The National Mango Board (NMB) and Sodexho, the leading provider of integrated food and facilities management services in the US, Canada and Mexico, have announced plans to work together on a spring-summer mango promotion campaign in 2009.
According to a NMB news release, Sodexho will create fresh mango menu items to be served in more than 1,200 Sodexho-managed locations in the US, following on from successful efforts to better position mangos within the foodservice industry during 2008.
“It’s important for us to place mango versatility front and center in the foodservice industry and provide its members with innovative ways to incorporate mangos into their menus,” Wendy McManus, director of marketing for the NMB, said in a statement.
“The foodservice industry has a tremendous impact in shaping what consumers eat out which influences what they cook at home. That’s why it’s so important for us to invest in effective programs in this industry,” she added.
Last year, the NMB made strong efforts to impact the foodservice arena and provide restaurants with the tools they needed to create excellent mango dishes.
Activities included a day with “The Mango Man” which saw the NMB and chef Allen Susser host four top-level chefs from Sodexho and the Cheesecake Factory for a daylong workshop, providing the chefs hands-on experience with mangos.
The NMB has also recently updated its website www.mango.org to include a more extensive foodservice section, which now details information on selection, ripening and storage of mangos in order to educate foodservice professionals on the fruit’s three levels of ripeness and how those flavors impact certain dishes.
The US expects to have imported around 5m cartons of Ecuadorean mangos when the South American country's season closes in January, down from the original estimate of 6.8m cartons, according to NMB figures.
The industry is also gearing up to import 5.3m cartons of mangos during the Peruvian season which is set to kick-off in the second week of December.
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