Sip, savor, succeed: Inside the Flavor of Georgia food contest

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Emily Davenport: 0:01

Welcome to Cultivating Curiosity, where we get down and dirty with the experts on all the ways science and agriculture touch our lives, from what we eat to how we live. I'm Emily Davenport.

Jordan Powers: 0:12

And I'm Jordan Powers. And we're from the University of Georgia's College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

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Jordan Powers: 0:20

We are here with Laurel Dunn, assistant professor and Extension coordinator for the CAES Department of Food Science and Technology. Laurel, thank you so much for coming in with us today.

Laurel Dunn: 0:30

Thanks for having me on.

Jordan Powers: 0:31

Before we get started on talking about Flavor of Georgia, one of our college's signature events, can you tell us a bit about your background and how you first got started in food science?

Laurel Dunn: 0:40

I actually got into food science kind of naturally. My mom was a family consumer science Extension agent and my dad was a high school chemistry teacher. So the two kind of got melded together, my mom with that food safety background and then my dad always explaining the science behind everything. So when I was exploring careers in college I went to the University of Tennessee, I was in the College of Agriculture, but really had trouble finding what I wanted to do. So I kind of stumbled upon Food Science, got my bachelor's degree in it, got a little exposure to the food industry, actually worked for Bush Brothers, Bush's baked beans, for a little bit, realized I really liked Food Science and went back to UT to get my master's degree and my PhD. Both of those were focused in food safety. My PhD started to focus a little bit more in produce safety and I continued that, did a brief postdoc at University of Florida, again in produce, and then got hired on here. So I've been with UGA since 2018, really focused in the area of fresh produce safety.

Jordan Powers: 1:32

That's incredible. I feel like a lot of times people immediately default to salmonella and E. coli and all of the things in meat and dairy. But I can say speaking as a mainly plant-based person at home, the produce safety is just as important and sometimes very easily forgotten. So it's really exciting to hear about.

Emily Davenport: 1:50

It's really cool that you had a family influence, too, to get you on that path. I like that. Well, we are excited to dig into more about Flavor of Georgia, which is a food product contest that's managed by the Department of Food Science and Technology, for established or market-ready foods and beverages made in the state. Can you tell us more about the contest and the significance of it being within the Department of Food Science and Technology?

Laurel Dunn: 2:13

If you're unfamiliar with food science, it's different from nutrition. It is really focused on how the food industry makes food and how we get it from the field to people's homes to the grocery store. It involves new technologies for processing food, innovative strategies for improving growing and production, producing safe food. So we have specialties within food science or disciplines that involve food safety, which is my area, but then things like food chemistry. So how can you increase shelf life of things? How can you make things taste good? How can you improve texture of things, because you know, if you get a carrot and can it, after that process, it's not the same as when you pull it out of the ground. So how can we process things and still make them taste good, that's really the focus of food science. And so in food science Extension, it really made sense to be involved with the Flavor of Georgia product competition, because so much of what we do is helping these people who have recipes that might be a family heirloom recipe that they have made forever in their kitchen, and they want to take it to the community, they want to take it to the world, they want everyone to taste their grandfather's barbecue sauce. And so it's kind of promoting that legacy for a lot of our people. So there's a lot of passion behind a lot of the recipes and a lot of the communities that we work with. So the product competition is really helping those small- to medium-sized, kind of beginning entrepreneurs. I say beginning. We have folks who have been in the food industry for generations. A lot of our farms that have been around forever still participate as they're developing new products. We really get a lot of excitement from a lot of our new entrepreneurs or farmers as they develop something and it gives them some exposure. So it gives them, I guess, some visibility, they're in this competition. And if they win it, then they get this marketing opportunity to kind of show, like, not only do we have this product on our shelf when you come into our family store or see it at the grocery store, but this was award winning, and the judges at UGA approved this product and thought it was quality. We've really tried to use it as an opportunity to promote beginning business and helping foster that creativity and entrepreneurship for our food industry throughout the state.

Jordan Powers: 4:06

Yeah, it's really amazing to watch the participants get so excited about kind of that seal of approval or stamp of approval on their products. It's a lot of fun.

Emily Davenport: 4:15

You mentioned the transition of Flavor of Georgia to the Department of Food Science and Technology and specifically UGA Extension. Can you tell us more about that?

