The 2018 Non-GMO Sourcebook

NON-GMO MARKET NEWS

business that I won’t buy un- less it’s non-GMO.” Calderon’s Taco Mesa is part of a larger trend of Mexi- can restaurant chains using non-GMO corn. Sharky’s Woodfired Mexican Grill with 23 locations in Southern Cali- fornia uses only non-GMO corn in its tortillas and chips. Nationally, Chipotle Mexican Grill transitioned to non- GMO ingredients including corn and masa for tortillas and chips in 2015. Also, Masienda is importing heirloom non- GMO corn from Mexico, which more than a hundred restaurants in the U.S. are using to make tortillas and other corn-based products. ( This article originally appeared in the June 2017 issue of The Organic & Non-GMO Re- port)

Chef aims tobe catalyst for change to non-GMOcorn in tortilla industry Ivan Calderon’s Southern California-based Tor- tillería Orgánica & Café offers healthy Mexican cuisine and plans to supply non-GMO tortillas B Y K E N R O S E B O R O T o celebrate his business’s 25th anniver- sary Ivan Calderon wants to help change the tortilla industry to non-GMO pro- duction. Calderon, founder and chef of Taco Mesa and Taco Rosa restaurants in Orange County, California, opened a new restaurant, Tortillería Orgánica & Café, that features a small tortilla factory for making non-GMO tortillas. With the ca- pacity to produce 2400 tortillas per hour, the factory provides artisan non-GMO corn masa and tortillas to all his six loca- tions. Calderon also intends to sell his non- GMO corn products wholesale to local retailers and restaurants.

Ivan Calderon, owner of Tortillería Orgánica

& Café in Orange County, California

starting to open their eyes. I tell my friends in the tortilla

“This evolution is about something much bigger than our brand,” says Calderon. “We want to create a catalyst for change in our industry, both locally and worldwide. We in- tend to do so by selling our GMO-free corn masa and tor- tillas to other restaurants and by furthering the evolution of our brand by creating a replica- ble model that will take GMO- free corn and true Mexican cuisine overseas.” In February 2017, Calderon switched to non- GMO corn at all six of his restaurant locations because of his concerns about geneti- cally engineered corn and his passion for healthy and au- thentic food. “I wanted to control my corn

because our food is 30 percent corn-based,” he says. “I wanted to have good healthy corn. GMO corn is deficient; it doesn’t have much value and is exposed to Roundup. I wanted to stay away from something that may cause harm.” Calderon initially sourced non-GMO corn from La Forteleza, a wholesale provider of Mexican food products in Los Angeles. Calderon then connected with Rovey Specialty Grain, a Nebraska-based supplier of non-GMO white and blue corn, where he now buys his corn. Calderon thinks the tortilla industry is becoming more aware of the importance of non-GMO. “I think they are

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