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Restaurant Daily News May 24

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R e s t a u r a n t D a i l y N e w s Tu e s d a y, M a y 2 4 , 2 0 1 6 9 2 ALVARADO STREET BAKERY INTRODUCES NEW OFFERINGS Alvarado Street Bakery, the experts in sprouted whole grains, is offering sever- al new varieties for sampling this year. The new offerings include Energy Squares, a delicious high energy snack bar that is packed with organic seeds and grains, Sprouted Wheat Baguettes that are perfect for bruschetta or garlic butter, and several varieties of wide-pan USDA Organic Black Label enrobed breads that make a hearty sandwich or toast. Customers and fans of Alvarado Street Bakery tend to be educated label readers and have come to trust the brand. Many have health and environ- mental concerns that dictate their gro- cery purchases. Alvarado Street Bakery has an incredibly loyal customer base. Once they have tried the sprouted wheat breads, consumers return week after week, and year after year. Alvarado Street Bakery has a strong commitment to supporting organic farming, and all of the products are GMO-free. They strive to bake the finest possible breads using the finest possible ingredients. Alvarado Street Bakery, a coopera- tively-owned solar powered bakery in Northern California, has been baking cer- tified organic sprouted whole grain breads for over 35 years. All Alvarado Street Bakery breads are third party organic certified by Quality Assurance International, are certified Kosher Pareve and are baked using all non-GMO ingre- dients, assuring its customers of the high- est possible standards. Its products are available at grocery stores and natural food stores everywhere. Look for the Orange Cat! NEWMAN'S OWN ROLLS OUT ORGANIC PASTA SAUCE LINE Just one year after Newman's Own Chief Executive Officer Mike McGrath told LiDestri Foods Chief Executive Officer Giovanni LiDestri about an idea for a new line of organic pasta sauces, pallets of finished jars began arriving at Kroger stores nationwide, under the name Common Good. The product line's speed to market becomes even more impressive upon learning that LiDestri, the Rochester, New York-based co-packer, commis- sioned a California farmer to grow a specific tomato varietal the two execu- tives selected in an early taste test. Working at the LiDestri Innovation Center, they agreed the varietal beat out Italy's famed San Marzanos. The 1.5- million-pound special order began ripening in the fields in August 2015, and by November, they had been trans- formed into five flavors of Common Good pasta sauce: marinara, roasted garlic, vodka, tomato basil and arrabia- ta, packed on pallets and shipped to retail. "That's like the dream," McGrath says of the one-year conception-to-deliv- ery execution, which also required teams of truck drivers to travel 24 hours a day between the tomato fields and the cook- ing vats to hit the target delivery date. "I have been in the consumer packaged goods business a long time, and there's no question about LiDestri's ability to get product to market in fast order," McGrath said. Speeding new products to market has never been more important to grab- bing and holding market share, given the technology-fueled compression of today's business cycle. Lower barriers to entry have intensified competition and made the timely delivery of well-execut- ed innovative products nearly non-nego- tiable for consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies. While some contract packagers do little more than receive formulas and turn raw materials into product, many, including LiDestri, are taking on an increasingly collaborative role in the CPG innovation process. In 2013, to foster collaboration with CPG and retail brand customers, LiDestri opened its Innovation Center, which includes not only modern test kitchens but also a pilot room, providing a valuable middle step in calibrating formulas between stovetop and full-scale runs. For Common Good, McGrath and LiDestri worked side by side in the Innovation Center kitchens to develop the recipes, cooking their way through a mountain of spices and gallons of extra virgin olive oil. "In terms of innovation, they are all over it," McGrath said of LiDestri Foods, whose relationship with Newman's Own stretches back more than 30 years and includes a close rela- tionship between its founder, Paul Newman, and Giovanni LiDestri. Like the full line of Newman's Own prod- ucts, all of Common Good's profits go to charity. "He's trying to help me build my brand," McGrath said. "To me, that's the most important thing that a co-packer can do—and, by the way, most don't do it."

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