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GOURMET NEWS JULY 2014 www.gourmetnews.com GENERAL NEWS 7 School Lunch Continued from PAGE 1 Through her work educating children in her community, Firquain observes that her students very often take the lessons they learn home to their parents. The result is that the ongoing nationwide effort to im- prove school lunches is ultimately affecting the way families eat at home as well. When it comes to healthy eating at home and school, Fuentes argues that what par- ents want today are "real food solutions." "At this point, parents in my community are really looking for variety, knowing that they are feeding their kids fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy—and knowing that a meal incorporates all of these components," she said. "Parents are looking for real food solutions that contain all of these elements." Firquain agrees that "real food" has be- come the touchstone for what it means to parents to be feeding one's family a health- ful meal. "We consider real food something that is a whole food—a piece of fruit, a veg- etable, plant-based foods that come out of the ground, clean local sustainable and or- ganic dairy and protein sources," she said. "Being able to trace your food—know your food, know your farmer. [Real food is] not something that has ten ingredients, five of which you can't pronounce." Both Firquain and Fuentes are quick to point out, however, that real food solutions do not necessarily have to be 100 percent homemade. They point out a number of food companies that provide packaged foods that fit into this category. For exam- ple, Firquain praises Rawxie, a local com- pany that makes raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, non-GMO cookies that make an ideal low-calorie lunchbox treat. Mean- while, Fuentes recommends that parents check out the single-serve hummus packs from Sabra. In addition, both praise com- panies like Crunch Pak that offer pre-pack- aged, pre-cut fruits and vegetables. One company that is working to make school lunch healthy whether it is made on campus or packed at home is Revolution Foods. Revolution Foods works with schools to provide healthful meals to stu- dents, to date providing over 100 million school meals in over 1,000 schools nation- wide. In 2013, the company expanded its scope to retail as well, introducing its meal kits in over 2,000 retail stores. Now, parents across the country can pick up Revolution Food's grab-and-go meal kits in kid- friendly varieties like Cheese Pizza and Peanut Butter and Jelly. "We [believe] that kids should not have to face a tradeoff between eating great-tast- ing healthy food and eating affordably," said Kristin Groos Richmond, co-founder and CEO of Revolution Foods. For retailers hoping to bring more parents into their stores and fill their baskets with healthy lunch box accoutrements, the key may be to give shoppers ideas for what they can do with the items they are purchasing. Fuentes argues that retailers should approach marketing food for children and families the way they market wine and cheese. "For back- to-school, providing suggestions would be great—offering pairings," she said. "Provid- ing solutions for food pairings [is] something that a small gourmet store could do." Firquain offers up another suggestion for something retailers can do to reach out to this demographic: hosting field trips. "We work with one of our retailers doing field trips to the grocery store with our students, taking them around the perimeter of the store, taking them down the healthy food aisle and teaching them about not choosing the potato chips and the soda," she said. "Especially in the summer, summer camps are always looking for field trips to go on." Stores can even send touring children home with goodie bags that include coupons they can take home to Mom and Dad. Ultimately, however, the most important thing that specialty food retailers and sup- pliers can do in order to increase sales of lunch box items is simply to encourage par- ents to pack and students to carry a home- assembled meal with them to school. According to Fuentes, a child chowing down on a well-prepared meal, assembled at home from high quality, wholesome in- gredients, is bound to be the envy of his friends. Fuentes says, "Parents end up looking like rock stars to their kids." GN Manchego Cheese Now Celebrated at Its Own Museum The former Malpica residence, a 19th cen- tury mansion in Ciudad Real, Spain is set to house the world's first museum dedi- cated exclusively to one of the country's gastronomic treasures: Manchego cheese. "This initiative started out with the aim of safeguarding the tremendous gastro- nomic and cultural heritage that this cheese represents. We want to make sure that we never lose the expertise and tradition that make Manchego cheese such a unique and inimitable product," said Ignacio Barco, President of the Manchego Cheese Desig- nation of Origin and part of the latest gen- eration in a long dynasty of master cheesemakers. "The best way of preserving this heritage is to spread the word so con- sumers know how to appreciate the real thing and reject any imitations." With a production output of over 26 mil- lion pounds of cheese per year and growth of 20 percent in the last five, the devotion Spanish D.O. cheesemakers feel for the genuine values of their tradition is quite impressive. It is this craft and those who devote themselves to it that will be cele- brated at the Ciudad Real museum. Barco promises that visitors to the mu- seum will be able to revel in Manchego's characteristic flavor. Visitors will not only have the opportunity to appreciate this unique cheese within the walls of the for- mer Malpica mansion itself but also outside them, in nearby taverns and restaurants. "As an artisan cheesemaker, I'm often sad- dened by the public's general ignorance about our product," said Barco. He argues that this lack of awareness is particularly ev- ident among international consumers. "The Americans, who are real Manchego cheese lovers, are less familiar than Europeans with the Designation of Origin system. For this reason, companies that do not belong to the D.O. take advantage of the reputation of Manchego cheese to introduce imitations to the U.S. market which have absolutely noth- ing to do with the genuine article," he said. Barco argues that for lovers of authentic Spanish Manchego, it can be quite easy to dif- ferentiate the real thing from imitation. "Every cheese certified by the Regulating Council of the Manchego Cheese D.O. has a double label. Firstly there's the identifying label on the out- side of the cheese, and secondly there's an ex- clusive serial number engraved in the cheese itself," he explained. "These labels guarantee that each piece is unique." "On top of which," Barco continued, "it has an unmistakable flavor, of course." Manchego cheese never ceases to delight thanks to its countless culinary facets and uses. "As the new generation of Manchego cheesemakers, we have the obligation to con- tinue communicating and expressing who we are, what we do, the tradition we represent and the flavor of our cheeses, all of which have given us national and international renown," said Barco. "We need to be out there making sure that our legacy will endure." GN Sabra Files FDA Petition to Establish Standard of Identity for Hummus Sabra Dipping Company recently filed a cit- izen's petition with the FDA to establish a standard of identity in the United States for hummus under Title 21 of the Code of Fed- eral Regulations. According to the com- pany's petition, hummus must be comprised (by weight, besides water) predominately of chickpeas, and must be no less than 5 per- cent tahini. Sabra specifically defines hum- mus as, "the semisolid food prepared from mixing cooked, dehydrated or dried chick- peas and tahini with one or more optional ingredients." A list of optional ingredients are specified in the 11-page petition. "A food item that is not made of chick- peas … is not hummus," said Ronen Zohar, Sabra's CEO. "It is a testament to the pop- ularity of hummus that companies are in- terested in labeling a variety of dips and spreads as hummus. As the category leader, we have introduced hummus to the mar- ket. We are driving continued adoption rates, and we do see it as our responsibility to support the growing community of hummus lovers by protecting the purity of hummus in the marketplace." Sabra argues that in addition to alleviating confusion for consumers and preserving the basic nature of the food, the proposed stan- dard would improve the overall quality of hummus in the U.S. food supply by regulat- ing the conditions of its formulation. "As the popularity of hummus has soared in the United States over the past decade, the name has been applied to items consisting primarily of other ingredients," said Tulin Tuzel, Chief Technology Officer for Sabra. "From black beans and white beans to lentils, soybeans and navy beans, everyone wants to call their dip hummus. This truly does cause confusion for retailers and consumers in what is still an emerging food category. Twenty-five percent of American homes purchase hum- mus regularly, and we are pleased to drive this request for standardization." GN

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