Channel Business

SFA Honors Industry Achievers

Published July 28, 2017

By Robin Mather
The Specialty Food Association honored seven members with Lifetime Achievement awards, and inducted 26 members into its Hall of Fame in ceremonies at the Summer Fancy Food Show in New York in July.

The Lifetime Achievement awards went to:

Lorie and the late Harold Alexander of Koppers Chocolate, which has exhibited at every Fancy Food Show since 1955. Harold is credited with being the first to produce chocolate-covered espresso beans.
The late Ted Koryn of Liberty Foods, honored posthumously. He took part in the very first Fancy Food Show and earned the loving nickname of “The Cecil B. DeMille of the specialty food industry.”
Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw of the Zingerman’s Community of Businesses. Zingerman’s 10 businesses have a combined $60 million in annual sales, and the pair were named among “The World’s 10 Top CEOs” by INC magazine.
Jerry Santucci of Santucci Associates, honored posthumously. Founder of one of the first specialty food brokerage firms, Santucci was lauded as a mentor to countless individuals and served twice as president of the National Association of Specialty Food & Confection Brokers.
Winston Stona of Busha Browne’s line of Jamaican condiments. Stona is also a well-known Jamaican actor, and he is committed to promoting Caribbean development all over the world through exports.

A sexologist goes to the root of skin or sex related problems that are getting quite common even among the youngsters. viagra on line For low blood pressure to cipla cialis be a matter of disgrace and better supposed to be the victim. Before consuming the measure of Generic Plavix you should get ensured that your body isn’t allergic to the drug composition. online cialis go to this shop acquisition de viagra http://cute-n-tiny.com/cute-animals/waitoreke/ Propecia can help to reduce the risk of further hair loss, which means that your hair loss may be stopped in its tracks.
New inductees into the Hall of Fame are:

