BROOKLYN, NY – The Guinness Book of World Records will have a new name to scribe into its scroll of achievements, this time adding Wayne Algenio for most Carolina Reaper chili peppers consumed in under 60 seconds.
"I went in with the mentality that I was going to go all out, but I did not know I was going to win," Algenio told ABC News in an interview following the contest. "It felt amazing, [but] it was in my head, 'I'm never doing this again.'"
Heat-heavy fans will recognize the Reaper as the hottest pepper in the world. Measuring in at over 1.5 million on the Scoville heat unit scale, Algenio had to consume 22 of the peppers in order to overtake the head title, as seen in the video above.
In an added fire-feeling obstacle, contestants could consume no liquid while eating the peppers themselves, and for a minute following the last piece was eaten.
"You eat as many as you can in a minute and then after that minute is over, you have to stand there for another minute without vomiting or drinking any liquids," Algenio stated. "After I stopped, I could feel the burn in my throat. It's an excruciating pain."
The peppers were weighed to ensure contestants were eating the same amount of Reaper peppers in grams. Following the blazing consumption, contestants doused their gullets with fat-free milk.
Algenio is a veteran to the competitive-eating world, but won this latest Guinness title at the Puckerbutt Pepper Company’s Smokin Ed’s Reaper Eating Challenge at the NYC Hot Sauce Expo. This was Algenio’s second time competing for the Reaper reward.
"I think I'm done," Algenio finished with a laugh. "Unless anyone breaks it, then I'll consider doing it again."
Douse yourself in the spicy seasonings of the latest industry news, by continuing to read AndNowUKnow.
SALINAS, CA – As part of its ongoing company initiative of “Moms Helping Moms,” Mann Packing released the latest edition of its Girlfriends Guide for Moms. Mann’s said that this year’s edition focuses on the most important meal of the day – breakfast.
“We know mornings can be busy and chaotic, but we also know the importance of a healthy breakfast in powering through the day,” said Gina Nucci, Director of Corporate Marketing for Mann’s. “The breakfast recipes in our new Girlfriends Guide are a great way to get a jump start on your daily dose of veggies, too.”
The company said that The Girlfriends Guide for Moms – Breakfast Edition will showcase recipes ranging from sweet smoothies to savory hash browns that incorporate Mann’s staple products, such as Power Blend, Cauliettes®, Butternut Squash Cubes, and Sweet Potato Ribbons.
Mann’s healthy eating promotion cited a report from the Mayo Clinic showing that fiber and protein are among the most important factors in a healthy breakfast. Recipes featured in The Girlfriends Guide for Moms promote breakfasts with whole grains or lean protein, along with vegetables and fruit.
Mann’s said the newest edition of The Girlfriends Guide for Moms is available for free on its website, Facebook page, and links posted on its Twitter feed.
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KINGSBURG, CA - April is in full swing, cherries are finishing their turn of color, and pickers throughout the state are finalizing their crops. With harvest upon us, and King Fresh Produce starting to pack up as we speak, President Keith Wilson took the time to tell me more about the company’s crop and its rising expectations for a flavorful season.
“Our fieldmen are looking at cherry orchards daily,” Keith tells me as we discuss the season. “Things are looking good despite the recent rains we received. Our growers are monitoring their fields and are optimistic about the season."
What else has been added to accommodate this year’s supply? Improved deliveries to the company's photo-optic sorting equipment, which allows King Fresh to quickly process and pack this year's crop. The company pulls its cherries from a large radius surrounding its location in Kingsburg, CA.
“We installed our new electronic sorters in 2015,” adds Keith. “The photo-optic sorters really do an outstanding job in grading color, size, and defects in a rapid amount of time, and our experienced packing house managers are extremely happy with the production improvements made to the cherry line in the off season.”
All these factors put King Fresh in position to yield bigger volumes per acre as one of the southern-most commercial cherry packers and shippers in California's San Joaquin Valley. Aided by a cold winter, this year's weather made for the expected crop, Keith discloses, even with the sporadic rains throughout varying regions.
Keith expects peak volume to be reached between May 5 and May 20. King Fresh's cherries will be packaged for sale in 11-pound loose cartons for export markets, with super clear pouch bags and clamshells of all sizes for the domestic markets in the Farmington Fresh, Hy-Flyer, King Fresh, and Sesame Street Eat Brighter brands. Domestic brands will be sold in the United States, Mexico, and Canada.
King Fresh is expecting high demand for the holiday-rich month of May, and notes that retailers will be able to market Brooks, Corals, Tulares, Rainiers, Tioga, Sonnets, and improved Lapin cherry varieties during the busy season.
So, after concentrating on both the domestic and export business for its cherry programs, where will the company head next? Full force into grape season.
