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Restaurant Daily News Monday, May 20, 2019 4 6 Superfood Rice with a Mission Launches into American Market By Lorrie Baumann Jasberry is introducing the American market to Jasberry ® rice, a rice with antioxidant power that's 40 times higher than brown rice, three times higher than blueberries, four times higher than quinoa and seven times higher than kale and that also has the power to lift Thai farmers out of poverty. Peetachai (Neil) Dejkraisak co- founded Jasberry with a commitment to helping others that started when he was a boy growing up in Thailand and Australia, where he lived on a farm while attending school. "Growing up, I didn't want to be rich or famous; I just wanted to make a difference," he said. "I was really motivated by people like Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nelson Mandela." That dream faded a bit as he began a career as an investment banker after he finished school in Australia and returned home to Thailand, but it came roaring back when he got an alumni newsletter that had a photo of one of his high school friends who had shared that dream of helping others as they were youths. In his friend's case, that dream had expressed itself as a vision of starting a school in Africa. "The newsletter had a picture of him surrounded by his African students," Dejkraisak said. "The next day I quit my job." That started a search for how Dejkraisak was going to make his differ- ence in the world and particularly in Thailand. He recognized that Thailand is one of the world's top exporters of rice, exporting about a quarter of the world's total rice exports, but that Thai farmers were among the poorest in the world. Of the 70 million people in the country, about a quarter of them are farmers who don't participate in the prosperity that visitors to the country see when they visit Bangkok. "When I started to learn about this issue, I got really curious about it," Dejkraisak said. He started looking for ways to change that situation. He learned about Fair Trade. He thought about the premi- um prices that buyers are willing to pay for organic products. "I realized that the solution had to be more sustainable," he said. "You have to teach them how to fish. If I just purchased their produce, I'm just giving them fish." The Thai farmers already knew how to grow rice, but they were dependent on agricultural chemicals to produce a crop that they could only sell as a commodity. What they didn't know was that there could be another way for them to grow rice. "If they converted from chemical farming to organic, that in itself would help them be healthier.... They'd have a better life, and it would be better for the environment," Dejkraisak said. "Then if they were growing organic rice, they'd get a small premium on their price, but at the same time, it's still a very competitive market." Getting them more than the small premium they could get for organic rice would mean find- ing a new kind of rice that would be something better than a commodity, so Dejkraisak went looking for a scientist who knew how to breed a better rice. He found that scientist at a University in Thailand, and the result of his experiments on the problem was a non-GMO rice, naturally produced by cross-breeding existing varieties, that had the character- istics of a superfood, a delicious flavor and a glycemic index that was similar to basmati rice. "It was something in the lab, and we had to bring it to the real world," Dejkraisak said. The next step was to introduce the rice to Thai farmers, who had to be per- suaded to take a risk with a new crop. Dejkraisak asked them to pilot test the new rice on a small part of their land and offered to give them the seed and organic fertilizer for free, to train them in organic farming methods and to buy the crop from them at double the price they were getting for their commodity rice. "I said, 'Hey, let me take the risk. If I cannot sell it, I'll buy it from you, and that's my problem,'" he said. That first year's crop was small, but the results were encouraging enough for Dejkraisak and the farmers to continue on their path, particularly because part of Dejkraisak's deal with the farmers was that they kept a quarter of their crop for their families' consumption, and they'd noticed that they were healthier than usual. "The next year they were able to grow it better, so the yield was much bet- ter," Dejkraisak said. "They decided to believe that this rice was like a medicine. Other farmers joined the program because they wanted to eat the rice." Seven years ago, the Jasberry project started with 25 farmers families; now the program has grown to 2,500 families, a total of more than 10,000 people. The farmers are certified organic growers, and Jasberry is now set up as Thailand's first food-producing B Corporation with a product that's ready for the American market. "You can run a business that has a social mission at its core but that is still sustainable," Dejkraisak said. "We're also trying to show the business world that you can do business this way and still make a living. If you support this kind of business, you can make a real difference in the world; you can make a change." Now Dejkraisak's mission is to edu- cate American consumers about the