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www.gourmetnews.com n JANUARY 2020 GOURMET NEWS 7 6 Barry Callebaut Launches Cacaofruit Experience Barry Callebaut AG, the world's leading manufacturer of high-quality chocolate and cocoa products, is rolling out a new range of products called Cacaofruit Experience. Ac- cording to the company, Cacaofruit Experi- ence celebrates the fresh, fruity taste and natural richness of the cacaofruit and marks the creation of a next-generation food and drink category. Whereas normally 70 percent of the cacao fruit is discarded as waste, Cacaofruit Expe- rience products make use of the entire fruit: its beans, its nutrient-dense peel and its fresh and fruity pulp and juice. This results in a range of high-quality ingredients that can be used in applications such as juices, smooth- ies, frozen desserts, bakery and pastry prod- ucts, as well as snacks all the way to chocolate. Callebaut believes that these products will appeal to consumers who earnestly want to live a happy, healthy life, in symbiosis with the world around them. Cacaofruit Experi- ence responds to their need for food and bev- erages that are tasty and nutritious for them and also good for the planet and its people, according to the company. These products have the fresh and fruity taste of the cacao fruit along with fiber, protein and magne- sium. At the same time, they are good for the planet and its people because the entire ca- caofruit is utilized. "Innovation is one of the pillars of our growth strategy. Our unparalleled knowl- edge has enabled us to break new ground, unleashing the full power of the cacao fruit, which the Mayans cherished as 'food of the gods,'" said Antoine de Saint-Af- frique, Barry Callebaut's Chief Executive Officer. "We are looking forward to start- ing a new journey with our customers and discovering the completely new range of applications that Cacaofruit Experience and whole-fruit chocolate will make pos- sible." SnackFutures, the innovation and venture hub of Mondelēz International, the world's largest snacking company, is the first com- pany to introduce Cacaofruit Experience in a consumer product under its new CaPao brand. CaPao is piloting two cacaofruit snack products – Smoothie Ball and cacao fruit Jerky Strips – with select retailers in Los Angeles, California. Tierra Farm Grows by Cultivating Employees By Lorrie Baumann Tierra Farm is celebrating its 20th anniver- sary in business, and as it does so, it's also facing the challenge of scaling up the busi- ness while ensuring that a growing work- force continues to see the company as a good place to work. "When you start with a com- pany with 10 employees, the culture's al- ways going to be different than when you have 60 employees, said Chief Executive Of- ficer Todd Kletter. "We try to take that small company feel and try to replicate it the best we can." Tierra Farm's shiny new status as a certified B Corporation is part of that, he said. Tierra Farm is a certified-organic manu- facturer and distributor of nuts and dried fruits that attained B Corp status in August. B Corp Certification is the only certification that measures a company's entire social and environmental performance. To qualify for certification, companies must earn a mini- mum score of 80 on their "B Impact Assess- ment," a self-assessment that measures how the company's operations and business model affect its workers, community, the en- vironment and customers. "B Corp is very exciting to me and I believe that I'm selling the future," Kletter said. "It's going to be very prevalent and very important to con- sumers and companies over the next five years." In its self-assessment, Kletter and his team took a hard look at how the company's rapid growth over the past few years has affected its employees and their working conditions. They've had to adjust as the company ex- panded out of its single facility in Valatie, New York, a small town about 20 miles south of Albany, to include additional distri- bution and sales operations based in Latham, New York, and in Aurora, Colorado, about 15 miles outside of Denver. The company also acquired Power of 3 Nutrition, a seed blend company created by founder Anne Elise Stern and headquartered in Tenants Harbor, Maine, and Señor Sabor, a Pennsyl- vania-based organic spice company. "We're looking at additional acquisitions in 2020," Kletter said. "We feel that there are a number of companies that could add to our growth opportunity." The rapid growth from a few employees who operated like a family in Valatie to more than 60 employees in multiple facilities has led to some growing pains that Kletter has been working to solve since being hired by Founder Gunther Fishgold in late 2016. Al- though his position at Tierra Farm is his first as the CEO of a food and beverage manufac- turer, Kletter has extensive experience man- aging and growing other companies, and his challenge was to figure out how to scale the company while keeping intact its solid rela- tionships with customers and suppliers and ensuring a quality working environment for its staff. "It's been amazing," he said. "We've made a lot of changes – as the busi- ness has evolved, there were things that had to happen to move forward. I brought in peo- ple that were able to scale." Certifying as a B Corp gave Tierra Farm a way to evaluate its progress in terms of the social values underlying those relationships with customers, suppliers and employees as well as a way to evaluate and to publicize the company's ongoing commitment to the en- vironment, which is expressed in activities such as recycling boxes, using solar power and seeking transportation efficiencies. "It's important to us," Kletter said. "The organic piece goes without saying." "We didn't have a guide before. We