FEATURED PRODUCT
FEATURED PRODUCT
FEATURED PRODUCT
The French Farm
Enstrom
Ariston
SEE PAGE 20
SEE PAGE 20
SEE PAGE 21
GOURMET NEWS www.gourmetnews.com
®
T H E
B U S I N E S S
VOLUME 90 • NUMBER 3 MAY 2025 • $7.00 • Miami Beach’s Lincoln Road Continues to Build as a Culinary Destination PAGE 4
• M2 Ingredients, Regenerative Organic Alliance to Launch Mushroom Project PAGE 6
• Keygea’s New Compostable Coffee Pod to Perk Up North American Market PAGE 7
• UC Berkeley Showcases the ‘Future of Food’ PAGE 8
• Gracious Gourmet Returns to Beginnings PAGE 12
• Sura Suhi’s ‘Sustainable Restaurant’ Opens PAGE 14
• Lakeview Farms, noosa Merge as Novus Foods PAGE 15
• Featured Products PAGE 19
• Advertiser Index PAGE 22
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
Synthetic Food Dye Bans Are Lacking Scientific Evidence, According to Critics BY A.J. FLICK
The push by states to ban synthetic dyes in foods is building momentum after West Virginia became the first to ban a handful in school menus and eventually, the entire state. On March 24, West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey signed a bill banning Red Dye No. 3, which the U.S. Food and Drug Administration banned in foods in January; Yellow Dye No. 5; Yellow Dye No. 6; Blue Dye No. 1; Blue Dye No. 2; and Green Dye No. 3. “West Virginia ranks at the bottom of many public health
metrics, which is why there’s no better place to lead the Make America Healthy Again mission,” Morrisey said. “By eliminating harmful chemicals from our food, we’re taking steps toward improving the health of our residents and protecting our children from significant long-term health and learning challenges.” The ban goes into effect for schools Aug. 1 and for the state Jan. 1, 2028. With other states poised to pass their own food dye bans, the food and beverage industry is watching with great interest because the implications could upend food manufacturing.
The problem is, critics say, the movement to ban synthetic dyes is long on anecdotal evidence and short on scientific evidence. Even the scientist whose industry-funded 1987 study led to the Biden Administration banning Red Dye No. 3, which is effective starting 2027, says science doesn’t support any harm to humans caused by the dye. “If I thought there was a problem, I would have stated it in the paper,” Joseph Borzelleca, 94, a professor emeritus of pharmacology and toxicology at Virginia Commonwealth University, told
States. As of this writing, Trump’s widespread tariff of 10 percent on most countries was suspended until June, although an announced tariff of 125 percent on China stood. Most of Japan’s scallop landings are usually shipped frozen to China, which processes them and ships them to the United States. According to Bristol’s 2025 forecast, Japan is the top importer of scallops to the United States, exceeding U.S. landings. Excluding China, imports
from all other nations (primarily Japan, Canada and Peru) came in at 46 million pounds, more than double the total landed in the United States, according to Bristol. “For the first time on record, there are more Japanese scallops in the United States than U.S. scallops (after deducting exports),” according to the report. “Japan took the No. 1 spot, followed by U.S., China, then Canada.”
Arizona is the nation’s winter lettuce capital, producing approximately 90 percent of the country’s supply from November to April, according to the Arizona Farm Bureau. But before those crispy, crunchy, leafy greens can be tossed into salads and used to top sub sandwiches, they must be transported from coast to coast, arriving fresh from Portland, Ore., to Portland, Maine. Deniz Berfin Karakoc is an assistant professor of industrial engineering in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence, part of the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University. She researches agri-food flow networks, or how agricultural products are made, stored and moved, to best connect those who produce food with those who need it. Karakoc has co-authored a groundbreaking paper on food transportation systems that was published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Food. For the work, “Trade-offs between resilience, sustainability
Continued on PAGE 16
Continued on PAGE 18
Continued on PAGE 17
Scallops Industry Eyes Uncertain Future in 2025 BY A.J. FLICK
The scallops industry already was looking at an uncertain year, given the disproportionate number of imports exceeding U.S. landings in 2024, exports at historically low levels and five years of declining U.S. landings. But President Donald J. Trump’s whirlwind of tariff impositions leaves the industry wondering what, if any, impact there will be. Traditionally, scallop imports have enjoyed low to zero tariffs under the Harmonized Tariff Schedule of the United
Cross-Country Food Transport Focus of Study BY KELLY DEVOS
Special to Gourmet News
Olive Oil Industry Sees Opportunities in American Market The Olive Oil World Congress continues to see promising opportunities in the United States
for the industry. As part of its planned efforts for “On the Road to OOWC 2026,” the Olive Oil World Congress organized the conference “Drops of Health: Olive Oil in the United States” in Washington, D.C. The event was organized in conjunction with the North American Olive Oil Association and in collab-
oration with the Mediterranean Diet Foundation, FoodTank and the CIHEAM of Zaragoza to educate policymakers and health leaders about the benefits of olive oil. Organizers chose to hold the event in the United States because it is second only to Italy in olive oil consumption, showing the importance that American society is starting to attribute to this product for its health benefits. Still, about half of U.S. households do not use olive oil, indicating an opportunity to
introduce the product to more Americans. Joseph R. Profaci, executive director of NAOOA, provided a market analysis of olive oil use in the United States, highlighting that 368,000 tons were consumed in 2024, representing an increase of a 32 percent increase since 2013. About half of all U.S. consumption occurs on the East Coast. And surprising to many, the production of olive oil in the United States can meet only Continued on PAGE 16