective ways to do this,” he said. “These advanced tools can detect obscure business patterns from hundreds of variables, including the weather, price elasticity and events, to predict sales at the most granular levels. This allows businesses to operate responsibly (and profitably) via reduced waste, more efficient production, smarter transportation strategies, and reduced resource consumption.” GN

Arterra Wines Canada Awards Ardagh Glass Packaging Its Highest Supplier Rating Arterra Wines Canada awarded Ardagh Glass Packaging – North America its highest supplier rating, which is based on service, governance and risk management, value and innovation.

“The last two years have been extremely challenging from a supply perspective,” said Emilio Russo, vice president, procurement at Arterra Wines Canada, Inc. “We very much appreciate the support from Walter Schaefer, manager, national ac-

counts; Kris Johnson Whetsel, manager, customer service – food, beverage & spirits; and Kimberly Culver, manager, customer service – wine, east, for their collaboration and creativity, often providing solutions to potential issues before they occurred, which mitigated our exposure to supply gaps.”

For 18 years, AGP – North America has worked alongside Arterra, collaborating on a multitude of projects. In 2020, AGP –

North America designed and manufactured a 1.5-liter Bordeaux Stelvin wine bottle for Arterra with an overall weight reduction of 20 percent (5.50 ounces) from its original design, in compliance with the Liquor Control Board of Ontario’s standards.

For more than 125 years, Ardagh has been producing innovative, 100 percent and endlessly recyclable glass bottles in the United States, and offers a wide selection of premium wine bottles in a variety of colors,

sizes, styles and finishes.

Throughout 2022, Ardagh Glass Packaging will celebrate the United Nations International Year of Glass, commemorating the essential role of glass packaging in a sustainable society.

AGP – North America is focused on collaborating with customers including Arterra to provide high-quality glass bottles to celebrate the advancement of glass packaging in today’s society. GN

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Vertical Farm Uses Robotics, LED Grow Lights for Year-Round Fresh Greens Imagine having up to 1 million pounds annually of non-GMO, pesticide-free food using 97 percent less land and water to produce it. Fifth Season and GE Current have developed a standard for year-round fresh greens made possible by a powerful combination of robotics and LED grow lights.

Located near Pittsburgh, Fifth Season is a technology-fueled vertical farm with production aspirations matching the steel mills that surround it. This controlled environment agriculture outfit features 60,000

square feet of end-to-end automation with minimal human interaction. Fifth Season has a goal to produce the highest caliber and volume of predictable crop yields and sees LED grow lights as key to that success.

“We want to make food accessible to everybody and that takes superb design and engineering support,” said Tim Morgan, automation manager for Fifth Season.

“Selecting grow lights is one of the most important decisions you could make from a hardware design perspective.”

Fifth Season selected Arize Life LED fixtures from Current for its budding operation.

Highly versatile and scalable, the lights are available in nine spectrums for encouraging specific plant responses. Already the lights have helped Fifth Season achieve a faster time to harvest and increase crop cycles since being installed fewer than 24 months ago.

“We are seeing growing densities that I haven’t seen anywhere else in the industry,” Morgan said. “This is allowing us to deliver fresh crops to customers faster and live up

to our mission of solving the world’s most pressing problems with thoughtful action and the latest technologies. With a boost from Current’s LED fixtures, our goal of 1 million pounds of fresh greens this year appears within reach.”

The full Arize portfolio has options to power greenhouses and indoor farms of industrial scale. Included are solutions for covering large areas with fewer fixtures that are designed for the type of dense growing environment Fifth Season aims for. GN

Certified-Sustainable, Nutrient-Rich Wild Alaska Pollock Takes Center Plate Wild Alaska pollock has long been used as an ingredient in fish sandwiches and fish sticks at restaurants and widely available in the frozen section at retailers. Now, this certified-sustainable seafood source rich in nutrients is taking a center-plate role at Nordstrom Restaurants this spring and as a key ingredient in Trident Seafoods’ new Omega-3 supplements for people and food toppers for dogs.

According to a recent Life Cycle assessment study, wild Alaska pollock has a lower carbon impact than beef, chicken and pork.

Sustainable harvest practices and transparency from the source to the plate allow the fish to be certified sustainable by the Responsible Fisheries Management and Marine Stewardship Council programs.

Wild Alaska Pollock is also one of the most abundant fish species harvested in Alaska waters, well managed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Adminis-

tration-National Marine Fisheries Service.

Scientists set annual catch limits that ensure the species’ viability and sustainability based on some of the most comprehensive fishery and ecosystem data available globally.

Wild Alaska pollock is nutrient rich. One three-ounce serving contains 281mg omega-3 fatty acids, 17 grams of protein and 130 percent of the recommended daily value of vitamin B12.

With a mild, delicate flavor, low oil content and firm yet flaky texture, this white fish, which is often described as similar to cod, works well in a variety of dishes. Wild Alaska pollock is perfect to grill, pan fry or deep fry for a delicious, nutritious protein source, or as an ingredient in dips, soups and beyond.

In celebration of Earth Month, from April 5 to May 2, Nordstrom restaurants and specialty coffee bars featured two wild

Alaska pollock dishes at stores across the country – Blackened Wild Alaska Pollock with Cajun Risotto and Blackened Wild Alaska Pollock Taco Salad. Nordstrom chefs worked in partnership with familyowned Trident Seafoods and the Association of Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers to showcase the versatility and great taste of wild Alaska pollock at a time when consumers are looking for more sustainable food sources and new and delicious ways to enjoy seafood.

Trident is unveiling two Wild Alaska Fish Oil brands, one especially designed for consumers looking for products to help maintain their lifestyles and another brand uniquely formulated for their beloved canines. These products are 100 percent made in the USA and demonstrate the “full usage” of the fish that each generation at Trident Seafoods strives for.

Each is available at select Nordstrom

Restaurants and Specialty Coffee Bars and on Amazon.com.

Pure Catch Wild Omega-3 Supplement supports a healthy heart, brain and vision.

These supplements are concentrated to deliver triple the amount of essential omega3s found in wild Alaska pollock. The product comes in flexible, convenient resealable pouches, which contain a ScentCert Heart to add a refreshing citrus aroma to enhance the experience.

Alaska Naturals Fish Oil Food Topper for Dogs delivers EPA + DHA omega-3s and supports skin and coat health from the inside out. Be ready for furry friends to come running as you drizzle this on their food.

Beyond these new offerings, consumers can look for Wild Alaska Pollock at their local grocer’s frozen aisle, on restaurant menus and in popular comfort foods such as fish sticks and fish sandwiches. GN

Green Life Farms Buys Fourth Florida Farm for Hydroponic Produce in Coastal Communities Green Life Farms has purchased a 67-acre property in Wildwood, Florida, where it will construct its fourth of 13 planned farms in the Southeastern United States.

Located in Sumter County, the Wildwood farm will further expand Green Life Farms’ market reach into central Florida, serving Orlando, Tampa, Ocala and coastal communities.

Green Life Farms’ Wildwood location is slated to be its largest farm yet – occupying 10 acres and growing more than 6.5 million pounds of head lettuce and leafy greens each year. Construction is anticipated to begin after all permits are acquired and is expected to take approximately 14 months, with full operation slated for early 2024.

The facility will use advanced hydroponic technology to grow premium leafy greens without pesticides, additives or GMOs. The Wildwood community has provided a welcoming environment for Green Life

Farms. The property is located in an Agricultural Business Corridor and provides easy access to major transportation routes.

A global corporation specializing in citrus and other fruits is located nearby, providing potential collaboration opportunities to develop new crops. Expedited permitting, tax incentives for machinery and equipment and workforce training programs are also available.

“We are proud to have the opportunity to introduce our fresh, flavorful greens to additional customers in Florida and beyond,” said Michael Ferree, vice president.

“The Wildwood farm will allow us to further expand on our mission to encourage people to choose food that’s good for their body, family, community and planet by making it easy to eat clean.”

Green Life Farms sells leafy greens at more than 300 grocery stores, specialty markets and restaurants across Florida

and beyond, including internationally.

Green Life Farms also sells herbs and leafy greens to a major meal-kit delivery service provider under a long-term contract.

Green Life Farms product offerings include basil, chives, cilantro, dill, mint, parsley, oregano, rosemary, sage, tarragon, thyme, butterhead lettuce, baby romaine, baby arugula, baby kale, baby spinach and farmer’s blend.

Green Life Farms’ process combines

technology with agricultural best practices to grow premium leafy greens with a focus on sustainability, energy efficiency, and environmental responsibility. Its flavorful produce is cultivated in clean, nutrient-rich oxygenated water in state-of-the-art greenhouses. Greens are harvested and packaged in a controlled environment to create the cleanest produce year-round and delivered locally to ensure premium freshness and a small carbon footprint. GN

“The Wildwood farm will allow us to further expand on our mission to encourage people to choose food that’s good for their body, family, community and planet by making it easy to eat clean.”