“Grapes will start in Mexico around May 15, followed by California around July 1,” Keith says. “The growing season looks very good due to the excellent chill hours, rain, and dormancy in the winter months. The early crop looks fantastic this year.”
As California cherry season continues to gain momentum, keep checking back with AndNowUKnow for current cherry market updates and the prospective grape market.
JACKSONVILLE, FL – Harvest Sensations was recently named the New Product Innovation Award winner at the annual PRO*ACT Sales and Procurement (S&P) Conference in Jacksonville, Florida. The company was awarded the accolade in recognition of the unique yellow school bus packaging design for its School Lunch Snack Pack products.
“We are honored to receive the New Product Innovation Award for our popular school bus snack program design,” said Doug Ranno, President of Harvest Sensations, in a statement. “We think that the diversity of products we can offer in the unique and easily recognizable school bus box design will give our customers a unique point of difference when servicing school lunch programs all across the USA.”
Every year, the S&P Conference features new and exciting products in the show’s New Product Showcase. Foodservice distributors from across North America select the winner of the New Product Innovation Award.
Harvest Sensations, based in Los Angeles, distributes snow and snap peas, asparagus, beans, herbs, specialties, a line of organic produce, and various value-added warehouse and logistics services.
Climb aboard the AndNowUKnow produce news bus for an express trip to the latest on award-winning products and designs.
CINCINNATI, OH - On the heels of multi-hundred million dollar investments in both Tennessee and Michigan, Kroger is making another big move into Florida. Not through its traditional grocery stores, however, but under its newly minted partnership with Boulder, CO-based natural foods retailer, Lucky’s Market.
Under its partnership with Kroger, Lucky’s is planning to open seven new stores in Florida this year, bringing its total to ten Florida locations, according to a report by the Cincinnati Business Courier.
Currently, Kroger itself has just one Florida location—a store near Jacksonville that was acquired through its purchase of Harris Teeter two years ago. The current market dominator in Florida is Publix, but analysts see this move by Lucky’s as a way to take on some of that market share.
Jim Hertel, Senior Vice President of Long Grove, IL-based food retail consultant, Willard Bishop, told the Cincinnati Business Courier, “With Lucky’s, they’re exploring more niche audiences. Going from three stores to ten, they must have some confidence in how well Lucky’s can do there. It’s more than just testing the brand.”
Lucky’s, which only currently has 17 stores in 13 Midwestern and Southeastern states, plans its Florida stores for markets like Orlando, Melbourne, Neptune Beach, and Plantation, among other markets. The company currently operates stores in Naples, Gainesville, and Coral Springs, FL.
AndNowUKnow will continue to cover the increasing competition in the Florida retail market, so stay tuned for more.
SHEERNESS, ENGLAND – The crime world has infiltrated the produce industry once again, this time, through a shipment of bananas. A large, illicit deposit of cocaine was found by authorities at the Port of Sheerness in England, weighing over 38 kilos, or about 83 pounds.
The banana shipment was seized on Thursday, after arriving on a ship from Panama over the weekend. Authorities value the hidden cocaine harvest at more than £1.5 million, which equates to roughly $2,187,450 USD.
UK law enforcement said in a statement that tests are currently being performed to establish the purity of the cocaine haul, which will provide a more accurate number as to the drugs’ value.
According to Kent Online, authorities said that they are pleased that the shipment was intercepted before it could move forward and into the public. "This detection demonstrates the crucial role Border Force plays in keeping dangerous drugs off the streets of the UK,” said Border Force Assistant Director Mark Kennedy in a statement.
The Sheerness port is no stranger to the seedy side sometimes seen in the agriculture and shipping containers which pass through its territory. Earlier this month, Kent Online reported that authorities found over 260 pounds of liquid cocaine in five refrigerated fruit containers at the docks.
"We are determined to do all we can to stop drug smugglers and work with law enforcement partners to bring those responsible to justice," finished Kennedy.
As we’ve previously reported, Class A drugs hitching a ride to shipments of produce seems to be a growing international trend as traffickers explore ways to push their product. A trend which authorities appear to be matching in a careful eye on fruit and vegetable shipments.
Check back with AndNowUKnow as we keep an eye on the battle of fruits and contraband within the industry.
DAVIS, CA – Competitive intelligence company Engage3 and price strategy consulting firm Price Revolution, LLC, recently announced the commencement of a new reseller partnership. Together, the two companies hope to leverage improved data capturing and sales planning resources to provide retailers with improved price image, profitability, and ROI of their pricing programs.
“Competitive intelligence should be a part of every retailers’ pricing strategy,” remarked Mark Kelso, Managing Partner at Price Revolution, in a press release. “Retailers who use competitive shopping in their strategic arsenal know that accuracy and timeliness are critical to delivering prices that resonate with their target customers. Engage3 transforms scheduling and executing competitive shopping intelligence from difficult to seamless, delivering accurate and timely information to retailers.”