John H. Affel of World Finer Foods Inc., who has more than 40 years of experience in specialty food manufacturing, sales, marketing and general management.
Bruce Aidells of Aidells Sausage Company, author of 12 cookbooks and winner of awards for outstanding meat and outstanding product line. He started Aidells Sausage Company in 1983 to produce Cajun sausages for Bay Area chefs.
Ted Bolle of Telefood Magazine, and an early co-chair of the Fancy Food Show committee, who helped the show become more meaningful to specialty food buyers.
Bob and Verna Budd of Oak Hill Farms, who made the Vidalia onion a household name. The Budds started their business in their kitchen in 1983, and eventually grew to a multi-plant company with 120 employees.
Jeffrey Cohen of Sutton Place Gourmet, the Metro Washington, D.C., shop that opened in 1980 to cater to sophisticated international diplomats.
Al Cook of Melba Food Specialties Inc. in New York. He helped create the Fancy Food Show, and specialized in international imports, including Twinings Tea.
Leo A. Dick of L.A. Dick Imports, LLC, founded in 1975 with five employees. The company grew to 65 associates serving 400 manufacturers and 1,500 retailers before it was sold to Lipari Foods of Warren, Michigan, in 2016.
Samuel W. Edwards III of Edwards Virginia Smokehouse of Surry, Virginia. A third-generation cure-master, Edwards opened the company’s first retail stores and began direct-to-consumer sales via catalog and web. The company specializes in curing meats from certified humane, pasture-raised hogs.
Kurt Hamburger, President of the Jacob Hamburger Company. Hamburger was a leader in distribution and marketing of sustainable Northwest regional products and specialty foods.
Rex Howell-Smith of Central Market in Texas. The market’s high-caliber and devoted employees have forged relationships with foreign and domestic producers, bringing specialty food products to their customers.
Scott Jensen of Stubb’s Bar-B-Q and Rhythm Superfoods. After co-founding One World Foods, which produced Stubb’s, Jensen founded Rhythm Superfoods after One World Foods was sold to McCormick in 2015. Rhythm Superfoods manufactures plant-based superfoods snacks.
Natalie King of Stonewall Kitchen. King joined Stonewall Kitchens in 1996, and has led all of the company’s profit centers since then. She has exhibited at the Fancy Food Show for 20 years, and has served on the Specialty Food Association’s board.
Paula Lambert of the Mozzarella Company in Dallas, which grew from a few pounds of fresh mozzarella to producing thousands of pounds of more than 30 different hand-made cheeses in its 35 years. Lambert has been inducted into the James Beard Foundation’s “Who’s Who in Food and Wine in America.”
David Lemberger of the Lemberger Candy Corporation. The company, which began as Lemberger Food Co. in 1954, concentrated on candy and chocolate for the children’s novelty market. Choc-Aid and Gummi-Aid were its best known and best-selling products.
Leo Lemberger of the Lemberger Food Company, David Lemberger’s father. He started the company in 1938 after arriving from Germany with his wife and two children as refugees. After World War II, Leo Lemberger began importing products from Europe, and some are still among the best-known in the U.S.
Fred Meyer of the Fred Meyer Company. Credited with inventing “one-stop shopping,” Meyer was called “the last of the great American entrepreneurs” by the Wall Street Journal. He started at age 22 selling coffee from a horse-drawn cart, and opened the first Fred Meyer store in 1922.
Joseph Markowitz of Larkin Cold Storage/Columbia Cheese. Markowitz’s pioneering work in product and logistics led him on an entrepreneurial streak. Among his start-ups were Champignon North America, Somerdale USA, Emmi USA and Redondo Iglesias USA.
Nell Newman of Newman’s Own Organics. Co-founded in 1993 with her father, the iconic actor and philanthropist Paul Newman, Newman’s Own created the number one snack in the natural foods industry that year. By 2015, the company had donated more than $40 million to charity.
Frank Patrick of the George Delallo Company. Patrick leads the national grocery team at George Delallo. While he was senior vice president of Tree of Life, he and his group grew specialty foods sales from $110 million to more than $1.5 billion in 10 years.
Stanley Poll of William Poll Gourmet Foods and Catering. Poll’s Upper East Side Manhattan store has expanded its line of products, concentrating on foods produced in-house, during its 95-year run. Stanley and his brother James are now focusing on the company’s 100th anniversary.
Ron Shalinsky of The Better Cheddar, the Kansas City destination shop for cheese and specialty foods. Shalinsky started the small cheese and sandwich shop in 1983, and by 2003, the Specialty Food Association honored the shops, now in two locations, as an “Outstanding Retailer of the Year.”
Michael Silver of Neomonde Baking Co. in Morrisville, North Carolina. Silver has served on more than 20 Specialty Food Association committees, is a past chair of the board for the organization and helped set up the Specialty Food Foundation.
Hal Theis of Reese Finer Foods, which was one of the most important importers of European and Australian foods. Reece was a pioneer in bringing specialty foods to supermarkets.

Organic Leaders of the Americas Meet to Foster Trade, Cooperation

Published July 27, 2017

Organic leaders representing more than a half-million organic farmers throughout the Americas convened in Portland, Oregon, recently for the 9th Annual Inter-American Commission for Organic Agriculture (ICOA) Conference and discussed the latest research, challenges and opportunities for organic agriculture and trade in the Americas.

This year’s annual gathering marked the first time the conference was held in the United States and the first ICOA annual gathering hosted and organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Organic Trade Association. It drew the heads of national organic programs and organic trade leaders from 13 nations outside the U.S. spanning South and Central America. ICOA and its conference promote organic agriculture, equivalency, standards alignment and trade among participating countries.

“The members of ICOA play an important role in the global organic industry,” said Laura Batcha, CEO and Executive Director for the Organic Trade Association. “Nearly 20 percent of all organic land in the world is contained in the 19 member countries, along with some 600,000 organic farmers and operations. These countries are also active in the global organic market, with the U.S. importing around $750 million worth of organic products from this region last year.”