—MICHAEL FERREE

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Burger King, Cargill to Help Restore Grasslands, Wildlife in Southern Great Plains Burger King and Cargill have partnered with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, the largest private conservation grant provider in the United States, to support cattle ranchers committed to addressing climate change through regenerative agriculture practices in Colorado, Kansas, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

This five-year initiative with up to $5 million in funding, brings together two major beef brands dedicated to emissions reduction, reinforcing the important role beef and cattle play in helping the Great Plains thrive. The funding is expected to generate matching contributions from NFWF, creating a total on-the-ground impact of up to $10 million.

Burger King, Cargill and NFWF will bring financial and technical resources to ranching organizations in the Southern Great Plains to improve grassland management and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

The Southern Great Plains host a set of wildlife species that are specifically adapted to this grassland ecosystem, many of which are year-round residents that live on or migrate through ranching lands.

NFWF awarded three grants made possible by Burger King and Cargill funding to ranchers in Kansas, New Mexico and Texas to support their efforts to plan and implement voluntary grassland management practices with consideration to the needs of their land.

“This project highlights the key role that ranchers and grazing animals play in maintaining grassland ecosystems, feeding our nation and sustaining the economic vitality

of rural communities,” said Lesli Allison, Western Landowners Alliance executive director.

“Building good prairie chicken habitat builds good cow habitat,” said rancher and project partner Bret Riley. “These are winwin management strategies that we are proud to work with agency and conservation partners on.”

With support from Burger King and Cargill, the sustainable grazing practices implemented by ranchers over the next five years will have far-reaching impact with the potential to sequester up to 360,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) per year, the equivalent of removing 904 million miles driven or the energy to power

43,000 U.S. homes for one year.

“As one of the biggest buyers of beef in North America, partnering with Cargill and NFWF allows us to accelerate ambitious efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in our beef supply chain and to make meaningful impacts important to our planet and guests,” said Tom Curtis, president of Burger King. “Put simply – it’s the right thing for us to do.

Beef can be a force for good, particularly when it comes to improved rangeland management as a mechanism for directly addressing climate change. We’re committed to creating a more resilient food system and collaborating as a team to advance noticeable change.”

“The implementation of voluntary conservation measures supported by the Southern Plains Grassland Program will focus on scaling grazing practices that conserve and restore grasslands and wildlife species through innovative and localized approaches,” said Jeff Trandahl, executive director and CEO of NFWF. “These projects will make grasslands more resilient to changing conditions, and we look forward to expanding this work by connecting conservation experts with ranchers interested in making a real change. By creating a community-based conservation plan, “It will take a multipronged approach to protect, regenerate

and restore lands to mitigate climate impacts,” said Heather Tansey, Cargill vice president, environmental sustainability.

“As part of Cargill’s largest and most ambitious program on climate change, BeefUp Sustainability, we recognize that our farmers and ranchers across North America are already leading environmental stewardship practices and just need further incentives, tools and training to help scale these impactful practices.”

Cross-industry collaboration creates an opportunity for beef production to preserve and positively impact land and resources.

Burger King, Cargill and NFWF are each committed to making beef production more sustainable and have already implemented similar sustainable agriculture programs across North America to optimize beef production that is healthy for customers, regenerative for land and profitable for farmers.

Burger King’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International, has developed its Science Based Targets initiative, with a goal to reduce Scope 3 emissions intensity by 50 percent per metric ton of food, as well as support achieving its overall goal of being net-zero emissions by 2050, compared to a 2019 baseline.

Restaurant Brands International expects to prevent an estimated 25.4 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO₂e) from being released into the atmosphere by 2030, as compared to a business as usual scenario. This is the equivalent of taking 5.5. million passenger cars off the road for an entire year. GN

Wildtype Raises $100M for Expansion, U.S. Launch of Cultivated Salmon San Francisco-based Wildtype, a startup creating sushi-grade cultivated salmon, has completed a $100 million Series B funding round, the largest for a cultivated seafood company. Since its founding in 2016, Wildtype has raised more than $120 million.

The recent round, led by L. Catterton, includes investments from actor Leonardo DiCaprio, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’s Bezos Expeditions, Temasek, S2G Ventures Oceans and Seafood Fund, actor Robert Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, Cargill and several prominent chefs and professional athletes. Existing investors, including Spark Capital and CRV, also participated.

“Wild fish populations are threatened more than ever before,” said actor and environmentalist DiCaprio. “Wildtype is the clear leader in cultivated seafood, which will give us the chance to protect our oceans while creating the cleanest seafood on the planet. Wildtype will surely transform our food system with its incredible salmon.”

Launched with a mission to help trans-

form the food system by offering consumers the most sustainable seafood, Wildtype’s salmon is free of mercury, microplastics, antibiotics and other common contaminants. This new round of funding will allow Wildtype to expand production capacity as it prepares for its U.S. market launch.

“This investment provides us with the capital necessary to dramatically expand our production capabilities to match the rapid growth in awareness and demand for cultivated seafood,” said Wildtype cofounder and CEO Justin Kolbeck.

“Whether you are looking for mercury and microplastic-free seafood options, or trying to eat more sustainably, we want Wildtype seafood to be accessible to as many people as possible. The enthusiastic support from our high-caliber group of investors will help us achieve this.”

In 2021, Wildtype unveiled its sushigrade salmon offering and opened a firstof-its-kind pilot production plant in San Francisco’s Dogpatch neighborhood.

With both product and production ambitions in place, Wildtype has recruited in-

novators and culinary partners. Wildtype expects to bring its product to market via soon-to-be-announced fine dining restaurant partners following the completion of the FDA’s pre-market consultation process.

“As consumers continue to look for more sustainable seafood options, Wildtype is a brand that stands alone due to its technology and product quality,” said Jon Owsley, a managing partner in L Catterton’s Growth Fund, which led the round. “We are on the cusp of a consumer revolution around cultivated proteins, and Wildtype is well-positioned to play a leading role in this transformation, starting with salmon.”

Wildtype’s process involves isolating cells from salmon found along the northern Pacific coast, which are grown in cultivators, similar to those found in breweries, to provide a renewable and sustainable source of seafood. The company has worked to innovate across product development, process design, and research and development to improve the taste, texture and appearance of its cultivated salmon, which has earned unprece-

dented accolades from world-renowned chefs.

“This capital raise will allow us to deliver on the promise of cultivated seafood,” Wildtype co-founder Aryé Elfenbein said, “and protection of our oceans with a truly sustainable, nutritious, and contaminant-free source of seafood. Wildtype’s scaled-up production systems will also enable us to bring an unprecedented level of transparency and traceability to the salmon supply chain.

We couldn’t be more excited to expand our existing partnerships and offer healthful seafood that is free of harm to both people and the planet.”

NBA All-Star and Wildtype investor Blake Griffin said, “Finding nutritious foods that are made sustainably is extremely hard, but Wildtype is doing just that. The progress in the cultivated seafood industry as a whole has been fascinating to me and I am excited for the innovation to come in the next several years. This is the future of seafood and I’m happy to be investing in one of the industry leaders.” GN

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San Diego County Wine Sales to Exceed $44M, Active Wineries See Increase to 160 in 2021 San Diego County wineries realized about $44.1 million in gross sales last year, a 19 percent increase from 2020 but not yet reaching the local winery industry’s all-time-high of sales in 2019 ($46.2 million), according to a new report from the San Diego County Vintners Association. The number of active wineries in San Diego County also rose to 160 in 2021.

About 1,370 acres of vines were harvested in the region last year, producing 3,073 tons of wine grapes with a production value of $5.2 million. These figures are down from pre-pandemic 2019 when San Diego County vineyards harvested 3,596 tons of wine grapes, generating a $5.58 million production value, with a sales price of $1,552 per ton, a record amount achieved in the region.

About 81 percent of growers surveyed reported excellent to good harvest quality, the strongest seen since 2016.

The top three varietals produced in the county last year retain their rankings from

prior years – Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Sangiovese, with Grenache and Merlot tied for fourth and Chardonnay and Petite Syrah tied for fifth. This is the first time that a white wine varietal has appeared in the top five for regional varietals.

“Our wine industry continues to make great strides, especially in North County,” said San Diego County Supervisor Jim Desmond. “I was a big supporter of keeping wineries open during the pandemic to keep these small businesses afloat. Local wineries are thriving despite the last few years of uncertainty, creating jobs, attracting tourism, and providing an important cultural industry in the county. It’s impressive.”

Written by Vince Vasquez, independent economic analyst and executive director of the Policycraft Institute, the report relies on winery survey data, economic modeling software, California ABC licenses and county records to calculate the economic health of the San Diego County wine industry.

“San Diego County is blessed to have outstanding wineries and dedicated vintners making a positive impact on our local economy,” said San Diego County Supervisor Joel Anderson. “I am proud to represent many fantastic wineries in my district, whose exquisite grapes and exceptional service continue to put San Diego County on the map in the winemaking industry. By offering beautiful vineyards and delicious wines for all to enjoy, San Diego County’s wineries not only strengthen our economy, they build community.”

The 160 active wineries in San Diego County today represent a 6 percent yearover-year increase. This figure is nearly twice the total number of wineries in neighboring Riverside County (87).

