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GOURMET NEWS JUNE 2018 www.gourmetnews.com Naturally Healthy NATURALLY HEALTHY 1 8 Lantana Foods Delivers Hummus for Breakfast BY LORRIE BAUMANN With its first hummus launched in just 2011, Lantana Hummus has become one of the top brands in the category by turning the whole definition of the product on its head. Everyone knows what hummus is, but for those who need a dictionary definition, Merriam-Webster provides one. By that definition, hum- mus is "a paste of pureed chickpeas usually mixed with sesame oil or sesame paste and eaten as a dip or sandwich spread." To which, the three foodie friends who founded Lantana Hummus, all with a back- ground of working for some of the larger producers in the space, said something like, "A pulse is a pulse. A bean is a bean," according to Matt Gase, CEO of Lantana Foods since 2016. "What's sacred about the garbanzo bean? ... Let's create something that is culinary, something that is fun and bright and flavorful." And from that thought, they created a line of hummus that uses beans other than chickpeas, and they exercised culinary in- genuity on additions of vegetables and top- pings. "Every one of their SKUs is like its own creation — it's not just the same hummus coming off the line with a different topping on it," Gase said. The result is a range of eight wildly inventive creations that offer bright colors, bold flavors and cer- tifications that appeal to health- conscious consumers. Sriracha Carrot is a top seller that offers the color and sweetness of carrots and the zing of sriracha in a white bean hummus that's topped with sun- flower seeds and dried apricots. White Bean Hummus has a topping of pine nuts and herbs, and Cucumber is a hummus made from white beans and edamame and topped with cucumber and dill. The three newest flavors, launching this year, are Hatch Chile, Cauliflower, and Strawberry. They each start with a white bean hummus base. Hatch Chile is made with New Mexico Hatch chiles and topped with diced green chiles. The Cau- liflower Hummus offers cauli- flower blended in the hummus and pickled car- rots, cauliflower bits and caramelized onions as a topping. That brings us to Strawberry, which was born out of market intel- ligence that informed its creators that consumers were using Lantana's Black Bean Hummus as an ingredient in breakfast burritos. If consumers want to eat hummus for breakfast, why would it have to be savory? "We'd had such success in- troducing vegetables into our hummus, why not fruit? Can we pull it off?" Gase ex- plained the thinking. The result is a Strawberry Hummus, with some basil for an herbal counterbalance to the sweetness and a topping of strawber- ries, basil and balsamic vinegar. The com- pany's market research says that consumers are interested in using it as a replacement for cream cheese. "We've had feedback that people are replacing jelly in a peanut butter and hummus sandwich — sort of a protein bomb there," Gase said. Following the success of Strawberry, Lantana Hum- mus is rolling out other fruit-forward hummus concoctions with white bean bases this summer, with their launch at the In- ternational Dairy Deli Bakery Association show in June. Blue- berry hummus is made with white bean hummus topped with hibiscus, mint and dried blueberries. Cherry has sweet cherries and a topping of sweet and smoked cherries and sunflower seeds. Mango includes cilantro in the base and a topping of chile lime mango and pineapple. All of the Lantana Hummus products are gluten free and vegan friendly, and most are non-GMO. The 10-ounce tubs retails for around $4.49. For more information, visit www.lantanafoods.com. GN BY LORRIE BAUMANN Soom Foods really started with a question about why the tahini that Shelby Zitelman tasted in Israel was so much better than the tahini she'd tasted in the United States. Today, she and her two sisters are answer- ing that question by bringing their own brand of tahini pressed and manufactured in Israel so that Americans can taste the dif- ference for themselves. Soom Foods offers two products to the American market. Its Tahini is the tradi- tional paste made from roasted and pressed sesame seeds that's one of the main ingre- dients in traditional hummus. Its Choco- late Tahini is a direct competitor with spreads made with cocoa and nut butter. Zitelman is the oldest of three sisters, and she had the chance to taste the tahini that Israelis were eating when she went to Israel to visit her middle sister, who was living in Israel and dating a man who sold tahini. He introduced the product to her. "I had never had tahini quite like this," she said. "I wanted to know why it was so good and why it tasted like peanut butter." She discovered that the tahini she was enjoying was made from a particular vari- ety of white sesame seed grown in Ethiopia and processed in Israel. "Like coffee, the seeds can have a very different effect de- pending on the varietal," she said. These particular seeds could be ground into a very smooth paste with no bitter flavor. Once she had the answers she was looking for Zitelman used her business school education to form a company with her two sisters, Amy and Jackie. Jackie is now married to Omri, the date who intro- duced Zitelman to the product, and she's also now Soom Foods' Vice President of International Sourcing as well as a com- pany co-Founder. She's responsible for managing Soom's manufacturing relation- ships and coordinating exports from Is- rael. Amy, the youngest of the three sisters, is the company's Vice President of Business Devel- opment as well as a co- Founder. She is responsible for managing client and cus- tomer relationships and the sales cycle and process. Zitelman is the company's CEO, overseeing the company's finances and relationships with contractors and developing strategy for the business. Their two products are made and pack- aged in Israel from sesame sourced in Ethiopia. The tahini is then shipped from Is- rael to the U.S., where the company is head- quartered in North Philadelphia. Soom Foods Tahini is sold in 11-ounce jars that re- tail for $6.99. As well as its use as a primary ingredient in hummus, it's also used in mari- nades and in salad dressings. "It's also ap- pearing in baked goods as an alternative to nut butters," Zitelman said. "Anywhere you'd see almond butter or peanut butter, you could consider tahini instead." That's particularly true because sesame is both a drought-re- sistant crop that uses less water than al- monds, and one of the best non-animal sources of protein, cal- cium and iron, she added. "In this world of being very sensitive to nut allergies, it can be a wonderful substitute for nut butters for al- lergy purposes as well as for flavor purposes." Soom Foods Chocolate Tahini is sold in a 12-ounce jar that retails for $8.99. Dairy- free, nut-free and with no added oils, it also has half the sugar of competing nut butter- chocolate spreads, according to Zitelman. "That's a big selling point, especially for families with young kids and those who are concerned with sugar intake," she said. For more information, visit www .soomfoods.com. GN Soom Foods Offers a Smoother Tahini Traina Foods is launching a pair of new barbecue sauces, Sun Dried Plum and Sun Dried Apricot BBQ Sauces under its new Traina Home Grown brand. The sauces build on Traina's position as the largest purveyor of sun-dried fruit in the U.S., and they incorporate the sun- dried fruits into the sauces to crate a nuanced balance of sweet and savory flavors. The sauces are available in 16- ounce squeeze bottles that will retail for $3.99 to $4.99. Originally crated and served at The Fruit Yard, the Traina family restaurant in Modesto, California, these sauces also work as marinades and dips. Both flavors are complementary to a variety of meat, poul- try and seafood dishes, and since they're also great with vegetables, they'll make a creative additive addition to dishes that put plants at the center of the plate. They're also kosher, gluten free and vegan. They contain no corn syrup and are made in the U.S. at the Traina Ranch's en- vironmentally sustainable facilities in Cal- ifornia. The new barbecue sauce flavors will be on grocery store shelves in 2018. They'll be available to taste at the Summer Fancy Food Show. GN Traina Home Grown Launches New Barbecue Sauce Line

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