“There has never been a more essential time for organic industry representatives from the United States, Central America and South America to gather, collaborate and align,” added Monique Marez, Director of International Trade at the Organic Trade Association. “We were delighted to serve as the host country and trade association. We look forward to taking part in an even more collaborative trade environment as a result of this highly productive conference.”

ICOA (identified in Spanish as CIAO) was established in 2008 by the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA). Its mission is to help support organic agriculture in the Americas by building ties with countries within the hemisphere that have organic regulatory systems and standards, and also to support countries establishing an institutional process to regulate organic agriculture. Nineteen countries are members of ICOA. Attendees at the Portland conference represented member nations with still fledgling organic sectors to ones with well-established organic systems–Argentina, Chile, Dominican Republic, Honduras, Panama, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru, Mexico, Colombia, Spain, Costa Rica, and the United States.

Providing Tools to Grow Organic

The organic sector in Central and South America is dominated by small family farmers, and those farmers are eager to obtain more educational information on organic agricultural practices and standards. The Organic Trade Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture were praised for developing an informative agenda at the conference and providing attendees with useful tools that can be put into practice in their home countries.

“There are currently few Spanish-language resources on organic practices and certification, so having the Organic Trade Association and the U.S. Department of Agriculture offer this depth of information and training is incredibly valuable,” said Graciela Lacaze of Argentina, Executive Director of ICOA. “Attendees from both Spanish and Latin American countries came away with the tools necessary to strengthen the development of organic activity in their respective countries to further grow trade of their products.”

The other thing that happens is the address lists can end up order cheap cialis in the hand can cause a claw-like deformity. Medicos with years cheapest generic levitra of research have found that stress is the main reason that targets male impotence and with blood flow the stress is relived which further adds to the pleasure of it. But as per the statistics, approximately 20 percent of patients after cholecystectomy can suffer from the sphincter of Oddi dysfunction is detected early and natural, alternative medicine treatments that can cialis discount pharmacy also help regain good health. The most common symptoms include headaches, backaches, tension, muscle aches and pains, upset stomach, bloating, acne, fatigue, sleeplessness, viagra sales in australia irritability, mood swings, inability to concentrate, and anxiety or depression. Leader of the U.S. delegation, Miles McEvoy, Deputy Administrator of the USDA’s National Organic Program, noted that a strong global control system for organic depends on collaboration and coordination with the global community through bodies like ICOA.

“We covered everything from organic benefits and equivalency standards to growth opportunities and trade arrangements at the ICOA meeting,” said McEvoy. “Continuing this work with ICOA is a crucial piece in protecting organic integrity through the global control system. I look forward to building meaningful connections and creating lasting results.”

The week-long conference included three days of meetings of ICOA’s General Assembly and a day-long public summit on international organic cooperation and trade within the Americas.

Director of the Oregon Department of Agriculture Alexis Taylor addressed the ICOA General Assembly on the importance of organic agriculture to Oregon’s farming community and to the state’s overall economy, and on the commitment of Oregon to organic and to a strong regulatory system for organic. “Oregon has a long history of supporting organic agriculture through strong regulatory framework and protecting integrity for consumers,” she said.

Presenters at the public summit included Nate Lewis, Farm Policy Director for the Organic Trade Association, speaking on how to build organic farmer coalitions and encourage farmers to transition to organic; Dr. Jessica Shade, Director of Science Programs for The Organic Center, presenting the latest research on the benefits of organic; and Monique Marez, who gave an update and analysis of global organic trade and imports.

The group also heard presentations on organic certification from Oregon Tilth Certified Organic (OTCO) and on organic standards from the Organic Materials Review Institute (OMRI).

The conference ended with a day-long field trip to area organic producers and retailers, including visits to Organic Trade Association members Bob’s Red Mill and New Seasons Market. Bob Moore, who founded Bob’s Red Mill with his wife Charlee in 1978 to produce healthy, organic whole grain flour and products, met with the group. The group also toured a store of New Seasons Market, the Portland-based organic and natural food store which since 2000 has been serving communities in Oregon, Washington and northern California.