“San Diego County’s wine industry continues to make important contributions to our economy, history and culture,” said California Assembly Member Marie Waldron. “Our 200-year history of harvesting local grapes has promoted new job cre-

ation, amazing food and entertainment venues as well as cultural amenities. As a member of the Assembly Select Committee on Wine, I am excited to advocate on behalf of our vibrant grape growing industry!”

San Diego wineries are optimistic about the industry’s growth, particularly as most COVID restrictions have been lifted in San Diego County.

“Like other industries, the county’s wine industry has been challenged the last few years,” said San Diego County Vintners Association President Ray Schnorr, co-owner of Highland Valley Vineyards in Escondido.

“But this report demonstrates the resiliency of wineries and the interest in winemaking in our region with a 6 percent increase in winery openings in 2021.

“San Diego wineries and vineyards are harvesting higher quality grapes, creating award-winning wines, and expanding the ways in which people can enjoy wine with more outdoor patios and tasting experiences than ever before,” he said. GN

Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits Distributing VSPT Luxury Brands in ‘Unprecedented Step’ Southern Glazer’s Wine & Spirits is the national and exclusive distributor for VSPT Wine Group’s luxury wine brands Viña San Pedro, Cabo de Hornos, premium brand 1865, as well as the renowned retail brand GatoNegro under an agreement that began in March.

The company also will distribute Viña Leyda, renowned for its coastal cool-climate Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blancs and the Argentinian brand Graffigna.

The agreement is part of the framework for a new American strategy from the Chilean group, which will begin operating an office in Miami. VSPT’s commercial U.S. office is a move toward strengthening distribution and side-by-side work with its new partner.

“This is an unprecedented step for VSPT and we are very motivated,” said Andrés Tauber, president of VSPT U.S. “We have been researching the design of a new commercial strategy for a long time, and we are convinced that with Southern Glazer’s, it will be successful. Expectations are high, but we believe we have the right team and brands to achieve our business goals.”

The U.S. team will be headed by Tauber, along with Roberto Catalani as vice president marketing and longtime wine industry executive, John Dougherty, who was recently appointed as vice president, commercial strategist. VSPT Wine Group will focus efforts on driving the commercial and marketing strategy to successfully promote the group’s diverse wine portfolio in the

United States.

A top 20 global producer (18 million cases per year), VSPT is the leader in premium wine and sparkling wine sales in Chile, and a top 10 producer in the domestic Argentinian market. The group’s business model is based on strategic partnerships and joint visions, one that promotes mutually beneficial human relationships with clients and suppliers that are long term and comprehensive. VSPT firmly

believes its main asset is its exceptional team who are passionate about wine.

A pioneer in sustainability, VSPT made it a strategic objective and corporate value for the group. The company is also a leader in renewable energy generation, focused on responsible design and eco packaging, passionate about nature and the planet, committed to being carbon neutral across three scopes by 2040 through their membership in IWCA and a guardian and promoter of biodiversity and conscious alcohol consumption. GN

LesserEvil Acquires R.E.D.D., Expanding Better-for-You Snack Product Offering Into Bars Connecticut-based LesserEvil, a better-foryou snack brand, has acquired a majority stake in Maine-based R.E.D.D. Bar. LesserEvil’s first acquisition gives the company a running start into a challenging market the company has long wanted to enter.

“Given LesserEvil’s focus on functional snacking, the bar category is the next natural progression for the brand,” said CEO Charles Coristine. “Like LesserEvil, R.E.D.D. prioritizes high-quality, clean ingredients with health benefits. R.E.D.D.’s

proven track record for making delicious, functional bars and its strong retailer relationships, coupled with LesserEvil’s expertise in operations and expanded production capabilities, will allow us to combine our resources in a way that enables us to grow faster and smarter together.”

LesserEvil will take over production for R.E.D.D. at LesserEvil’s Danbury facility this summer. This milestone will lead to subtle updates to the R.E.D.D. line’s taste, ingredients, texture and packaging as

LesserEvil integrates the bars into its broader portfolio of snacks. The R.E.D.D. team will also be incorporated into the LesserEvil family.

“R.E.D.D.’s founder, Alden Blease, will be a particularly great addition when it comes to innovating new ingredients and form factors,” Coristine said.

Founded in 2010, R.E.D.D. has built a growing business on its five-SKU line of plant-protein based bars. Each bar contains a 10-gram blend of pea, pumpkin seed and hemp proteins, and 10 to 13 grams of plant

fiber, providing both prebiotics and probiotics in each gut-health supporting serving.

In addition, each bar is sweetened with monk fruit keeping the sugar content below 5 grams per bar.

LesserEvil’s acquisition of R.E.D.D. follows a year of expansion for the brand, including the recent launch of its Clean Oil Crew campaign. The brand also launched sustainable product innovations such as its Sun Poppers and entered into another new snack category with its PeaNOTs. GN

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New Better-for-You Products Fill Shelves There’s no shortage of better-for-you products being launched across the country, which is good since consumers are demanding more. We’ll get to the plant-based meats later (they seem to always grab the headlines, don’t they?) and start on a sweet note.

Bonne Maman Fruit Spreads is offering a more fruit, less sugar option to its family of preserves, curds, herbal teas and gift boxes.

The brand has introduced six guilt-free flavors of Red Fruit, Cherry, Apricot, Orange, Strawberry and Blueberry to delight taste buds and eyes with a smooth texture and visible pieces of fruit. Bonne Maman Fruit Spreads contain 38 percent less sugar and 28 to 34 percent more fruit than Bonne Maman preserves – all while sustaining the same time-honored recipes and homemade taste.

creating a flavor forward lower calorie and ABV version of a beer style that is so beloved by craft beer drinkers. Easy Weekend is incredibly refreshing, packed with flavor, and ideal for days when you’re craving a lighter beer that won’t weigh you down.”

Easy Weekend IPA is hand-crafted at Anchor’s iconic brewery in San Francisco, using time-honored techniques perfected over Anchor’s 126-year history. The 3.7 percent ABV IPA is brewed with Nugget, Strata and Sultana hops for a profile that’s juicy and fresh with bright peach and notes of apricot.

The resulting beer is fruitforward with an enjoyable dry finish, ideal for sipping at the beach, on a hiking trail, or at a backyard barbecue with friends.

Made with premium, natural ingredients and vibrant fruit, the spreads are packaged in a spin on the iconic glass Bonne Maman jar that consumers love to upcycle in endless ways. Bonne Maman Fruit Spreads are the perfect supplement to an overall balanced lifestyle, offering naturally bold flavor on top of yogurt, scones, toast, and more.

We’ve Got the Meats (Kinda) Skinny Butcher has launched “Stranger Things”-themed Crazy Crispy Chick’n Nuggets in U.S.-based Walmart stores. In anticipation of the hit show’s fourth season (Volume 1 was released on May 27 and Volume 2 on July 1 on Netflix) – Skinny Butcher will debut this plant-based chicken in a nationwide activation.

Skinny Butcher is the result of a partnership between former Garden Fresh Gour-

Belly Up – Not For those who love IPAs but don’t want the beer belly, Anchor Brewing Company has released Easy Weekend IPA, a 99-calorie brew that captures the verve and vibrancy of a traditional Hazy IPA. Rolling out nationwide, Easy Weekend IPA joins Anchor’s year-round portfolio of beers that includes classics such as Anchor Steam, California Lager and Crisp Pilsner.

“Anchor Brewing has long experimented with Hazy IPAs and fruit as an ingredient,” said Assistant Brewmaster Dane Volek, who leads Anchor’s innovation team. “It was exciting for us to go through this process of

met Vice Chairman Dave Zilko and LA-based Golden West Food Group. immedi“We ately knew we had a product that people would think is out of this world,” Zilko said. “Not only can you not tell the difference between Skinny Butcher chick’n and animal-based products, but we’re the only ‘Crazy Crispy’ nugget on the market, in either format.

“No secret experiments were conducted here – just some ingenuity from the team at Golden West Food Group!” he joked.

The product is soy and palm oil free and employs pea protein and a progressive vegetable fiber strain.

When Good Meat got the idea to add chicken satay to its line of cultivated chicken products, it was only natural to debut it at Michelin-plate hawker Keng Eng Kee in Singapore with “Carnival King” Chef Francis Mallmann’s seal of approval.

“I think that in 30 more years, we won’t be eating any more animals,” said Mallmann, who introduced open-fire cooking to millions.

Mallmann said he would launch Good Meat at one of his South American restaurants.

Kek served its customers Good Meat cultivated chicken satay served with cucumber slaw, peanut sauce, Singapore bee hoon (stir fried rice vermicelli) and its signature tofu.

“We all know where the Earth is at, and if we close our eyes to dream on better days, we know that changes must be done,” Mallman said. “Good Meat has embraced innovation for business and health. We need romance in cooking and the hope of new seeds, and they are one of them.”

Meaty Issues Meat proteins are better-for-you products and companies like Do Good Foods are striving to change the world by tackling food waste and climate change. Climateforward food company Do Good Foods has

launched its Do Good Chicken in grocers throughout Philadelphia. The company is on a mission to offer products that enable people to “Do Good” with everyday purchases. Its first introduction, Do Good Chicken, is a simple, tasty, good for plate and planet option that helps fight food waste and combat climate change.

