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A Heritage of Quality and Innovation

Situation

Wendell Turner, President & CEO of Diversified Services Corporation and subsidiary Heritage Fare, Ltd., has learned to roll with the punches over the last 25 years. After establishing his food distributorship in Cleveland in 1981, he struggled to compete with the buying power of Sysco and other larger companies. Later, when he started making and marketing his own line of ethnic sauces and seasonings, well-entrenched grocery giants made it difficult for Turner's loyal, local supermarket customers to compete. Turner thought retirement might be his only option - until he found a unique answer to a trend in the marketplace.

Solution

As a graduate of the NASA Glenn Garrett Morgan Commercialization Initiative (GMCI), Turner was introduced to Fantesk, a patented food technology developed by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Fantesk uses starch and oil to improve the taste and texture--and reduce the fat content--of certain foods. The USDA looks at the U.S. consumern's demand for flavorful health foods as one of Fantesk's biggest opportunities for growth.

Through the GMCI program and the USDA's Agricultural Research Service, Turner obtained an exclusive license in 2002 to develop and market beef and pork products as well as soups and gravy bases made with Fantesk technology. Turner's relationship with the GMCI program also connected him with EISC’s Center for Innovative Food Technology (CIFT), giving him access to a statewide network of food scientists who could determine ideal ingredient formulations and test consumer acceptance for Turner's Fantesk-based product, NutriGras FE.

"NutriGras, when properly formulated, can successfully replace fat in cheese, lunch meats and beef patties, at the same time enhancing flavor and nutritional properties," says Turner. "One of our first projects with beef patties showed that the NutriGras product was leaner and tasted better than other low fat burgers," says Dave Beck, CIFT's Executive Vice President.

With product testing complete and consumer acceptance favorable, Turner's next step was to coordinate large-scale production of NutriGras. CIFT came to the table again when its member network helped introduce Turner to JES Foods, a co-packer in Celina, Ohio. With an infusion of venture capital received in 2005, Turner bought and installed equipment at JES Foods, where workers can produce as much as 20,000 pounds of NutriGras during one eight-hour shift.

Results

Wendell views CIFT as an extremely valuable resource. "We have been able to move much more quickly through the commercialization process," says Turner. "It would have been almost impossible to do it without CIFT's staff expertise and network of member organizations."

"All of us involved in the agriculture and food industries must continually upgrade technologically, to maintain and expand our market position," says Mike Werling, Operations Manager at Cooper Farms, a wholesale food supplier based in St. Henry, Ohio and a long-time member of the CIFT network. "CIFT is kind of like a big fraternity in which everyone wins," he adds. "It is truly amazing to see that so many non-competing talents can benefit from this one organization."

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