Celebrating School Meals Challenge Winners
Healthful recipes for school cafeteria fare will be in the spotlight in a presentation from 10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Wednesday, June 27, at the Special Events Pavilion, booth 776, on the Food Expo floor.
At that time, awards will be presented to the winners of the “Making Healthy School Meals Easy Challenge” conducted in partnership with the IFT Foodservice Division, the American Culinary Federation, and the Research Chefs Association.
The competition challenged participants to convert a recipe from the 2011 U.S. Dept. of Agriculture’s “Recipes for Healthy Kids” contest into a manufactured product that maintains the nutritional content, flavor, and taste of the original version and is cost-effective for school systems. The recipes that the teams were asked to adapt included Smokin’ Powerhouse Chili, Roasted Fish Crispy Slaw Wrap, Central Valley Harvest Bake, and Porcupine Sliders.
Entries from the finalist teams—each one comprised of a chef, food technologist, manufacturer, and school foodservice worker—were judged by an expert panel. This unique competition was designed to strengthen the alliance between food technologists, manufacturers, chefs, and school foodservice workers.
So plan to stop by the Special Events Pavilion to congratulate members of the winning teams and be inspired by their examples of recipe development creativity.