Laurel Dunn: 4:23

So the event hasn't always been with food science. Our first year hosting it was in 2022. We actually started getting involved, though, summer of 2021 because it is a big event to put on. So the summer of 2021 is when we started getting involved with planning, getting all of the notes from the previous department that had hosted it and kind of getting their cheat sheets. Fortunately, they were very organized and provided a lot of support and assistance. And so I think the powers that be decided that a food product competition really belonged in the Department of Food Science, and particularly in the Extension unit of that just because our whole mission is supporting the food industry, helping with product development, helping with food safety. The really cool thing about it is, the Extension staff involved in it are also the ones who are answering the phone when someone calls us for a question not related to Flavor of Georgia. It's kind of cool because we're able to funnel people in when they call and have a question and have a product that we're able to try in the office and then say like, hey, we have this food competition, why don't you submit it?

Emily Davenport: 5:18

Flavor of Georgia is highly competitive and has lots of categories. I think a dozen categories if I'm not mistaken. And you mentioned multiple rounds of judging. So can anybody submit a product?

Laurel Dunn: 5:30

There are some basic rules for entry, the main thing being you need to be a food producer in the state of Georgia. We do have people who, you know might have part of the process happen out of state, and that's perfectly fine. But it needs to be you know, the origins need to be a Georgia food company. The other thing is, we have a food safety focus. So you need to have a business license, or a commercial food license, or a cottage food license in the state of Georgia in order to submit a product.

Jordan Powers: 5:54

And we know that there are a lot of other different rules and things involved in the process of submitting a product. So we will be sure to link that full list in the show notes for companies who may be interested in doing so. What does the process look like for contestants from the time that they submit that product early in the year to the final judging, which typically takes place in the spring?

Laurel Dunn: 6:14

It could be about a five month process from when someone starts. The way we've been doing it lately is opening up registration, usually towards the end of the year. That's the opportunity for people to interact with our office, get clarification on how is my product categorized? How do I submit a product? So registration goes on December through January. During that time, someone just gives us a product description. We like creative descriptions, but also description on just what it is. Creative names are great, but at the end of the day, we need to know what the product actually is. So after registration closes, we meet virtually with all the attendees and give them the next steps which usually involves submitting two of their products. They submit them to a partner, Gourmet Foods in Atlanta. They have about a three to four day period where their product arrives. And then we start with our judging week. So that's the week that we're collecting all the samples, they're being mailed to us, they're being dropped off to Gourmet Foods. Then towards the end of that week, we have a full day where we do a photoshoot of the products. And so that's probably our busiest day because we're just unwrapping products, getting a photographer there, making sure everything looks pretty, the way they want the marketing materials to look, and spending a lot of time working with that photographer to make sure everything looks good. We want to show off the products as best we can. This second day is when the judging actually happens. Gourmet Foods gives us a beautiful conference room linked up to one of their prep kitchens. And they'll loan us one of their chefs for the day. And they work with community chefs to come in and serve as our judges. And so we will set out all the products and the judges just go down the line and rate all of the products. There are a lot of characteristics that they're looking for. So it's not just do I like this one? Do I not like this one? But if it's a category, say for sauces, there will be, yes, that quality. But then how creative is the product? We're interested in what makes this product unique for Georgia. Are they using Georgia peaches to make this product? Or is there something that really drives home that this is a Georgia product. They go through each of the categories and give us our scores, and usually by the end of the day, we have an idea of who's going to be invited for the final competition. We notify the finalists and again meet with them and spend some time discussing what that final judging is going to look like. So that everyone's really prepared for the day of. And the day-of event is when the magic happens. We've recently, the past few years, done it in the Classic Center in Athens. It's really a full day event where our finalists for each category go through, they do almost like a Shark Tank sales pitch. They have some time to prepare their product, and then they have three to five minutes in front of our judges that we've selected from the community. And by the end of the day, we have our category winners and a finalist for the overall competition.

Jordan Powers: 8:46

It is definitely a jam packed day.

Emily Davenport: 8:49

Yeah.

Jordan Powers: 8:49

And I only come for part of that day. And it is jam packed. You mentioned that the judges are community members. How are the judges selected? And what kinds of backgrounds do they have?

