E-Delivery

ALBERTA CULINARY TOURISM ALLIANCE PARTNERSHIP NUTRITION NOTES APG partnered with the Alberta Culinary Tourism Alliance (ACTA) in 2016 to develop opportuni es to share our pulse story with Alberta chefs and have the chefs incorporate and/or highlight pulses at a variety of foodie events throughout the year. One of the highlights of this partnership was a day-long event with chefs from Calgary and Edmonton that included a crop walk, a tour of the Food Processing Development Centre (FPDC) in Leduc and discussions with FPDC food scien sts about scale- up opportuni es for a pulse-based food product they created for the event. The chefs enjoyed the day and commented that it increased their pulse knowledge and awareness of the versa lity of pulses in food products/processing. From there, it seemed the next logical extension of the 2016 program was to develop a pulse-based product, package it and sell it to consumers. Our partnership with ACTA this year has focused on developing this program and then pu ng it into ac on. How did we decide on the product? Seven chefs from Edmonton and Calgary threw their chef hats in the ring and competed for the chance to have their specific pulse-based recipe scaled-up, packaged, marketed and sold to consumers at the Italian Centre Shops in Edmonton and Calgary. On May 17, a panel of judges tasted and evaluated seven food products ranging from an energy bar to a popular Asian condiment (see table). The judging panel included me and Execu ve Director Leanne Fischbuch from APG; Teresa Spinelli from Italian Centre Shops; ACTA Board Co-Chair Mary Bailey; Wanda Aubee and Jay Han from FPDC; chef instructors from SAIT; and two ACTA staff to represent consumers. It was a blind judging done in the FPDC taste tes ng room to maintain impar ality, and the judges' scores were entered on a computer in each cubicle (see photo of cubicle). The scores were then tabulated to determine the winning dish. While all the products were amazing, the dish with the highest scores was the Moroccan Spiced Red Len l Soup from Chef Jamie Harling! Chef Jamie is working with Food Scien st Troy Sturzenegger to finalize the scaled-up version of his recipe. They have already decided on a "hot fill" process into a 750 mL jar for a shelf stable product. The scale-up run is taking place in August to iron out any formula on adjustments before the final produc on run in September. Top: Judging Evalua on Booth. Inset: Chef Jamie Harling. By Debra McLennan, RD, APG Food and Nutri on Coordinator Jamie Harling's Moroccan Spiced Red Len l Soup. 3 6

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