Oser Communications Group

7 April 2019 SNACKING NEWS SNACKING NEWS Purpose-Driven, Food-Focused SEEDS of CHANGE Accelerator Opens Mars, Incorporated has announced the launch of its SEEDS of CHANGE™ Ac- celerator to help early stage food-focused companies fast-track growth and live their purpose to build a healthier and more sus- tainable future. The SEEDS of CHANGE Accelerator, named after the Mars Food organic seed and food brand, will select six U.S. and four Australian participants in the follow- ing areas: start-up food brands, innova- tive experiential offerings, new business models, and emerging technology. The search will focus on companies that share the Mars Food values of World Flavors, Plant-Based Eating, Easy-Meal Solu- tions, Responsible Food and Creating with Care. "We're committed to nurturing the next generation of food innovators who are dedicated to creating and delivering healthier and tastier food solutions for more people," said Fiona Dawson, global president of Mars Food, Multi- sales and Global Customers and sponsor of the program. "The accelerator is one of the many ways Mars Food is working to bring our purpose — Better Food Today. A Better World Tomorrow. — to life." In addition to a grant of up to $50,000 (U.S.), each start-up will undertake a tai- lored four-month program to scale its operations. The program, led by Gary Arora, global lead of open innovation at Launchpad for Mars, will give the start- ups access to a panel of industry expert mentors. These include Stephen Badger, Chairman of the Board for Mars, Incor- porated; Rohan Oza, an iconic brand builder and recent "guest shark" on Shark Tank; and JKR, a design-led cre- ative agency credited with launching no- table start-ups. Purpose-driven food-focused start-ups are encouraged to visit www.socaccelera- tor.com from March 5 to May 31 to apply to join the SEEDS of CHANGE Acceler- ator's first cohort. To learn more about the SEEDS of CHANGEseed and food products, visit www.seedsofchange.com. n about the animal itself. "You can't make something great starting with a poor-qual- ity product," he said. "I used to work with a guy when I was young who would al- ways say, 'You can't make chicken salad out of chicken [manure].' So we're always focused on how the animals are raised. That's the key to the quality of our prod- uct. Our job ― we buy a high-quality an- imal, a heritage breed raised properly, fed well, it was stress-free ― our job is to not screw it up." Any additional herbs or spices, Eley said, are there to bring out the natural flavor of the meats ― not to en- hance or cover it up. That's not to say there's an absolute rule about ingredi- ents in craft c h a r c u t e r i e . Bill Miner, Owner of Il P o r c e l l i n o , said his com- pany makes a variety of salamis, some traditional and some non- traditional, to keep curious customers coming back. "We make one salami called a Queso Salami, and we use a cheese in there called Queso de Mano from Haystack Mountain, which is a local creamery here in Colorado," he said. "It's a Manchego-style cheese we put in there, so you get a bite of cheese in your salami. It's not a lot, just a little bit, and it's pretty unique. We're using local wine from Den- ver, local beers in some recipes, juniper berries, which is an indigenous ingredient from Colorado. But then we make tradi- tional things like sopressata, finnochionna, coppa, things that people know. You can be different, but you also have to make products people are familiar with so they sell." In addition to how the animal was raised and how the meat is handled, re- gion plays a major role in the final flavor. With factory-farmed animals, location doesn't matter ― no matter where they're raised, those animals are manu- factured to produce a high quantity of meat that comes out tasting the same ― but high-quality charcuterie producers take note of regional flavors. Smoking Goose products, for example, are all about Indiana from animals and ingredi- ents all the way down to the name. Its Rustbelt Salami recalls the era of steel mills ― in Indiana, Ohio, Michigan and Illinois ― and it changes batch to batch, using a single-source and single-breed pig from one of those states. "We have stuff from foragers, like locally forged ju- niper berries; we use mead wine from a local meadery that makes their mead from Indiana honey," Eley said. "The idea is to represent the flavor profiles of this region of the country, rather than try- ing to recreate regionally-traditional Eu- ropean styles." As for inspired names, look no further than Smoking Goose's Dodge City, a salami named for a part of Indianapolis that's since improved ― Smoking Goose was part of its redevel- opment, so they named the salami out of respect for how far it's come. However, when factoring in which charcuterie is right for your store, think literally about how a re- gion affects flavor. Pigs raised at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains tend to eat acorns from nearby oaks and hickories, flavors that carry subtly into the meat. "It's called terroir," said Daguin. "It works the same with wine. You take exactly the same grape, you grow it in one place and an- other, and it makes a very different wine ― sometimes, it's less than half a mile away, and it makes a huge difference." We can think of charcuterie like cheese, too; milk from a cow that eats dry hay in the winter will taste quite different from milk made by the same cow grazing on fresh green grass in the spring. "You cannot say, 'I have the best terroir to raise a beef," said Daguin, but the origin cer- tainly can be an indication to charcuterie- seeking customers of what flavors to expect. Enamoring your customers to craft charcuterie is partly a matter of education. Even though consumers have constant ac- cess to a smorgasbord of beautiful charcu- terie with a single search of #charcuterie on Instagram, they'll likely be more en- gaged with your products if your staff can tell them all about the meats from your area, or how the wagyu beef raised in Texas you carry is truly one of a kind. Your customers will thank you. "In many cases, it's subtle, but the people who can sit down and take the time to eat the prod- uct taste a difference, and it's greatly ap- preciated," said Gatto. "So part of this is about educating people about which char- acteristics good-quality crafted products let you experience." Eley said he's part of a group working on a char- cuterie certification exam, like the Certi- fied Cheese Profes- sional Exam, which could help retailers decide which meats are the best. How- ever, according to Angela Bozo, Edu- cation Director at the International Dairy Deli Bakery Association and one of the people making the exam a reality, it won't be ready for another two years at best. Meanwhile, these meats continue to get more love than ever in the U.S. In other words, there's no better time than now to become a charcu- terie expert and start stocking the best meats in town. n American Charcuterie Continued from Page 1 Being ahead in this movement before it gets big means attracting a customer who can afford high-dollar items. According to Ariane Daguin, Chief Executive Officer of D'Artagnan, people seeking out Amer- ican charcuterie tend to have a higher salary, and they care about whether the meat came from a sustainable farm, whether or not the farm was local and how the animal was treated. And it's certainly possible to stay ahead right now. "I'm still talking about a very small niche, a very small part of the popula- tion," said Daguin. According to Phil Gatto, co- Founder of True Story Foods, what makes truly good charcuterie is that craft producers use heritage breeds of animals that are hu- manely raised, an- tibiotic-free and hormone-free. "Those breeds usually take a little longer to grow, and end up with a deeper color, more mar- bling, which gives them more internal fat, and that natural fat brings a sweetness to the flavor profile," he said, adding that the exercise these animals get out on the pas- ture also helps with marbling. And it's not just pigs ― Daguin cited a heritage breed of chicken used at D'Artagnan that eats vegetable scraps and takes longer to raise, which results in a truly unique flavor experience. "A chicken that's 100 days old is basically three times more expensive than a chicken that was processed at 30 days old ― and the taste is more than three times better, but the price is three times higher," she said. For Chris Eley, Owner of Smoking Goose, quality charcuterie really is all

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