Laurel Dunn: 8:58

Yeah, we actually have people fighting over those judge spots because people really like serving as judges for the competition. We have food entrepreneurs who've been successful at the local or national levels who get involved. We have individuals who are involved in small business development. That's a really critical piece, especially for a lot of our newer entrepreneurs. Because there's that question of how marketable is this product? We've had local chefs involved, local farms involved. We have a good cohort of community members who support our department and just support the college and we really try to pull those in that have that business or that food expertise to be our judges for the day of that final event.

Jordan Powers: 9:34

That's really exciting, turning it into an event not only that the college benefits from, not only that these food companies benefit from, but really a community-focused event at the end of the day is something really exciting to see coming together.

Emily Davenport: 9:46

All this talk about food's making me hungry.

Jordan Powers: 9:48

No kidding.

Emily Davenport: 9:49

Can you tell us more about some of the product categories? What are people entering?

Laurel Dunn: 9:54

I will say, our biggest category tends to be the confections category. So if you have a sweet tooth, Flavor of Georgia is where it's at.

Everyone: 10:01

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Laurel Dunn: 10:02

I think going forward, we might start doing some subcategories with that, too. So confections really really run the show. We have a category of sauces, of barbecue sauces, yum, yum sauces, we see all those get submitted. Meat categories, dairy categories. Actually two years ago, our overall winner was a chocolate milk, which you think, that sounds pretty basic. It was an amazing chocolate milk.

Jordan Powers: 10:26

It was so good.

Laurel Dunn: 10:26

Oh my gosh.

Jordan Powers: 10:27

It was so good.

Laurel Dunn: 10:30

These products don't have to be the most innovative. This was a local farm that was using local milk and made an amazing product. Salsas, pickles, that tends to be my favorite category to be involved with. So we get a lot of pickled jalapenos, pickled cucumbers. Salsas, we have a snacks category, um...

Jordan Powers: 10:48

And we can link to the full list in the show notes.

Emily Davenport: 10:50

Yes, we will link all of that.

Jordan Powers: 10:51

This is not a pop quiz.

Laurel Dunn: 10:53

Oh man, I need my notes.

Jordan Powers: 10:56

We're not going to do that to you Laurel, we promise we will absolutely link to the full list of categories, because there are quite a few.

Emily Davenport: 11:01

I don't even know all the categories. Miscellaneous. Anything that's not in one of those categories just goes in there, right?

Laurel Dunn: 11:06

Yup.

Jordan Powers: 11:07

That's like"other duties as assigned."

Laurel Dunn: 11:09

Yes, exactly. For foods. We talked a little bit about this, but dive a little bit more into some of the benefits of participating in the contest for Georgia food and beverage companies. One really cool thing I found driving down I-75 this past summer was our overall finalist had taken out a billboard, and one of the things they had advertised was your Flavor of Georgia winner so it's, the marketing is huge. If I wasn't driving, I was going to try to get a picture that billboard. Obviously the marketing opportunity. We also provide some opportunities, a free consultation with FoodPIC. So FoodPIC is our food product innovation and commercialization center. It is part of our Extension team and Food Science, but they're located on the Griffin campus. What that center is really involved with is that commercialization of products. So it gives these winners just direct access to use FoodPIC. And that involves commercialization assistance, there are pilot facilities, beautiful pilot facilities in that facility. And so if someone's been making this in their kitchen, and then now they have an opportunity to try to make it at the pilot scale and try to increase their production.

Jordan Powers: 12:09

When I feel like a bit of a broken record, but we will link, there are so many benefits, that we will definitely link some of them in the show notes. I know that the finalists receive a personalized press release. I know this because I make the template. They get a personalized press release that they can send out to their local media announcing them as a finalist in the competition ahead of that final judging round. Like you mentioned, the FoodPIC component, which is really exciting. And we did an episode with Kevin Mis Solval and he touches on the commercialization of foods, so we can absolutely link to that as well.

Laurel Dunn: 12:39

And the Department of Agriculture is a really big sponsor for this program. And so winners get a free year of the Georgia Grown membership as well.

Emily Davenport: 12:47

And they also get to use the logo on their product.

Laurel Dunn: 12:49

I think that's the one that people get most excited about.

Emily Davenport: 12:51

Yeah.

Laurel Dunn: 12:52

The participants.

Jordan Powers: 12:53

Absolutely.

Emily Davenport: 12:53

I get excited when I'm in the grocery store and I'm like, hey! That's the Flavor of Georgia!

