Culinology - June 2017 - 22

IF YOU'RE
LOOKING
FOR QUALITY
INGREDIENTS,
WE'VE GOT
EVERYTHING
UNDER THE SUN.

LABELING trends

apart from the competition. The
branded meal kits featuring clean
ingredient sauces sell to over 600
stores. "It's a non-sexy frozen fish
company that works with only the
best aquaculture companies that are
super transparent with their sources,"
Ms. Moskow of the Sterling-Rice
Group said.

Ethical claims trending

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Organic Spice Line
Non-GMO Project Verified
Gluten Controlled Options
In-house Steam Sterilization
Full Line of Conventional
Spices and Herbs
Tea Cut Spice Line
Roasted & Toasted
Spice Line
Cryogenic Milling
Coordination of Global
Process Controls

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For more information contact
Kerri Goad-Berrios,
Vice President, Sales
kerri@kalustyan.com

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Ms. Moskow identifies a move
away from talking about what a product is "free-from," toward how it's ethically sourced and holistically raised.
She said millennials are attracted to
companies communicating transparency, "but also to those doing social
good." Tony's Chocolonely, Portland,
Ore., for example, has an overarching mission to eradicate slavery in the
chocolate trade. "So they talk about
how ethically sourced their product
is," Ms. Moskow said.
One of the newest food product
certifications and icons appearing on
labels is promoted by the Equitable
Food Initiative (EFI), a non-profit, skill
building organization for the produce
industry. "EFI looks at the way farm
workers are treated and, in turn,
how that impacts food safety and
pesticide use, and rewards farming operations that do well in those
three areas," said Maisie Ganzler,
chief strategy and brand officer, Bon
Appetit Management Company, Palo
Alto, Calif., an on-site restaurant company operating 650-plus venues.
Supplementary marketing materials - including EFI stickers on clamshells of strawberries, for example
- are currently being introduced
to supermarkets including Whole
Foods. Ms. Ganzler expects to see a
growing number of foodservice locations and retailers grouping similar
certifications under proprietary icons
like these.

Antibiotic- and hormone-free
At Mintel, Ms. Johnson sees a
substantial number of claims around
"humanely-raised," "farm-raised" and

"free-range." "Consumers value ethical, humane claims," she said.
In April fast food chicken chain
KFC, a business unit of Yum! Brands,
Inc., joined a number of restaurant
brands by taking a stance on antibiotics used in meat, stating that by
2018 it will be serving chicken raised
without "medically important antibiotics." An increasing number of chefs,
manufacturers, grocers and foodservice brands are climbing on the
"no-antibiotic," "hormone-free" claims
bandwagon, because consumers
are concerned about antibiotic resistance. But, verbiage matters, as
claims - which are not government
regulated, though a US Department
of Agriculture Process Verified seal
can signal that inspectors have visited
the farm to confirm antibiotics were
not used - range widely in terminology and in practice, from "no antibiotics ever," to "no growth-promoting
antibiotics."

Organizations like Equitable
Food Initiative look at how
farm workers are treated.

Communicating call-outs
In an ingredient-driven industry, it's
clear that today's consumers are also
all about quality. For restaurants, the
deep-dive to clarify a position or describe an initiative is often available on
the company's website or on in-store
marketing formats rather than on the

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Culinology - June 2017