According to the United Nation Food and Agriculture Organization, if food waste were its own country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. To help keep this healthy food from going to waste, Do Good Foods has partnered with grocers for a smart, impactful solution to protect our planet.

After community donations, Do Good Foods takes healthy surplus food from grocery stores and upcycles it into nutrientdense chicken feed that mimics a chicken’s natural diet. The high quality, carbon-reduced chicken is then made available for purchase at those same markets, closing the loop and helping combat food waste. Each Do Good Chicken saves approximately four pounds of surplus groceries from being thrown away, thus preventing approximately three pounds of greenhouse gasses.

"Food waste is a massive problem with approximately 40 percent of the food we grow in the U.S. going to waste,” co-CEO and co-founder Justin Kamine. “We believe this can be solved with what we are doing at Do Good Foods by upcycling surplus grocery food, creating a closed loop system, and providing accessible great tasting chicken to consumers. We are bringing real sustainability to scale and empowering everyone to be a part of the solution.”

“Good food should be eaten, not wasted,” said Chef Jennifer Carroll, who created recipes using Do Good Chicken.

“As a chef, restauranter and someone who just wants to do better for the environment, it is so exciting to partner with a brand that is on a mission to help everyone – from home cooks to professional chefs – create smarter meals that make a real impact.”

Do Good Chicken uses no antibiotics, hormones or steroids. The cage-free chickens are raised and harvested in the United States and available in a variety of cuts that can be grilled, baked or pan-fried. GN

Hangobi, Lacrosse Star Rob Parnell Sign Exclusive Endorsement Deal Miami-based functional recovery beverage brand Hangobi has signed an exclusive endorsement deal with Premier League Lacrosse and Team USA Lacrosse all-star Rob Pannell.

Pannell plays for the Redwoods Lacrosse Club and has a professional lacrosse career that spans nine seasons. With Hangobi as Pannell’s drink of choice as he trains for the next season, Hangobi lends itself as the ultimate resource to help optimize performance and energy on and off the field.

Pannell, a New York native, attended Cornell University, forming part of its prestigious lacrosse team. During his college

career, he won the 2013 Tewaaraton Trophy and was the NCAA’s Outstanding Player of the Year in Men’s Lacrosse in 2011 and 2013.

Throughout his professional lacrosse career, his notable accomplishments include playing with the gold medal-winning 2018 U.S. men’s national team and earning multiple All-World honors.

Hangobi combines all-natural ingredients to get consumers grooving to peak levels of expression with a powerful trifecta of functional beverages. Hangobi touts plantbased science with six ingredients that span adaptogens, amino acids, anti-oxidants, anti-inflammatory and vitamin B complex

categories to provide energy, balance and well-rounded health benefits.

“As someone who trains at the highest level, Rob understands the importance of proper recovery and hydration to achieve peak performance,” said Conrad Oberbeck, CEO and co-founder. “His trust in Hangobi as his recovery blend of choice further elevates our brand and supports our mission.”

“As a professional athlete,” Pannell said, “performance and recovery are my main priorities. Aside from great taste, Hangobi aids in both my performance on the field and during my training and in the recovery process as well. With all-natural, plant-

based ingredients, Hangobi fits my everyday diet and routine perfectly.”

The direct-to-consumer functional beverage brand was designed to drive and enhance productivity for active lifestyles. Sold at $59.88 per 12 pack, consumers can opt for a monthly subscription to save 10 percent and receive a recurring 12 pack per month for $53.89 per case. GN

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Food Costs Continued from PAGE 1 For the moment, the most obvious effect on CPG is that consumers are trading down, choosing private labels over national brands or forgoing previously purchased brands altogether to deal with rising costs and shortages.

“Grocery remains the category most affected by supply disruptions, with war in Ukraine likely to continue impacting global food stocks,” according to Morning Consult.

“Prices will be tricky in the next few months,” according to the June Monthly Economic Review by the National Retail Federation.

“We are watching closely to see if consumer spending can continue to hold up in the face of inflation. Households have kept up their spending habits, but their buying is shifting away from the pandemic-era focus on goods toward services as people re-engage with activities they had cut back on. Data indicates that pent-up demand from the pandemic continues to be unbridled.

“For now, the economy looks sturdy, but there is rising uncertainty, with questions ranging from the outcome of the Russia-Ukraine conflict to the impact of China’s lockdowns on the supply chain to whether the Fed can aggressively slow inflation without stalling economic growth.

“Hopefully, the next several months will provide the answers,” the report said.

‘Ripple effect’ “The term we keep coming back to is the ‘ripple effect,’ with changes occurring now having a downstream impact on goods through the supply chain today and later this year,” said John Gilbo, food and beverage pricing expert at Pricefx, the cloudnative pricing software company.

“Underlying cost increases individually and collectively will have a major influence on prices increasing in numerous sectors, such as wheat, dairy and meat, to start. A solid food and beverage pricing strategy will include rules, alerts and automation based on where you sit in the value chain.”

“If I were a specialty food company,” said Victor Martino, founder and CEO at Third Wave Strategies, “I would be looking at how can I cut costs without harming sales, without harming my product.”

While large food manufacturers such as General Mills can compromise by choosing cheaper ingredients, that’s not an option for many specialty food companies, such as Barney Butter, maker of plant-based spreads.

“We had a price decrease a year ago,” said President and CEO Dawn Kelley, “and we were super excited to do that. But now, one of the biggest missions we have is how to continue to produce the best almond butter on the market?”

Barney Butter prides itself on removing almond skins to improve the taste, which is more expensive to produce spreads, but isn’t negotiable, in Kelley’s eyes.

“We are maintaining the level of service while meeting the exception of consumers at the same price and quality,” she said.

GOURMET NEWS Back to basics Florida farmer Alfie Oakes said the best way to survive the surge is to go back to basics, which is better for consumers anyway.

“I know that sometimes, it gets bad before it gets good again,” said Oakes, founder and CEO of Oakes Farms, which sells its agricultural products and operates its own grocery stores. “You can hope for the good, but I’ve had a lot of bad things happen in life and if you have a positive attitude, they can be a great learning experience. You get through them wiser.

“If you pay attention to the way you spend money on food, you might eat a lot less food or eat the right product. You can live off avocados and a few eggs a day and actually have a healthier life rather than going to Dunkin Donuts or McDonald’s or Outback. You can spend a smaller portion of your money on something healthy.

“At the end of the day, it all comes down to demand,” he said. “If the demand is there for healthier food, then people will not eat the garbage.”

As someone on the starting line of the food supply chain, Oakes has been working toward making his operations as sustainable as possible – installing solar power and using natural solutions for the farm animals and crops, from pest control to fertilizing fields, so he isn’t producing what he calls “Roundup ready” food. But there’s only so much he can do when the costs of seed and gas for his fleet rise.

“Fuel is the biggest cost,” he said. “I’m paying double now what I did last year and on the farm, we use a lot of fuel.”

Oakes urges consumers to support local businesses and smaller businesses rather than food corporations.

“There’s no super easy fix for this,” he said. “The main thing I tell people is always think past the surface. Where is your money going? Who is your money feeding?

Think small. Think local.”

‘Dead foods’ When Oakes saw the corporations churning out products with unpronounceable and artificial ingredients, he vowed to not stock his store shelves with them.

“That’s why we wanted to get away from national brands,” he said. “We started watching the drive of these products using lesser quality ingredients with limited amounts of nutrition.”

Oakes calls them “dead foods.”

Shoppers may ask for a certain mass-produced sauce on the custom-made burger bought in the store’s cafe, he said, but they won’t be able to take a bottle home with them.

Barney Butter is able to save on some costs by owning its own facility in Fresno, Calif., instead of relying on a co-packer.

Still, some price hikes can’t be avoided.

“Freight shipping, frankly, is one of the biggest issues any food manufacturer is facing today,” Kelley said. “We have to distribute our product to the stores.”

Kelley said she won’t pass along rising costs to consumers, but after the shipments arrive in stores, price is beyond her control.

One casualty of Barney Butter’s cost-cutting is innovation.

“We’re focused on our core product right now and I would say that’s going to stay the same until things calm down,” Kelley said.

“We’re not super excited about trying to

launch new products with so many unknowns.”

“Every aspect in the food manufacturing industry is fluctuating, such as raw materials shortages, changing government regulations, exchange rates with increases in export and import activity, and changing consumer nutritional tastes,” said Pricefx’s Gilbo. “During times of uncertainty, many organizations are quick to cut prices without considering the longterm impact. Understand outside market influences on your business and this data will help make informed decisions.

These actions and investments will dictate the health of your business now, and in the future.”

Trade shows or no?

Martino advises clients to pay close attention to what they’re spending money on and the all-important return on investment, even if it means missing the industry’s biggest trade shows.

The pandemic halted trade shows, then as the COVID-19 cases ebbed, shows slowly began to return with health precautions prioritized. Still, many companies chose to sit the first shows out for health concerns. Now, Martino and others say, companies may opt to sit them out for economic reasons.

The pandemic normalized remote business practices, Martino said.

“It’s going to continue to become the norm,” he said.