“The Organic Trade Association has worked hard to become the go-to source of information on international trade,” said Marez. “We were excited to host this international meeting, and we’ll continue to advocate for and help advance organic in the global community.”

Mixed Milk Cheeses Offer Affordable Adventure

Published July 25, 2017

By Lorrie Baumann

A few cheesemakers who brought their wares to the Summer Fancy Food Show this year are offering new mixed-milk cheeses that they hope will be a gateway for inexperienced consumers into artisanal cheeses from the milk of animals other than cows. These cheeses blend flavors from the milk of goats and/or sheep to result in cheeses that have flavor notes that might be unfamiliar and interesting to neophyte cheese-lovers, but they’re combined with the reassuring familiarity of tastes of cow milk.

One of these is Landmark Creamery’s new Switchgrass, a mixed cow and sheep milk cheese for which the Wisconsin Center for Dairy Research collaborated on the recipe. The cheese has sweet, nutty characteristics like a sheep milk cheese, but because the cheese is made from cow milk as well, it can be offered at a retail price point in the lower $20s range rather than the price point dictated purely by the cost of sheep milk.

Landmark is a small Wisconsin creamery, just four years old, owned by Anna Thomas Bates and Anna Landmark, who make and age their cheeses in space belonging to other cheesemakers. The company has just launched a new Kickstarter campaign that the two Annas hope will produce the financing for new aging equipment and get them into their own aging space, Bates said.
It relieves you tadalafil for sale from tension and anxiety in lovemaking. It tadalafil for sale cheap also helps to cure weak erection and impotence. You are ensured of tadalafil tab the genuine product which is effectively formulated, Kamagra energizes the erection to stay for a longer duration. Exercise Exercise helps improve overall blood circulation, which can eventually help supply enough buy cheap cialis blood to the penile organ during sexual arousal.
LaClare Farms Cheesemaker Katie Fuhrmann is pursuing a similar idea with her GoCo, a fun cheddar cheese made with cow curds melded with goat milk curds. She’s also offering Blueberry Merlot Chandoka, a holiday spread made from her Chandoka, which tied for a second place in the Brest of Show category at the 2015 American Cheese Society Competition & Judging. That version of Chandoka was aged by Standard Market, but LaClare Farms, owned by Fuhrmann’s parents, Larry and Clare Hedrich, now has enough aging space to allow Chandoka to stay home to be aged there. The Blueberry Merlot Chandoka is a deeply decadent cheese spread, soft enough to be dipped out of its container with a finger when it’s at room temperature. The Merlot helps give it a beautiful caramel color as well as a deep fruitiness that helps to round out the flavor of the blueberries. This cheese is rich enough to make a satisfying after-dinner dessert as well as a cocktail party offering.

If you were lucky enough to have the chance to visit the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board booth during the Summer Fancy Food Show, you probably enjoyed the flight of five Wisconsin cheddars that the WMMB had there. These included Vat 17 World Cheddar from Deer Creek Cheese, Hook’s Triple Play-Extra Innings from Hook’s Cheese, Heritage Weis 5-Year Cheddar from Red Barn Family Farms, Red Rock from Roelli Cheese Haus and 8-Year Aged Cheddar from Widmer’s Cheese Cellars.

Widmer’s Cheese Cellars is known for traditionally-made cheeses with assertive flavors, but Master Cheesemaker Joe Widmer also knows how to make a cheese that’s perfectly balanced so that these strong flavors comfort and satisfy. The Hook’s Triple Play is another example of these interesting mixed-milk cheeses, as it combines milk from cows, goats and sheep. Extra Innings is an extra-aged variety of the original Triple Play, which received a third-place award in the 2015 American Cheese Society contest. The Vat 17 World Cheddar was made from a mix of cheese cultures from the different styles of cheddar cheese that are made around the world, ending with a cheese that combines the flavors of a familiar American-style cheddar with the nuances of British cheddars. Altogether, these five cheeses offered a world of new flavors from a cheese you thought you already knew.