Friday Food Insider Notebook: Food insecurity, product recalls — and maple syrup

Photo / Courtesy, Marshall Communications This year, the Maple Festival will feature an array of events and experiences across more than 25 sugarhouses statewide.

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By Alexis Wells

If you want your maple fix this fall, prepare. The Maine Maple Producers Association will host the fifth annual Maine Maple Fest on Oct. 12-13.

This year, the festival will feature events and experiences across more than 25 sugarhouses statewide.

Some will offer tours and presentations on how maple syrup is made. There will be a wide variety of maple syrup-enhanced goodies for sale, including fresh maple donuts, maple syrup, maple candies and maple kettle popcorn.

"Fall is made a bit sweeter with our maple syrup," said Alan Greene, vice president of the trade association. "Maine Maple Fall Fest attracts friends and visitors from around the world to see our fall foliage and enjoy one of Maine’s premier products. Although we are not making syrup in the fall, we still have a lot for everyone to enjoy."

While producers don't tap trees or boil sap in autumn, the state’s producers make more than 575,000 gallons of syrup annually. Maine's family-run farm stores offer a wide selection of maple goods for sale year-round.

To find out if your favorite sugarhouse is participating, check the Maine Maple Producers Association's interactive map.

Addressing food insecurity

The Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association, Ore Nell’s restaurant and Golden Harvest Produce Market have joined an innovative effort to reduce waste in the food service industry, repurpose quality ingredients and prepare meals to feed the community.

Gather, a nonprofit anti-hunger organization, has created Seacoast Waste Not to address food insecurity and provide free food to Maine and New Hampshire seacoast residents.

Photo / Korty Church

Tania Marino, Gather culinary director, with Mary Hudson, Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.

“Over 30,000 pounds of food has been diverted into Gather kitchens, which has helped produce 27,000 meals,” said Tania Marino, Gather’s culinary director.

“We are incredibly grateful to our coalition members for sharing our commitment to enacting environmental and social change.”

According to a news release, Seacoast Waste Not addresses hunger and diverts excess food that would otherwise end up in landfills, a significant contributor to methane gas emissions.

Chefs and food industry leaders can donate their surplus ingredients to Gather. The organization has created a system of picking food from participating caterers, restaurants, cafeterias and food suppliers to prepare healthy meals for those in need at Gather’s food pantry in Portsmouth, N.H.

“Our association helps lessen the impact of extreme price fluctuations and volatility in the fresh fish market for our members by purchasing fish when the market drops too low,” said Mary Hudson of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Association.

“That means there’s often a surplus of fish that’s bought fresh from the boats, then cut and frozen.

“By donating this fish to Seacoast Waste Not, we are able to increase our reach to communities that need a nutritional source of protein that’s one of the healthiest out there,” she continued. “So this enables us to support the fishing community while also addressing hunger.”

Hannaford recall

On Tuesday, Hannaford Supermarkets announced that it will temporarily remove certain fresh salads and pasta meals in the company's stores, following notification of the products' potential for listeria contamination.

The affected items were available for sale from Sept. 23 through Oct. 1. They include the Fiesta Salad with Chicken, Cobb Salad with Chicken and Bacon, Caesar Salad with Chicken, Caesar Salad with Chicken and Bacon, BLT Salad with Chicken, Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken and Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken Family Meal.

There have been no reports of illness or injury. All of the affected products have been removed from stores, according to Hannaford.

"Out of an abundance of caution and in the best interest of our customers, we voluntarily removed these products from sale at all stores, including those in Maine, and alerted customers when we became aware of the concern,” Hannaford spokesperson Caitlin Cortelyou told Mainebiz.

Hannaford encourages customers to check their freezer and storage areas for the products and not to eat them. The items may be returned to Hannaford for full refunds.

The Friday Food Insider is working on some fun stories for the coming months. What restaurants have you waited in line for that we should explore? The Mainebiz Food Insider wants to hear from you! Contact Alexis Wells at awells@mainebiz.biz.