When the costs of sending buyers to trade shows outweigh the advantage, remote meetings may accomplish the same results for less outlay as sending a team of buyers to shows.

Martino sees some breaks for specialty food companies, from non-traditional food retailers such as Marshall’s and Ace Hardware expanding food sections to supply demand for the pandemic practice of home cooking that continues to thrive.

The most recent Consumer Price Index

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JULY 2022

report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows food-at-home prices rose 10 percent in the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since March 1981.

“Historically, specialty foods tend to do well in times like this because they’re affordable comfort,” Martino said. GN

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Chef Zoe Adjonyoh Creates Ghanaian Entrees for Ayo Foods, Diversifying Frozen Food Aisles Ayo Foods, the first national West African frozen brand known for premium meals and hot sauces, brings the recipes of Chef Zoe Adjonyoh to U.S. grocery stores through a new partnership.

As chef, writer, entrepreneur, and founder of Zoe’s Ghana Kitchen, Adjonyoh has been pioneering modern West African food in the forms of global supper clubs, her namesake restaurant, pop-ups, street food and events since 2010.

Adjonyoh’s acclaimed cookbook, republished and released nationwide in 2021, earned a spot on The New York Times Best Cookbooks of 2021 List.

By teaming up with Ayo Foods, Adjonyoh expands access to her signature

dishes, while diversifying frozen aisles around the country.

Mustard

and mustard-based BBQ sauces.

More than 250 mustards entered this year’s competition from as far away as Germany, France, Japan and Sweden, but it was a U.S. mustard that came out on top this year. Tiger Tail Curry Mustard from DeveleyUSA in Dyersburg, Tenn., was named the Grand Champion. Develey has its roots in Bavaria, having made its first mustard in 1845 and opening its first U.S. plant in 2018.

Plochman captured four gold medals while Beaverton Foods took seven medals home, including three golds.

“This year’s biggest surprise was the Swedish mustard maker O. Kavli, winning the gold medal in the Dijon category, only second time a non-French mustard won the gold in that category,” Levenson said.

“Another Swedish mustard maker, LissEllas, took home the gold in the horseradish mustard category.”

Wisconsin-based Silver Spring, which won a gold medal for its Stone Ground Mustard (coarse grain) and silver medals for its Beer ‘n Brat Mustard (horseradish/wasabi) and Everything Bagel Mustard (exotic) has a year-round presence at the museum, as do many other mustard companies.

There’s even a Silver Spring mustard vending machine in the museum lobby.

For a condiment as ancient as mustard, you wouldn’t think there could be much to do in the way of innovation, but that’s not true.

“We’re always working on something new,” said Judy Christiansen, lead research and development supervisor at Silver Spring.

“The marketing team and R&D team work together to watch trends to see what’s popular in other foods,” she said. “We eval-

Continued from PAGE 1 mustard, “The Art of Mustard,” full of fun and funny things about, well, mustard.

Mustard is deeply rooted in global culture from Bible verses to “Dirty Harry.” It’s been an ever-present condiment figuratively and literally for centuries.

“That’s why we’re celebrating National Mustard Day,” Levenson said.

The 31st annual National Mustard Day celebration, Aug. 6, will see the yellow carpet at the museum rolled out for guests and dignitaries. This year, the internationally acclaimed, New York-based artist Steve Marcus will attend with his exhibit on kosher food pop art, Levenson said.

The mustard celebration includes live music and games for kids and adults. Many of the mustard companies and thousands of guests are expected to be there, he said.

The highlight of the celebration for mustard manufacturers around the world is the announcement of the World-Wide Mustard Competition.

More than 40 judges sampled mustards in 17 categories: sweet-hot, mild, honey, classic Dijon, whole grain, classic hot, pepper medium, pepper hot, horseradish/wasabi, herb/veggie, garlic, fruit, spirit, American yellow, deli, exotic

Launched in May in Sprouts Farmers Market stores nationwide, Adjonyoh’s frozen entrees feature bold, memorable flavors.

Plant based and vegan, Aboboi is a summery stew layered with flavors from bambara beans, red peppers and chiles, and Adjonyoh’s well-known spice blends.

Whether you know Groundnut Stew as West African peanut soup, Ghanaian groundnut stew, Nkate Nkawan or Maafe, the peanut-tomato chicken stew makes a hearty, protein-packed meal.

“One of our missions at Ayo Foods is to make West African flavors more accessible,” said co-founder Perteet Spencer. “By collaborating with Chef Zoe Adjonyoh, we can share her culinary talent with a new audience. We view Chef Adjonyoh’s new dishes as a valuable opportunity to expand palates while shifting perspectives on what belongs in the grocery store.”

“Food is a powerful source of connection,” Adjonyoh said, “and I hope the

meals we created foster greater appreciation for West Africa’s gastronomic heritage.”

Launched in July 2020 by Perteet and Fred Spencer, AYO Foods was inspired by Perteet’s Liberian family and the couple’s desire to bring greater inclusivity to grocery store aisles. In one year, Ayo Foods grew from 50 retailers to more than 4,000 nationwide, while also launching a line of hot sauces.

As part of an effort to highlight West African chefs, AYO previously partnered with Ghana-born, “Top Chef” alum Eric Adjepong for a line of specialty dishes, including Waakye (Beans and Rice) and Chicken Yassa.

Ayo, which means joy in Yoruba, features nutrient-dense, flavor-rich frozen entrees and hot sauces that are conveniently packaged and easy to prepare. GN

uate how that will work in a mustard and develop prototypes and sensory panels with employees at the factory, to see what the response is to new flavors.”

Variety is the spice of mustard.

“There really is a whole range of consumers out there for different mustards,” she said. “Some want the more traditional and stick to the base yellow mustard, but especially in the younger generations, they want unique flavors and try different combinations on a variety of food using simple condiments.”

Last year, Silver Spring released its Stone Ground Mustard and Everything Bagel Mustard, based on trending flavors.

“From idea to going on the shelf, it usually will take around a year for the actual creation,” Christiansen said. “We’ll make a few different versions and tweak those until our team says, ‘This is the winner.’”

At that point, it’s three or four months to design the label, get the word out and deliver the new product to stores.

“For our branded products, we’re usually working on half a dozen at any one time,” she said. “Certainly, they don’t all make it to market, but we’re always working on new ideas, seeing the new trends and possible additions to our lineup.”

Standing out in a highly competitive mustard contest is one thing. Standing out in the museum is another, with more than 500 mustard tins and hundreds of other mustard paraphernalia on display – not to mention mustards themselves.

“The goal is to keep the appreciation of the art of mustard going,” said Levenson, who left a practice in food law (he still teaches it and is working on a book) to found the museum.

He is ambitiously photographing the thousands of mustards to document them, much as his book, “The Art of Mustard,” documents many of the museum exhibits.

Levenson cracks jokes at the expense of other condiments – mayonnaise is for “people who don’t have fun in life” – but doesn’t take his mustardphilia too seriously. He invites likeminded people in the mustardverse to help the non-profit museum with donations.

Most of all, he wants people to visit (admission is free) and enjoy learning about mustard.

Teacher and editor Tanya Mravik planned to meet a fellow University of Wisconsin-River Falls student who lived in Madison over spring break in 2019.

“My grandma told me that there was nothing to do or see in Madison,” she said.

“When I relayed that to my friend, he responded with, ‘But we have the National Mustard Museum.’ I love mustard and so we went.

“The inside is painted all in yellow,” Mravik said. “You walk into the gift shop and can sample all of the mustard flavors that they have for sale. There are hundreds, if not thousands, of mustards for sale.

“Then you walk downstairs to various exhibits, games and memorabilia related to mustard. One exhibit is Mustardpiece Theatre, which tells the history of mustard.

There are cases of various containers of mustard from around the world and throughout time. There’s even a display about the health benefits of mustard and which countries produce mustard,” she said.

“I would actually like to go visit it again,” said Mravic, who still lives in Wisconsin.

“Mustard (and cheese) are life!” GN

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Winter Holidays Continued from PAGE 1 and suggestions on how to use the candies on the house.

The Elf Activity Kit is pretty much selfexplanatory, Rodio said.

“If you’re a working mom with a busy life, it’s the day after Thanksgiving and you’re thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve got 30 days to figure out what to do with my little elves.’ Well, we’ve got five nights covered for you.”

Activities include Santa head gummies and starlight mints the elves plant that grow into candy canes overnight. And, in what’s sure to be a hit with the kids, bubble gum “farts” and reindeer “poop.”

In keeping with the prospective consumers of the kits, children 12 years and younger, Rodio pushed for “younger, hipper” copy and graphics for the packaging.

“Our creative team did an incredible, top-notch job on the upgraded logo,” she said. “It’s much more kid friendly.”

“As we were developing the packaging, we’re always talking to buyers about what they’re seeing on the marketplace,” Rodio said. “We were also looking at it as a mom or aunt or friend watching a child with a

Chocho Continued from PAGE 1 improvement in his own health, he saw the possibilities for a plant-based protein that had one simple ingredient: Chocho powder.

By itself, chocho powder has a neutral taste, with 20 grams of whole food plant protein per one-third cup serving, 190 calories and 8 grams of dietary fiber.

