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6 GENERAL NEWS GOURMET NEWS FEBRUARY 2014 www.gourmetnews.com Consumers Spent More on Groceries during 2013 Holiday Season A new survey released by Favado, the mobile grocery and drugstore sales comparison app, reveals interesting statistics regarding consumer spending habits during the 2013 holiday season and consumer savings goals for 2014. The responses revealed that consumers spent more on everyday items, including groceries, during the last two months of 2013. However, they plan to counterbalance these expenditures with sav- ings in the New Year. According to the Favado Holiday Spending and Savings Survey of nearly 500 consumers, 81 percent spent more money on groceries and drugstore items during the 2013 holiday season, including most (53 percent) spending between $100 and $300 for holiday entertaining and celebrating. Nearly everyone (83 percent) said saving money and/or spending less in 2014 was a New Year's resolution, with 92 percent planning to permanently cut back on spending. Still, research shows that the popular New Years resolution of committing to a life of "spending less and saving more" is more easily declared than carried out. Among those who make this resolution, only 8 percent will successfully achieve their goal. "We all face financial challenges every day and whether the goal is to get out of debt or save for a down payment on a home, every decision we make impacts the end goal," said financial expert Andrew Schrage of Money Crashers. "Think about how much money could be saved if we simply committed to never paying full price again." Favado is a mobile grocery savings app that helps shoppers save time and money by discovering the best deals in more than 65,000 grocery and drugstores nationwide. Raw Milk Anne Saxelby, owner of Saxelby Cheeses, a specialty cheese shop in New York City, praises the complexity of raw milk cheese. "In my opinion cheeses that are made from raw milk are inherently more interesting, richer and more complex in flavor," she said. "There are different nuances of flavor that come from the micro flora that exists in the barn, on the animals themselves, on their udders and out in the pastures. I feel like if you are a fan of real true cheese then you are automatically a fan of raw milk cheese because it just affords so much interesting flavor." Tara Kirch, Director of Marketing for Best Cheese Corp. and Coach Farm, echoes Saxelby's praise of the lingering complexity of raw milk cheese. Kirch regularly eats Coach Farm's signature raw milk product Rawstruck next to the same product made with pasteurized milk, and she finds the juxtaposition of the two to be an interesting one. "When you compare them side by side, the raw milk cheese stays on your palate long after the pasteurized product," she said. "I think that other people might note that there are more characteristics that come with a raw milk cheese that you might not find in a pasteurized cheese." It is not only flavor that is drawing consumers to raw milk cheeses, however. Many argue that these products may also offer certain health benefits. "There have been studies that have proven that the vitamins available in milk are linked to their raw state. They are lost when pasteurized," said Larmer. "There are also probiotics and bacteria that can be beneficial. There are arguments as well that natural fermentation can help break many of these nutrients down into more digestible mediums. I think that it all has validity." The good news for raw milk cheese lovers is that as an increasing number of consumers get turned on to the product in this country, it is sure to show up in more and more cheese cases across the country. "It kind of is a new category because it's something that has grown so much recently. Previously you had to go to a good cheese shop to find a raw milk cheese. In the past few years it has expanded exponentially," said Kirch. Within the U.S. cheese market, Kirch says that she is now seeing cheese distributors going out of their way to bring raw milk products into their customers' hands. "There is [consumer] interest in it, and more importantly, the buyers are interested in it. They want to pass it on to their consumers," she says. According to Larmer, Slow Food USA is itself planning on responding to the raw milk cheese trend. The organization is working with the American Cheese Society to launch its Raw Cheese Presidium, a program to pro- mote raw milk cheeses within the U.S. marketplace. "There is still amazing passion for raw milk cheeses in the U.S., and I think that it is only growing," she said. "Slow Food has a real role to play in helping people to recognize the new world traditions that are very different from the European traditions." For U.S. consumers who continue to be fearful of trying a product that may potentially carry certain health risks, raw milk proponents argue that these risks can be avoided if consumers simply take a little care in choosing what products they consume. "Raw milk cheeses have come under more and more scrutiny here in the U.S., because obviously with raw milk there are added health risks but if things are being done in a proper, sanitary, and responsible way then raw milk cheese is really healthy and delicious and not a problem," said Saxelby. "I think my biggest tip would be to purchase cheese from a reputable brand. Those are the ones that are taking the most quality control steps … They are also the ones that have a really strong recall process in place should something happen," added Kirch. Finally, it is worth remembering that there are a number of foods Americans eat that carry with them certain risks. Consumers are often forced to make the decision whether or not to consume something that is a potential health risk. However, quite often, they decide the risk is worth it. For many, raw milk cheese falls into this category. "Anything we eat involves a certain level of risk and risk tolerance and I think that we are all weighing that out all the time," said Larmer. GN Continued from PAGE 1 Still, although there are potential health risks involved with the consumption of unpasteurized milk, proponents of raw milk products argue that these risks can be mitigated. According to Megan Larmer, Director of Biodiversity for Slow Food USA, the issue is one of scale. Larmer agrees that it can be very challenging for large scale cheesemaking operations to safely mass produce raw milk cheeses. This is because as the milk goes through a number of stages of handling, the risk of milk borne disease increases. However, small producers are able to much more carefully monitor production facilities and more quickly and directly take milk from the pasture and transform it into cheese. This dramatically reduces the risk of harmful bacteria proliferating. For many dairy lovers in this country, the benefits of raw milk cheeses far outweigh what they feel is a relatively minimal risk.