The partnership will allow Price Revolution to resell, deploy, implement, and support Engage3’s competitive intelligence platforms, including MissionControl. The companies said that MissonControl corrects issues of inconsistency and inaccuracy in the data collection process, improves data collection turnaround time by 40 percent, and improves overall visibility by a factor of ten. Together, Engage3 and Price Revolution aim to provide holistic solutions for retail pricing strategy.
“Price Revolution has a strong track record of leading successful price optimization implementations and of designing and executing retailers’ pricing strategies,” commented Edris Bemanian, COO at Engage3. “Combining their price management expertise and Engage3’s cutting-edge competitive intelligence technology will enable retailers of all sizes to not only gain visibility into their competitors’ pricing and assortment strategies, but to execute actionable insights provided jointly through the partnership.”
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BOULDER, CO - Tractica released a report earlier this year on new developments in robotized farming, including some new hardware that promises to improve yields and cut back on production costs. Soon, driverless tractors and drones could sow and grow food for the global population.
The newest entrants in automated ag, driverless tractors, are already making new strides. According to a report from Enterprise Tech, driverless tractors are programmed to navigate fields and automate a range of farming processes. Furthermore, driverless tractors with limited autonomous capabilities could become increasingly prevalent in lower-end tractors, creating a spectrum of autonomy (and affordability) available to small and large growers alike. Tractica predicted driverless tractors will be affordable in about ten years.
“Driverless tractors are in the early stages of commercialization,” said Clint Wheelock, Tractica Managing Director and Co-Author of the report, in an interview with Enterprise Tech. “Up to this point [they] have been in the prototype stage. With that said, we expect that the next few years will be a time of significant growth for this category, with approximately 500 unit shipments in 2016 – marking the beginning of true commercialization – about 1,600 units in 2017, and more than 4,100 in 2018.”
We reported earlier this month on the rise of drones in agriculture. The simplicity of use, integration with data analytics, and capacity for precision plant care has made drones an increasingly popular choice among growers, according to Tractica.
“UAVs enable farmers to use chemicals and water on the crop more judiciously,” Tractica reported. “Apart from regular growers, aerial surveys are in demand by seed and fertilizer manufacturers to boost their sales by doing a free aerial analysis of customers’ farms. Despite regulatory restrictions on the use of agricultural drones in some regions, the sector is attracting more money and becoming more crowded every day.”
Even more surprising than the surge in robotized farming is the corresponding market value. Tractica projects the ag robot industry to be worth $73.9B in revenue by 2024.
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SAN ANTONIO, TX – Retailers and foodservice providers alike have a lot to look forward to in the recently expanded list of new products from Ippolito International.
Dan Canales, Senior Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Processing at Ippolito, took a few steps away from the company booth at Viva Fresh to give us the exclusive.
First up? The new Brussels sprouts pouch packs in the following sizes and arrangements, specifically for retailers:
- 12oz shaved
- 1 lb gourmet
- 1 lb whole Brussels sprouts
“In addition to our retail line,” reveals Dan, “we’re also going to be launching our shaved, our gourmet, and whole Brussels sprouts in foodservice packs.”
The company’s plans don’t stop there, however. Hear what else Dan had to say about the company’s growth and value-added arrangements in the above video…
SAN ANTONIO, TX – This year’s Viva Fresh saw the unveiling of many new products and programs, and Triple H Produce was no stranger to this innovation. The company used the venue as a launching pad for its newly announced Safe Agriculture for Food Excellence (SAFE) program.
The company’s Vice President of Operations, Heriberto Vlaminck, presented on the program, which Triple H cultivated over the past 15 months. Developed in partnership with Tecsia®, a food safety and social responsibility firm, the SAFE program consists of the following three stages:
- Diagnostics: Food Safety Work Program
- Execution: Food Safety Assurance System
- Oversight: Full Compliance with FDS/FSMA Regulations
Vlaminck said in the presentation that this initiative embodies Triple H’s commitment to the well-being of the consumer, and spurs the industry towards using more preventative measures to detect risks. Currently, said Vlaminck, the industry relies on a traditional reactive model.
Of the company’s associated growers, 20 production and packaging facilities are currently enrolled in the program, as well as three of Triple H’s U.S. border checkpoints.
Emphasizing trust, visibility, control, and collaboration as key points of the program, Triple H said that all of its facilities and products will meet or exceed FDA/FSMA regulations by November of this year.
An expanded rundown of the SAFE program can be found here, and continue to depend on AndNowUKnow for the latest in safety assurance and forward industry-thinking.