value of the rice. "What we are trying to do in the U.S. market is to change the percep- tion of the consumer," Dejkraisak said. "The superfood concept is something that consumers are familiar with." "A lot of people have the perception that rice is just carbohydrates, but Jasberry rice has the antioxidants and vitamins and minerals that provide a nutritional benefit for the consumer. More and more consumers are going to benefit from this product," Dejkraisak said. "If more and more consumers eat Jasberry rice and benefit from this, more farmers will benefit." For more information, visit www .jasberry.net. Chocolette Confectionary LLC Launches RED Delight Chocolate in the USA Chocolette Distribution LLC, the U.S. sales and marketing division of the Swiss-owned Chocolette Confectionary LLC, has launched its new "guilt free" RED Delight chocolate collection in the USA. RED Delight was developed using patented technology and is one of the world's lowest calorie chocolates. RED Delight has only 16 calories per piece, which is 50 percent less than competing brands, or the caloric equivalent to an apple slice. In addition, RED Delight has less fat and no added sugar. The RED Delight Chocolate collec- tion was created by leading chocolatiers from France and Switzerland. To achieve the delicious taste, RED Delight is creat- ed using only natural high quality ingre- dients without any cocoa oil substitutes, artificial colorants or preservatives. All products in the RED Delight collection are certified kosher, non-GMO, gluten free, vegan where noted and have no added sugar. The quality and safety of the products are guaranteed by the BRC Global Standards. RED Delight's taste has been recog- nized by the experts – in 2018, RED received the Great Taste Award in the UK. The unique diamond shape of RED Delight Chocolate allows receptors to sense the perfectly opened taste of choco- late. RED Delight is currently sold in the U.K., Scandinavia, central and eastern Europe and is launching soon in Germany. Varieties of the 3.5-ounce bars of the RED Delight collection entering the U.S. marketplace in December include Extra Dark, Dark, and Dark Chocolate with Orange and Almond, Milk Chocolate with Hazelnut & Macadamia as well as several varieties of Milk Chocolate Nut- filled praline boxes. RED Delight will be available nationwide in the USA through all channels via key distribution partners. The product will be competitively priced. Food Entrepreneur Creates Line of Wine-Based Seasonings After more than a year of product and brand development, Ken Medei of Melbourne, Florida, has officially launched a line of wine-based seasonings and rubs under his brand, Wine It ® . Medei has been in the specialty food business since 1990, when he launched a line of premium pasta sauces, Medei Cuisine, in Schenectady, New York. After selling the brand in 1994, he has worked with a variety of specialty food companies to assist them in packaging, new product development, distribution and even celebrity licensing, which included the launch of the Emeril's brand of consumer food products in 2000. But, deep down, Medei always wanted to create another line of specialty food products as long as they were not me-too items. Says Medei, "For example, in 1990, premium pasta sauces were rare in the marketplace so I had a niche back then." Today, of course, there are many excellent pasta sauces in the marketplace, and there's also a wealth of other special- ty food products. Medei wasn't interested in a product that wasn't unique and rele- vant as well as high-quality. "I would joke that the only way I would do another sauce or other food product is if it cured baldness or had a Viagra effect," he said. He started thinking about the possi- bility of creating a seasoning mix. But, there was still the rub that the market- place is crowded. "With so many season- ings and rubs available to shoppers, many of which are outstanding, how could I stand out among such a crowded field?" he said. Enter wine. When Medei came across wine powders during his ingredient research he experi- enced the proverbial light-bulb moment and immediately knew where he was going with this ven- ture, he said. He references the continued growth and popularity of wine over the last 20 years. "Since so many of us drink wine, gift wine, dine with wine and, yes, cook with wine, I simply felt that this has the potential to be quite exciting," said Medei. He likes the way that red wine's complex flavors and subtle acidity brighten up and enhance the flavors of food. By using a high-quality wine pow- der from Europe along with other ingre- dients such as porcini powder, garlic, butter and many other ingredients he came up with his first four Wine It products: T.A.P., an all-purpose blend, Savory Steer for beef, Here Chicky Chicky for poultry and Sooey! for pork. He is currently creating new blends to be launched later this year along with anoth- er line of pasta sauces and other products. "I am so excited for my customers to use Wine It and to simply have fun in the kitchen with their family and friends," he said. His marketing plan for Wine It Foods involves both online sales to con- sumers and direct to specialty food retail- ers around the country. For more information about Wine It Foods, visit www.iwineit.com.