By adding four more ingredients, Mikuna also produced a vanilla chocho (chocho powder, organic coconut blossom nectar, organic vanilla extract powder, sea salt and organic monk fruit extract) and cacao chocho (chocho powder, organic cacao powder, organic coconut blossom nectar, sea salt and organic monk fruit extract).

“When consuming it, no matter which one you have, you really have a clean feeling afterward,” said Kriese, whose role in bringing plant-based proteins to market has become a “personal passion.”

Kriese previously was senior vice presi-

GOURMET NEWS

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JULY 2022

gingerbread kit who ate all the candy canes who would say, ‘Whoa, this fills a void.’ It helps Mom and Dad think, ‘That’s one thing I haven’t seen on the market.’

“Christmas is definitely one of, if not the most important time of the year, always moving the needle,” Rodio said, adding that retailers want to see holiday products earlier and earlier.

“We definitely look at our success based on the excitement of the buyers,” she said. “We don’t want anyone with products marked down as they sit on a shelf.”

The new holiday kits debuted at the recent Sweets & Snacks Expo, but Nassau Candy’s holiday offerings range from Orthodox Chews, assorted salt water taffy, and milk chocolate gold foiled coins for Hanukkah; Candy Pop Peppermint Candy Popcorn, Chocorocks Black Coal Chocolate Chunks and (this is not a typo) Christmas gummy sharks.

“It’s great to be playful with great products,” she said, laughing.

Dillion’s Gourmet Candies has a robust offering of products suitable for the winter holidays, including its new Milk Chocolate Almonds in stocking-stuffer size (3 ounces) joining other snack-sized packages of Milk and Dark Chocolate Pecans, Milk Chocolate Cherries, Dark Chocolate Blueberries and Milk Chocolate Peanuts.

The Milk Chocolate Almonds will debut at Atlanta Market this month.

“Creating delicious, high-quality nut confections has been a family tradition for nearly a

century,” said Dillon’s president, Tom Cook. “Our family secret recipe is no secret – blend only the finest ingredients to create the best-tasting candy and deliver it fresh.”

Holiday sales are going well for Dillion’s so far, he said.

“At this point in the year, we are about 12 percent ahead of last year regarding holiday item orders. Some of that is new business and some of that may be attributed to existing customers wanting to secure product availability due to pricing and supply chain challenges.”

The winter holidays see a brisk business for Milkboy Swiss Chocolates in its candy bars, said founder Emanuel Schmerling.

“We definitely see sales pick up in November and December,” he said, along with surges around Valentine’s Day and Mother’s Day. “Yet I would say chocolate bars are an everyday item. Maybe in the heat of summer there’s a slowdown, but it’s good yearround.”

The winter months, though, are a perfect excuse to pour a creamy cup of hot cocoa.

Milkboy is introducing a product to melt any hot chocolate lover’s heart: Milkboy Swiss Chocolate Drink powder.

“Even though hot chocolate is an every-

day product, it’s also become a gifting item,” Schmerling said. “We’re working now to create a gift pack, perhaps with a beautiful mug and marshmallows that we’ll have ready for the holiday season.”

Milkboy’s Swiss Chocolate Drink powder will debut at the Summer Fancy Food show.

The secret to Milkboy Swiss Chocolate products is the intricate weaving of the traditional with contemporary.

“I felt a couple of years ago, I’d bring back the real traditional Swiss chocolate the way it’s done traditionally in the way consumers want it today – clean, with no artificial ingredients, no shortcuts,” he said.

Traditional Swiss chocolate is famous for its quality ingredients, which lent itself well for today’s clean ingredients trend.

“We also had to meet the taste of customers today,” Schmerling added.

Milkboy pays homage to the century-old Swiss Alps dairy traditions in its packaging, with paper-cut art, a traditional alpine practice. Yet Milkboy is firmly planted in the modern era taking care of the natural resources it uses as sustainably as possible, using only UTZ certified cocoa and Forest Stewardship Council certified packaging paper.

Still, when a product promotes itself as Swiss Chocolate, there’s a certain reputation to live up to, even for hot chocolate.

“We want to be the best type of hot cocoa drink made using quality ingredients,” Schmerling said. “We worked over a year perfecting the recipe.”

The Milkboy Swiss Chocolate Drink powder also underwent rigorous testing, Schmerling said.

“My kids were the biggest taste testers.

It’s always important to have your product tested by everyday consumers and my kids are big hot cocoa drinkers.” GN

dent in charge of marketing for Impossible Foods and was captivated after meeting Echanique and hearing his story.

“I couldn’t believe the world didn’t know about chocho,” she said. “It’s literally a lost crop that goes back to the Incas and predates the Teotihuacáns.

“Best of all, it’s a regenerative crop that makes the ground better. Then, when it’s also harvested as a food source, it’s a beautiful part of the world’s resources.”

For having a product launch during the pandemic, Mikuna fared well, no doubt boosted by consumers’ quest to strengthen immunity. Earlier this year, Mikuna Chocho became the top-selling plant protein at the trendy Los Angeles grocery store Erewhon. Erewhon not only has Mikuna Chocho on its shelves, but uses it in its Tonic Bar’s plant-based smoothie called Regenerada and as a to-go smoothie.

Kriese recently announced that Mikuna closed its seed financing round at $5.6 million.

“This oversubscribed round was led by a collective of private mission-aligned inter-

nationally renowned athletes, stakeholders and investor-advisors at the very forefront of wellness, food, sustainability, music and culture who care deeply about the future of food and the plant,” Kriese said in her announcement.

“With this funding in place, we are in a position to expedite our efforts to increase production capacity, scale retail expansion, and introduce chocho to the masses,” she said. “I can’t wait to see what the future holds and to share all the citing news and developments in the pipeline.”

Mikuna Chocho goes beyond just being an additive for smoothies.

“Its neutral plant proteins makes it extremely versatile in baked and savory applications,” Kriese said. “My daughter bakes cinnamon rolls with it.”

When used as a flour, chocho is more absorbent than almond flour, but not as much as coconut flour, she said. It can be used one-to-one as any flour, with adjustments as desired.

Even the chocho experts at Mikuna are still exploring the applications it could be-

come.

With Echanique’s agricultural roots, he’s been able to establish relationships with family farms in Ecuador to source the chocho. Those bonds became vital during the pandemic.

“Let’s just say we had no concerns about the supply chain at all,” Kriese said.

Mikuna’s sourcing from indigenous farming communities also means that those used to living for cents a day can expect year-round income growing a crop that improves the soil when rotated with other crops such as corn and quinoa, Kriese said.

Besides its eye on sustainable farming and clean ingredients, Mikuna also prides itself on using post-consumer recycled material for its product pouches.

“We think that’s pretty cool,” the package states, “but we’re working on packaging that’s even more earth-friendly.”

Kriese said Mikuna is constantly looking forward. As she posted on her LinkedIn page, “Ricky Echanique, what should we manifest next?” GN

SUPPLEMENT TO

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GOURMET NEWS

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featured products

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GOURMET NEWS

MarDona Family Style Gourmet Pasta Sauces MarDona Specialty Foods is proud and pleased to present its new 24oz Family Style Gourmet Pasta MarDona Sauces. worked hard to create these sauces to be versatile and perfect for any favorite pasta dish – as well as a perfect sauce for steak pizzaiola, chicken cacciatore, fried calamari or even just to dip in a favorite crusty bread. Consumers will love the sauces because they are delicious, natural and enough to go around.

MarDona uses only pure, natural ingredients in the making of its gourmet sauces. MarDona uses the best crushed tomatoes, fresh spices, pure olive oil and the finest ingredients. Then, sauces are

cooked slowly over a low heat for hours to bring the sauces to their well-balanced thickness and great taste. MarDona also keeps the sodium and calorie levels as low as possible.

The sauces are, of course, gluten free and have no sugar added.

MarDona prides itself on having the finest in gourmet products while providing them at affordable prices. Come and enjoy the new MarDona Gourmet Pasta + sauces today. Manga!

MarDona Specialty Foods 855.645.7772 www.mardonausa.com

Matterhorn Alpine Cheddar Cheese From Widmer’s Cheese Cellars Widmer’s Cheese Cellars, Inc. Matterhorn Alpine Cheddar Cheese is a homestead cheddar with a blend of select Alpine cultures added for the most unique tasting cheddar on the market. Aged for a minimum of eight months.

The Widmer family has been handcrafting Cheddar since 1922 in small batches using original family recipes. In recent years, its Cheddars have more age to satisfy the palate of the distinctive, artisanstyle cheese lover. Original family recipes and select cultures (with no shortcuts) give these Cheddars a more sophisticated and complex flavor profile. Widmer still washes the Cheddar curds before salting and placing in forms to lower the amount of lactose, which reduces bitterness in the

final product.

Its super aged Cheddars have an intense flavor with hints of caramel and are known for being very smooth without the bitterness associated with some aged Cheddars.

Also available with jalapeño peppers.

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars Cheddar can be purchased in 8-ounce pieces, 1-pound pieces, 5-pound pieces and 40-pound blocks.