Jordan Powers: 12:58

That's us!

Emily Davenport: 12:58

This is so fun. Can you tell us your favorite part of the contest? That's probably trying all those confections.

Laurel Dunn: 13:05

I was gonna say, my real answer or, like, my selfish answer?

Emily Davenport: 13:08

No, the real one.

Jordan Powers: 13:10

Like, but, your real selfish one. The real selfish one, yes.

Laurel Dunn: 13:13

So that initial round of judging is almost like Christmas, because we have all these boxes that have arrived. And we have about two hours to get set up before the photographer gets there. And so it's a lot of fun. Everyone just grabs their stack of boxes and is trying to get organized and unpacking. And probably I guess the next best part is that first day of judging, because that's when tops are popped. And we are sampling things after the chefs go through and figuring out our favorites at that time. So I enjoy it too, because I see a lot of food products in the grocery store that are local food products. But then when they get submitted, it's like oh, I've seen that and I've always wanted to try it. So it's kind of your day to stick a finger in a jar and try something before the day of.

Jordan Powers: 13:51

With clean hands.

Everyone: 13:52

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Laurel Dunn: 13:52

With clean hands.

Emily Davenport: 13:52

Uh-huh.

Laurel Dunn: 13:54

That was a joke, we use test spoons. Unless we fight over something and pick our favorite jar. Definitely that initial round of just the excitement of seeing what's been submitted and getting to try things out after the chefs have gone through and try to see to if we agree with the chef's when they make their decisions.

Jordan Powers: 14:09

There you go. Well, in that initial round of judging is a lot of products. I mean, at the end of the day, we're looking at a dozen category winners, one overall winner, but that initial round of judging is anywhere from 100-plus products?

Laurel Dunn: 14:22

I think last year we had about 150 products.

Emily Davenport: 14:25

That's a lot. Bring your appetite.

Jordan Powers: 14:27

Exactly. Well, and we know that the contest goes beyond the companies that are participating. Selfishly one of my favorite parts of the competition is getting to come to that final round of judging where it opens up into being a community event that's open to the public. What can attendees expect to experience at that final event?

Laurel Dunn: 14:45

So the final event is a blast. The open to the public event usually happens later in the evening. All of the attendees have spent their day setting up, preparing their products, talking to judges, talking to other contestants, because it's a great opportunity as well to network with other contestants who might have products that you can use as ingredients. Or you can do collaborations. And we have had some very successful contestants actually come in subsequent years collaborating with other people that they interacted with. That time isn't open to the public, but you know, everyone's been working so hard presenting their products, going through, I guess the stress of the sales pitch, when they actually get judged, then in the evening, that's kind of the downtime to interact with the community. We love seeing people come in from the college, people come in from the community, and just go around and try products. So it's the opportunity to try every one of the finalist products. And this is a lot of fun, we have a People's Choice Award where during the time the event's open, you go around, you try every product, and then you vote for what your favorite thing on the floor was. And so at the end of the day, someone goes home with whatever the award is that year, just on what the community's favorite product was. There's also that component of it. So it's a really fun event. You get a chance to not only try these products, but then meet the faces behind creating them. And these contestants love sharing their stories and love sharing why they're here, who was with them, who isn't with them, but who inspired their product. You might have seen a product at Publix or the grocery store and not had the opportunity to get the story behind it. And so this is really an opportunity to do that.

Jordan Powers: 16:14

It really is such a blast. I know I never plan dinner that night, because there is just, there's so much food.

Emily Davenport: 16:21

Yes, so much food.

Jordan Powers: 16:22

And it's all so delicious.

Emily Davenport: 16:24

It is

Jordan Powers: 16:24

I mean, obviously, it's been judged twice at that point. So you know you're getting quality products. And we will absolutely include some links in the show notes about how the public can get involved in the event or in that final event that rounds out the Flavor of Georgia competition.

Emily Davenport: 16:36

Well, thank you very much, Laurel, for joining us today. We had a great time learning about Flavor of Georgia. It was a delicious episode.

Jordan Powers: 16:44

Look at you go, being so punny.

Laurel Dunn: 16:46

Thanks for the invite.

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Emily Davenport: 16:48

Thanks for listening to Cultivating Curiosity, a podcast produced by the UGA College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. A special thanks to Mason McClintock for our music and sound effects. Find more episodes wherever you get your podcasts.