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GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com

T H E

VOLUME 87 • NUMBER 9 SEPTEMBER 2022 • $7.00 • American Cheese Society Hosts Hundreds at Annual Conference Held in Portland PAGE 6

• FDA Developing Food Safety Strategy for Berries

B U S I N E S S

N E W S P A P E R

BY A.J. FLICK

What company wouldn’t want to lap the competition? ReadyWise is taking that idea literally by sponsoring an off-road sprint car

• Justice Department Ends ‘Brazen’ Conspiracy Regarding Poultry Plant Wages, Benefits PAGE 8

• Food Tech Company Benson Hill Introduces Heart-Healthy Oil for Foodservice Use PAGE 9

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• Stone Street Coffee Promotes Need for Clean, Safe Drinking Water PAGE 16

• U.S. Online Grocery Shoppers Spend More, Struggle More, Consumer Survey Says PAGE 17

• Featured Products PAGE 19

• Advertiser Index PAGE 22

T H E

G O U R M E T

I N D U S T R Y

ReadyWise Sprints to Victory by Sponsoring Teenage Sprint Car Racing Phenom

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• Winery Buys 1st Oregon Property Dedicated to Growing Grapes for Sparkling Wines

F O R

racer. Not just any racer, though. Gray Leadbetter is just 17 years old, but she’s already made racing history by being the first woman to win a champion off-road pro race, along with several other racing firsts. Leadbetter will compete in more than 20 sprint car races this season in her ReadyWisesponsored sprint car with Marc

Dailey Racing. Being a race car sponsor isn’t something that anyone at ReadyWise saw coming. The company started a decade ago with its Emergency meal line for those who practice emergency preparedness for extreme weather conditions, global conflicts, food shortages and such with freeze-dried and dehydrated meals that have up to a 25-year shelf life. Then ReadyWise developed the Simple Kitchen Everyday Snacks line, which has a three-year shelf life.

David Katz doesn’t hate plastic. He just hates that so much of it ends up in the ocean. To solve the ocean waste problem, Katz says, you have to see plastic as having more value. “If I ask everyone if every piece of packaging you saw was easily exchanged for five U.S. dollars,” Katz said in his freewheeling keynote speech at the Organic Produce Summit, “how many would we still see in the ocean?

None. OK, so it’s not the plastic, it’s us!” That’s the premise behind Katz’s Plastic Bank, which doesn’t move waste from the oceans, but takes an innovative approach to prevent plastic from getting there. “We all know something is unfolding – catastrophe ultimately is unfolding,” he said. “If you thought about it at some point and said, ‘Someone has to do something about it’ – it’s actually your second thought. Your first

BY A.J. FLICK

thought is, ‘I want to do something about it and I don’t know how.’ And like the tens of millions, hundreds of millions or billions of people on the planet, they think the same thing.” Katz doesn’t believe in scaring people about the environment. Humanity’s survival is another matter. “The Earth and the ocean are going to be absolutely fine,” Katz

After having founded a Michigan restaurant in 1998 specializing in fresh soups and broths – now up to more than 100 locations in the United States and Canada – and a corresponding CPG line on shelves nationwide and in e-commerce, founder and CEO Eric Ersher has sold the restaurants to focus on the CPG. “We started Zoup! in 1998 after having been in the spice business,” Ersher said. “We did a lot of business in the parking lot and at the back doors of restaurants. We realized that good soup, really good soup was hard to find in restaurants. “Then in 2013, 2014, we very similarly recognized that there was not a broth on grocery store shelves that was good enough to heat and drink. Once again, we were inspired over the next year and developed the first super premium chicken broth that’s

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Plastic Bank Offers Innovative Solution to Ridding Ocean of Plastic Waste BY A.J. FLICK

Zoup! Founder Takes CPG Soup, Broth Line Rogue

Celebrating Culture: Global Cuisine Continues to Thrive Global cuisine continues to be a big trend in U.S. restaurants and in-home dining. The top five regions influencing restaurants this year, according to the National Restaurant Association are Southeast Asian (Vietnamese, Singaporean, Filipino), South American (Argentinian, Brazilian, Chilean), Caribbean (Puerto Rican, Cuban, Dominican), North African (Moroccan, Algerian, Libyan) and Western African (Nigerian, Ghanan, Western Saharan). The packaged food industry, which is the leading consumer of spices and seasonings globally, is driving that market. The global seasoning and spices market

size is expected to reach $50.1 billion by 2028, rising at a market growth of 5.5

percent compound annual growth rate, according to a Research and Markets report. As food manufacturers expand their products to accommodate consumers’ demand for exotic foods, they need herbs

and species-specific seasonings to give each cuisine a particular scent and flavor, the report states. These ingredients enhance the flavor of the items while also extending their shelf life. Top herbs and spices used for flavoring include garlic, basil, cloves, cardamom, cumin and ginger. Herbs are mainly dried or fresh leaves of plants growing in a specific climate while spices are made from stems, fruits, roots, bark and seeds. Seasoning enhances food flavor while also offering health benefits. In medical research, turmeric, pepper, cinnamon, Continued on PAGE 17