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars 888.878.1107 www.widmerscheese.com

Ariston CBD Infused Olive Oil Ariston Specialties announced in spring this year the launch of its CBD infused Olive Oil. This product combines all-natural, high-quality, hemp-derived CBD produced in Massachusetts with the Ariston family’s own production of extra virgin olive oil from southwest Greece, resulting in a delicious and healthy elixir. It combines the health benefits and flavors of both the nutty, earthy CBD oil and the grassy flavor profile of Ariston’s Koroneiki extra virgin olive oil. This combination is

ideal for salads, savory dressings and even homemade pestos. It can be combined with Ariston’s vinegar, lemon juice, garlic and mustard to make an incredible salad dressing.

Ariston Specialties 860.263.8498 www.aristonspecialties.com

Stonewall Kitchen Strawberry Fig Jam Stonewall Kitchen, a leading creator of specialty foods, continues to wow customers with a brand-new addition to its jarred goods: Strawberry Fig Jam. Ever since the start at a farmers’ market in 1991, jams, chutneys and jellies have lined the company’s best-sellers list. Today, these unique and bold flavor combinations still delight jam enthusiasts of all ages.

This Strawberry Fig Jam is no exception. The sweet dynamic duo of juicy strawberries and honey-like figs pairs well with almond butter for an elevated PB&J,

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

JULY 2022

Holiday Granola Bite Flavors from Crazy Monkey Baking Crazy Monkey Baking brings the smells and tastes of the holidays to its wildly popular granola bites with Mocha Peppermint and Gingerbread White Chocolate.

Crazy Monkey Granola Bites are the perfect combination of granola and cookie and have become the go-to alternative for healthier snacking. Unlike loose granola, these bitesized pieces are great for in-the-car or onthe-go snacks as well as breakfasts and desserts.

These holiday flavors are available in 7.5-ounce resealable bags and can be shipped in PDQs or floor merchandisers.

In addition to incredible taste, the Crazy Monkey Granola Bites are made with no preservatives, artificial colors or flavors and offer 16 grams of whole grain per 30-gram serving.

Crazy Monkey Baking is owned by Primary Colors Design Corp., which is based in Ashland, Ohio. Primary Colors brings a wide range of cookies, candy and snacks to retailers across the United States.

Primary Colors 419.903.0403 Ext. 1213 www.primarycolorscorp.com

Fall River Wild Rice Interest in plants and grains is soaring, as shoppers look for new ways to eat healthy.

High in protein and fiber, nutty and with a striking visual appeal, wild rice is one of the healthiest grains available. It was a staple food of several Native American tribes, who called it “manoomin,” or “precious grain.”

Fall River Wild Rice brings this culinary gem to your store shelf. This naturally cultivated wild rice is great in salads, soups and stir fries. However, it also works well in mixes for pancakes and muffins and even in chocolate and desserts. Fall River’s Fully Cooked Wild Rice is high-protein good-

ness in seconds.

The only cereal grain native to North America, wild rice is not even a rice at all.

It is the seed of Zizania palustris, a tall, blooming water grass that prospers in the Great Lakes region, as well as in the fruitful valley in the shadows of the Sierra Nevadas and the Rockies.

Fall River Wild Rice is a small grower-owned cooperative in the Fall River Valley, a rural mountain valley nestled between the Cascade and Sierra Nevada ranges.

Fall River Wild Rice 800.626.4366 www.fallriverwildrice.com

Cello Simple Pleasures Trays From Schuman After winning a gold sofi award for its Cello Copper Kettle Snack Packs, Schuman Cheese debuted a handful of products at the Summer Fancy Food Show, including Cello Simple Pleasures Trays.

Carefully curated by cheese experts, each Simple Pleasures tray includes a selection of premium Cello cheeses paired with delicious quality snacks that can be enjoyed separately or even better to-

gether! Simple Pleasures Trays are preportioned, ready to serve and made up of creative combinations of delicious flavors and textures that perfectly complement each other. These trays can be served as an appetizer, or as part of the popular grazing table trend.

Schuman Cheese www.schumancheese.com

Tabletree Cherry Juice adds a touch of decadency to toast and enhances recipes like vinaigrettes. Take any meal to the next level with this fruity spread that’s sure to be a berry fig deal!

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Turns out the state best known for its big skies also has something to brag about on ground level, too. Tabletree Montana’s Cherry Juice uses Flathead Lake cherries, a touch of honey and a dash of cinnamon as its natural preservatives for an award-winning juice gaining attention worldwide. Gary and Susan Snow have developed a proprietary system that produces quality, healthy and nutritious products (expect new products soon). Taken alone, the

Cherry Juice has nutritional benefits, but is great for cooking and cocktails. Sold in select specialty food stores and online.

Tabletree Montana www.tabletreejuice.com

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21

Cranberry Cheddar Cold Pack Cheese Spread from Pine River

Stonewall Kitchen Maple Apple Jam

Cranberry Cheddar is the newest flavor in Pine River’s extensive line of 19 cold pack cheese spread flavors. Creamy, aged Wisconsin Cheddar is paired with tart dried cranberries, creating a decadent spread. Great on sandwiches and wraps!

Founded on more than five generations of experience in the dairy industry, Pine River prides itself on selecting only the highest-quality dairy ingredients for a difference you can taste in the cheese spreads. Pine River uses Grade A Wisconsin Cheddar – graded and aged inhouse by Licensed WI Cheese Graders – and award-winning Grade A Butter from a neighboring dairy. A combination of 9-

The creators of specialty foods at Stonewall Kitchen are adding another delicious spread to their exceptional array of jams, jellies and chutneys with the all-new Maple Apple Jam. As a Maine-based company, Stonewall Kitchen continues to find inspiration in its heritage with exquisite products that combine regional flavors – and nothing says New England better than apples and maple syrup!

This jam features crisp apples for an orchard-fresh taste and rustic texture.

Sweetened with a splash of maple syrup and a touch of pure cane sugar to balance

to 24-month old Cheddar and specifically formulated whey adds delicious flavor and smooth texture to the spreads. Add to this a dedicated staff of cheese spread makers that skillfully craft the cheese spreads into perfection in every batch.

Pine River offers three styles of cheese spread – Cold Pack, Clean Label and a Shelf-Stable Gourmet Snack Spread. Each is crafted one batch at a time in a state-ofthe art facility in Newton, Wis.

Pine River Cheese Spread 800.722.4217 www.pineriver.com

Vermont Village Shrubs – Blueberry Mint & Strawberry Lemon Tough day? Customers can now shrub it off thanks to two new Vermont Village drink mixers. These certified USDA organic shrubs are non-alcoholic syrups made from fruit, sugar and vinegar that add flair to boozy beverages, spiritfree spritzers and so much more. Plus, each makes for an incredible salad vinaigrette when combined with a splash of oil, a squeeze of citrus and a dash of salt and pepper.

From drinks to dishes, the delicious possibilities are endless with these flexible new offerings from Vermont Village.

For a drink that will fill customers with both vim and vinegar, reach for a bottle of the Organic Strawberry & Mint Shrub. This mixer combines apple cider vinegar with strawberry purée, a hint of mint and just

the right amount of sugar. Customers can excite their taste buds with a refreshing, sober-friendly drink by adding one shot of the shrub to a cup of seltzer or water. Or, they can create a strawberry mint margarita by simply adding it to a shaker with tequila and a bit of lime juice. Finally, customers can concoct summertime dishes such as bright tostadas by mixing the shrub with citrus and spices, tossing it with chopped tuna and veggies and spooning it over tortilla chips to create a light appetizer or lunch.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

Holy Perogy! Premium Frozen Perogies Holy Perogy! makes a line of premium frozen perogies prepared with top-quality ingredients for U.S. consumers to enjoy their Ukrainian family recipe at home. The sibling team behind Holy Perogy!, President Tony Rabinovitch and CEO and the face of Holy Perogy!, Diana Hecht, took their cue from the family’s Canadian restaurant to launch the CPG. What sets Holy Perogy! apart is both the way they are made with premium ingredients. The thin dough is packed with flavorful freshly cooked mashed potatoes and other real, whole foods prepared with love using a

longtime family recipe. The perogies are made, but not cooked, then frozen and packaged in a resealable standup pouch that maintains freshness in the freezer. The two-step process for preparing them at home takes minutes and results in authentic flavor and texture every time.

Each of the Holy Perogy! flavors are sure to be a crowd pleaser, including Fully Loaded Potato with Cheddar & Bacon, Oh! So Cheesy with Potato & Cheddar, Sizzlin' Fried Onion with Potato, Kickin’ Jalapeño with Potato & Cheddar.

Holy Perogy! www.holyperogy.info

sweet and tart notes, it’s a c r o w d pleaser when added to any breakfast dish.

Customers can swirl it into tangy yogurt or spoon it over French toast for a morning treat that’s full of harvest flavors.

Stonewall Kitchen www.stonewallkitchen.com

The Big Moo Baked Cheese Moo-ve over cheddar! It’s time to make room for another Wisconsin tradition: baked cheese. Bake it, grill it, or toss it in a pan, The Big Moo baked cheese cooks crispy on the outside, warm and melty on the inside. An old Scandinavian tradition that arrived to the Midwest generations ago, baked cheese has also been called bread cheese, juusto, and ostbröd, but The Big Moo calls it delicious.