didn't have a way to evaluate how we do things bet- ter as we're judging ourselves with our for- mer self," he continued. "There wasn't a pathway to continuous improvement. B Corp provides a framework that allows us to con- tinuously improve our company.... It's really neat for us to be able to keep score, and that's one of the major reasons why we wanted to become a B Corp." Part of that score involves an evaluation of how well the company treats its employ- ees. Tierra Farm has paid its employees a minimum starting wage of $15 an hour for the past five years and has provided health care for all employees for the past 10 years, including co-pays, which are reimbursed. "The only thing you would ever have to pay for is something elective," Kletter said. "We spend a lot of money every year on health care, and we are thrilled to do so." While the company's operations were lo- cated on a single campus, Tierra Farm pro- vided lunch for all of its employees. "We recently ended it because we couldn't man- age it in three different locations," Kletter said. "We had a chef, had meals together, and everything was great." But with growth came complexity, and the lunch program has been retired in favor of simply paying every- one for their lunch time. "We're paying em- ployees to eat lunch now," Kletter said. "It's gone over very, very well, and we're able to take care of our Latham and our Denver staff much easier because of that." While the company gym at the Valatie fa- cility used to be accessible to all of Tierra Farm's employees, that was no longer the case once those employees were spread across multiple facilities. "That used to be easy, so now, every employee who wants to join a gym, we pay for it," Kletter said. Tierra Farm also subsidizes its employees' education – whether or not their education involves coursework that's directly tied to their job responsibilities. "It doesn't have to be in the food business, as long as it's an ac- credited program," Kletter said. Employees with outstanding student loans are eligible for reimbursement for a share of those loans every month. Employees celebrate their birthdays as a day off that isn't counted against their vaca- tion days, and they're invited to participate in frequent company events that give new employees an opportunity to meet their co- workers and provide everyone with informal opportunities to give management some feedback, Kletter said. "We're not alone in that area, but we try to do an event every other month or so," he said. Counting in the health care, lunch program and other bene- fits, the average Tierra Farm employee earns more than $50,000 a year and has been with the company for more than five years, ac- cording to Kletter. "In most cases, when an employee leaves for one reason or another, it's very amicable," he said. "We're very confident that we provide a great working environment. Sometimes an employee leaves to pursue another opportunity, and we are fine with that – we wish them well and hope that some of the skills they learned at Tierra Farm are transferable elsewhere. Sometimes that same employee will look to come back after they discover that they aren't going to find the same working envi- ronment elsewhere. And in most cases, that's okay, too." Quality, Value and Tradition from Carmelina When it comes to quality, value and tradi- tion, nothing compares to the simple good- ness of Carmelina 'e...San Marzano ® Italian Tomatoes and Carmelina Brands ® Italian Beans. Produced and imported from south- ern Italy, Mangia, Inc.™ takes pride in pro- viding clean, quality ingredients that are all-natural, with no added salt, sugars or preservatives. These products are Non-GMO Project Verified, OU kosher, gluten free and packed in BPA-free, easy-open containers. The cans are nestable. At Mangia, Inc., innovation is key. With a solid production and quality assurance team on staff, the company is continually developing cutting-edge, new items to meet the growing needs of its clients and the industry at large. Over the last few years, Mangia has launched two Prepared Tomato Sauce products in shelf-stable, eco-friendly pouches: Carmelina 'e…San Marzano Authentic Italian Pizza Sauce, and Carmelina 'e…San Marzano Authen- tic Italian Marinara Sauce. These sauces are available in 91-ounce pouches, and have been a huge hit with retailers in deli and prepared food sections. With the global demand for legumes sky- rocketing and the desire for healthier food options on the rise, Mangia, Inc. recently launched Carmelina Brands Chick Pea Puree, which are simply smashed chickpeas. The product is packed in an easy-open, triple-barrier, BPA-free aseptic pouch. Carmelina Brands Chick Pea Puree is ex- tremely versatile and easy to use. Simply open the pouch, season, flash blend to de- sired consistency and go. This revolutionary item saves on time, labor and energy costs. No need to wash or soak chickpeas overnight, or cook, drain and pulse them for an extended time. No need to deal with safety or carbon footprint issues faced when working with canned product, and it pro- duces a 100-percent yield. Carmelina Brands Chick Pea Puree offers the perfect base for hummus, soups, sandwich spreads, vegetar- ian burgers, baked goods and more. The pos- sibilities are endless. With one of the cleanest ingredient state- ments on shelf, Carmelina 'e…San Marzano Italian Tomatoes and Carmelina Brands Ital- ian Beans offer chefs and families consistent, quality, flavorful ingredients that they can feel good about bringing to the table. Prod- ucts are available in 14.28-ounce and 28- ounce retail sizes, 91-ounce foodservice size and industrial drum sizes. For more information, call 866.462.6442, email info@mangiainc.com or go to www.carmelinabrands.com.

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