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BY GREG GONZALES Making a healthy choice shouldn't kill us, but we live in a time when it's statistically safer to go skydiving than it is to eat a salad. That wasn't quite the pic- ture the leafy greens industry and regulatory agencies had in mind when the Food Safety Modern- ization Act passed eight years ago, and now everyone along the supply chain is looking for new standards to reduce outbreaks of food-borne illnesses. These illnesses aren't some- thing to shrug off. An E. coli in- fection can be far more serious than something like a summer cold. It means being hospitalized, BY LORRIE BAUMANN Guggisberg Cheese took home the grand prize from the United States Championship Cheese Contest this year for its Baby Swiss Wheel, while Marieke Gouda took home the awards for both the first and second runner- ups with Marieke Gouda Pre- mium, the first runner up, and Marieke Gouda Overjarige, the second runner up. The contest is sponsored by the Wisconsin Cheese Makers Association and was held March 5-7 at Lambeau Field in Green Bay, Wisconsin. Cheese, butters and yogurt competed in 107 classes this year, U.S. Championship Cheese Contest Awards the Masters of Curd Continued on PAGE 8 Continued on PAGE 22 Continued on PAGE 9 with dried milk and whey prod- ucts added for the first time in the contest's history. Eligibility is lim- ited to products made in the U.S., and winners received their awards at an awards banquet held April 18 in Madison, Wisconsin. The competition includes seven different categories for cheddar cheeses. Lynn Dairy, Inc. of Granton, Wisconsin, won the class for mild cheddars, Cabot Creamery Cooperative of Cabot, Vermont, won for medium ched- dars and Agropur won for sharp cheddars. Cabot Creamery Coop- erative of Middlebury, Vermont, won in the class for cheddars aged one to two years for its Extra Sharp Cheddar, and Tillamook, of Tillamook, Oregon, won for ched- dars aged two years or longer with Tillamook Cheddar. Maple Leaf Cheesemakers, Inc., of Mon- roe, Wisconsin, won the category for a mild to medium traditional waxed cheddar with English Hol- low Cheddar, while Henning Cheese of Kiel, Wisconsin, won the category for sharp to aged tra- ditional waxed cheddars with Deer Creek The King. Finally, Door Artisan Cheese Company of Egg Harbor, Wisconsin, won the class for natural rinded cheddars with its Top Hat English Truckle Cheddar. The best Colby came from Southwest Cheese, LLC of Clovis, New Mexico, while Glanbia Nu- tritionals from Twin Falls, Idaho, submitted the best Monterey Jack, and Shullsburg Creamery II LLC from Shullsburg, Wisconsin, won the award for marbled curd cheeses with its Colby Jack Long- horn. Guggisberg Cheese re- minded Wisconsin that the best Swiss cheese made in the U.S. comes from Ohio by sweeping the category for Swiss cheese with 200-pound Swiss blocks and a Healthier Snacks Abound At 2019 Sweets & Snacks Leafy Greens Industry Looks Beyond FSMA To Reduce Outbreaks excruciating pain, missing more than a week of work and incur- ring thousands of dollars in med- ical expenses. "That's 90 percent of the cases," explained Bill Mar- ler, foodborne illness attorney and food safety advocate, and Manag- ing Partner at the Marler Clark law firm. "The other 10 percent are people who suffer severe com- plications or death. These are the heartbreaking cases." Foodborne Illnesses Wreck Lives Makayla Jarboe, a 7-year-old girl from Mesa, spent 39 days hospitalized last year after eat- ing contaminated romaine let- tuce. She's had to use feeding tubes to eat, and relies on dial- ysis because her kidneys no longer function properly. There's a chance she could lose her kidneys by age 12. A 3-year-old boy from Canada went on vacation with his family to Disneyland. They stopped at a pizza parlor in Pismo Beach, Cal- ifornia, on the way home, and he had a romaine salad. By the time they made it to Seattle, he started getting sick. Once home in Van- couver, he went to the hospital, developed acute kidney failure and suffered a stroke. Due to the severe brain damage, he's unable BY LORRIE BAUMANN Renfro Foods started out in 1940 in a garage from which George Renfro and "Mrs. George" — she always disliked the name she was given at birth — distributed foods to local customers. Since then, the company, still a family- owned and operated business headquarted in Fort Worth, Texas, has moved out of the garage and is now mostly known for its Mrs. Renfro's salsas, a range of salsas that often feature fusion flavors and occasionally daring twists that defy mass mar- Continued on PAGE 14 Mrs. Renfro's Salsas Do More than Top Tacos ket ideas about what a salsa's sup- posed to be. "We think of our- selves as gourmet flavors and fusion fla- vors without a gourmet price tag," says Doug Renfro. He's George and Mrs. George's grandson, and he's now President of the company, a job he says comes with the oc- casional free latte but few other frills. "My cousins are Vice Presidents, and we pay our dads to stay home now after their half-century of work," he says. One of Mrs. Renfro's spicier of- ferings is Carolina Reaper Salsa, the company's entry into the testosterone-fu- eled romance with ever- hotter peppers. The Carolina Reaper was certi- fied as the world's hottest pepper in 2013 by the "Guinness Book of World Records," and while hotter peppers have been devel- oped since then, they're said to BY GREG GONZALES This year's Sweets & Snacks Expo, May 21–23 in Chicago, Illi- nois, will feature an abundance of healthier-for-you snacks designed to appeal to consumers looking for healthier snack options for both themselves and their chil- dren. According to Mintel's "US Snacking Motivations and Atti- tudes" report from January, 95 percent of adults snack daily, 70 percent snack twice a day and those who snack four or more times a day, super snackers, is in- creasing. At the same time, con- sumers are seeking out more wholesome ingredients, healthier ways to enjoy the snacks they al- ready love and snacks that fit their specific dietary needs. Stoneyfield Organic's survey re- leased in March found that 75 percent of kids surveyed have two to three snacks per day, and 40 percent of them like healthy snacks. A quarter of them "love" healthy snacks. Sixty-seven per- cent of them could differentiate between healthy and less healthy snacks, and just over half of them "love trying new snacks." The survey also found that snack time is the easiest food occasion kids and parents agree upon. VOLUME 84, NUMBER 5 MAY 2019 n $7.00 www.gourmetnews.com G OURMET N EWS T H E B U S I N E S S 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 ® UPDATE: Everyday Indulgences SEE PAGE 18 HOT PRODUCTS: Numi Organic Tea SEE PAGE 20 NATURALLY HEALTHY: Tofurky SEE PAGE 15 NEWS & NOTES n Organic Center Benefit Raises Record Amount PAGE 6 RETAILER NEWS n Made By True Finds Success with New Retail Front PAGE 10 SUPPLIER NEWS n Bottled Water You Taste Through Your Nose PAGE 13 NATURALLY HEALTHY n Plant-Based Beverages Claim Growing Market Share PAGE 15 SUPPLEMENT n Everyday Indulgences PAGE 17 News ..............................................6 Ad Index .......................................22 Calendar.......................................22

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