Debuting at the Summer Fancy Food Show, The Big Moo is: small-batch premium cheese from pastured cows on local Wisconsin dairy farms, humanely raised and BST-hormone free.

Made with local Wisconsin milk, cheese enzymes and salt with herbs, spices and natural ingredients, The Big Moo comes in five flavors: Original, Cheesy Pizza,

Roasted Garlic, Bakin’ Bacon and H o p p i n ’ Jalapeno.

The Big Moo is ketofriendly and g l u t e n - f re e , with no carbs per serving and 6 grams of protein per serving.

The Big Moo was founded by Mike Harris and Josh Ptaszynski, two fathers who met coaching their sons’ soccer team and bonded over the love of baked cheese.

The Big Moo www.thebigmoocheese.com

Sundial Wings Jessica Schwaback and Siwen Deng brought their plant-based chicken wings to the Summer Fancy Foods Show. The Sundial Foods co-founders conceptualized Sundial Foods as a school project at the University of California-Berkeley and turned the idea into a reality after months of R&D in Deng’s basement. Sundial Foods has since raised $4 million in funding during a seed round. The food tech brand launched into foodservice in April.

Schwaback and Deng share a vision to create a more sustainable food system.

Sundial Foods’ flagship product, Sundial Wings, conveys a convincing meaty texture and an irresistible crispy skin thanks to breakthrough proprietary tech-

nology.

Sundial Wings are made with easy-torecognize ingredients such as chickpeas, sunflower oil and nutritional yeast. With more fiber and less saturated fat than chicken, Sundial Foods provides a craveable, animal-free alternative to traditional chicken wings.

Sundial Foods www.sundialfoods.com

Sunday Night Foods Dessert Sauces Rich, velvety, luxurious. Made from the highest-quality ingredients on Earth, Sunday Night Foods’ award-winning premium dessert sauces are pure chocolate ganache in a jar. Using a classic French technique, Sunday Night Foods makes each small batch with legendary Guittard chocolate and cocoa, cane sugar, fresh cream and butter, pure Nielsen-Massey vanilla and sea salt to create chocolate euphoria.

Founder Eileen Gannon created the

brand so people can easily enjoy feeling comfort, care and kindness on any day of the week. The company works with the national Alliance on Mental Illness in the hope that, through baking, everyone can stay present, find purpose and create joy within and around them.

Sunday Night Foods www.sundaynightfoods.com

22

GOURMET NEWS

//

JULY 2022

SMORGASBORD

TRADESHOWCALENDAR (dates subject to change)

July 9-11

September 17-22

Texas Restaurant Association Marketplace

International Baking Industry Exposition

Las Vegas, Nevada www.bakingexpo.com

Dallas, Texas www.tramarketplace.com

September 28-October 2 July 13-14

World Dairy Expo

Organic Produce Summit

Madison, Wisconsin www.worlddairyexpo.com

Monterey, California www.organicproducesummit.com

September 29-October 1 July 20-23

Natural Products Expo East

American Cheese Society Annual Conference

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania www.expoeast.com

Portland, Oregon www.cheesesociety.or/2022-conference

October 7-8

Coffee Fest PNW

Seattle,Washington www.coffeefest.com/pnw

July 26-29

BIOFACH

Nürnberg, Germany www.biofach.de/en

October 25-28

The Gathering July 28-29

Orlando, Florida www.thegatheringevent.com/east

Product Marketing Association Foodservice Conference

Monterey, California www.freshproduct.com

October 27-29

August 28-30

Orlando, Florida www.pma.com/events/freshsummit

PMA Fresh Summit

Coffee Fest

Los Angeles, California www.coffeefest.com/los-angeles

October 31-November 3

September 11-14

Las Vegas, Nevada west/supplysideshow.com

Supply Side West

Food Automation & Manufacturing Conference & Expo

November 8-9

Miami, Florida www.foodengineeringmang.com

Kosherfest

Secaucus, New Jersey www.kosherfest.com

September 12-14

Americas Food & Beverage Show

Miami, Florida www.americasfoodandbeverage.com

ADVERTISER INDEX ADVERTISER

PAGE

WEBSITE

Ariston Specialties

2

www.aristonspecialties.com

Fall River Wild Rice

13

www.frwr.com

GLASS - North America

3

www.ardaghgroupc.com/food2022

Hahn’s Bakery

13

www.hahnsbakery.com

Howard Products Inc.

9

www.howardproducts.com

International Baking Industry Exposition

9

www.bakingexpo.com

Jasper Specialty Foods

2

www.jakesnutroasters.com

MarDona Specialty Foods

2

www.mardonaspecialtyfoods.com

Pine River Pre-Pack Inc.

13

www.pineriver.com

Primary Colors

5

www.primarycolorscorp.com

Stonewall Kitchen

4,7,24

www.stonewallkitchen.com

India to Host IDF World Dairy Summit The International Dairy Federation’s World Dairy Summit 2022 will be held in India’s New Delhi-NCR from Sept. 12-15.

New to the summit, the IDF Dairy Innovation Awards in 12 categories will be given on Sept. 12.

IDF Director General Caroline Emond said the World Dairy Summit will be a great opportunity for dairy farmers, leaders, experts, scientists, professionals and academics to learn about India’s dairy industry.

“India’s success story will be shared with the world through the World Dairy Summit, where we can see how dairy is an engine of development and women empowerment in India,” she said.

The dairy sector is important to the rural

economy of India as it provides job opportunities for farmers, said Shri Meenesh Shah, chairman of the National Dairy Development Board and member secretary of the Indian National Committee of IDF. “Not only the farmers, but even the landless farmers are linked with dairy,” Shri Shah said. “Milk is an important means of livelihood in our country.

“Milk and milk products, we all know, provide a lot of nutrition considering that we have a large vegetarian population in our country,” he said. “Milk and milk products play a very important role in providing nutrients to rural people.”

The summit will include a special session for farmers, Shri Shah said. GN

‘Future of Grocery Retailing’ at Organic Produce Summit On the heels of a global pandemic, much has changed over the past two years in the world of grocery retailing and these changes may influence what lies ahead for the entire fresh produce industry. To discuss the future of grocery retail and its impact on fresh produce, a pair of leaders from Whole Foods, along with its former co-CEO, have been confirmed as panelists for a keynote presentation at Organic Produce Summit 2022, July 13-14, in Monterey, Calif.

“The Future of Grocery Retailing” will be moderated by Walter Robb, principal of Stonewall Robb Advisors, senior executive partner at S2G Ventures and former coCEO of Whole Foods. Joining the conversation will be Karen Christensen, senior vice president of merchandising for perishables for Whole Foods, and Madhavi Reese, Whole Foods’ vice president of marketing.

The discussion will explore how Whole Foods is addressing supply chain issues, the role of technology and e-commerce, consumer shopping behavior, new formats

and innovations in grocery retailing.

OPS 2022 is a two-day event specifically designed to bring together organic fresh produce growers, shippers and processors with retail and buying organizations from across North America.

Also at OPS, John Ruane, senior vice president and chief omnichannel merchandising officer for The GIANT Company, will discuss “The Growth of Omnichannel Merchandising That’s Driving Retail Sales” and David Katz, founder of Plastic Bank, will address “Empowering the World to Stop Ocean Plastic,” how the world’s most progressive companies are stewarding the collection of ocean-bound plastic waste and empowering communities to thrive.

Educational sessions will cover topics including CEA, regenerative agriculture, branded vs. private label organic offerings, sustainability across the supply chain, organic sales data (from the first half of 2022), and the impact of inflation on consumer purchasing behavior. GN

World Tea Conference Development Manager Named Questex named tea industry veteran Ellainy Karaboitis-Christopoulos the new Business Development Manager for the World Tea Conference + Expo and World Tea News. In her new role, KaraboitisChristopoulos will be the primary contact for all exhibitors, sponsors and advertisers, helping them elevate their presence in the industry and reach key buyers.

Karaboitis-Christopoulos has nearly 15 years of experience in the tea industry. She previously managed the Specialty Tea Institute, the educational division of the Tea Association of the USA, overseeing the STI Certification program, corporate training, membership and association trips to origin.

She’s had the opportunity to experience the magic of the tea leaf in person, traveling and meeting tea growers and producers around the world.

In 2021, Americans consumed almost 85

billion servings of tea, or more than 3.9 billion gallons, per the Tea Association of the USA. “Besides being the second most consumed beverage in the world after water, and having so many variations of tea, the health benefits of tea are beyond amazing,” Karaboitis-Christopoulos said. “Consumers are more educated about what is healthy and what they are putting into their bodies. That’s why it’s such an important time for tea and tea-related businesses to increase their presence and connect with buyers.”

The next World Tea Conference + Expo takes place March 27-29 in Las Vegas at the Las Vegas Convention Center. The event will once again be co-located with Bar & Restaurant Expo, the nation’s largest and most influential gathering of bar and restaurant owners and operators. GN