Truffle companies continue focus on growth toward greener, more sustainable leadership in the truffle industry.
One of @Sabatino Tartufi’s truffle hunters showcases a recently discovered batch of nicely formed Black Summer truffles (tuber aestivum). (photo courtesy of Alessandro Pellicciari)
Sabatino Truffles Updated Sustainability Initiatives on Earth Day 2022
On the anniversary of Sabatino Tartufi’s Earth Day initiatives, the company has provided an update on the company’s progress toward driving sustainability in the truffle industry. Since the company’s sustainability-focused initiatives were started, Sabatino has continued to take a 4-step approach to bring the company closer to carbon neutrality. The 4-pronged approach includes an extensive tree-planting program, more sustainable packaging, zero waste programs, and a focus on reducing the carbon footprint of the company overall.
Sabatino, a leader in fresh truffles and truffle products, is using the program to help build awareness of the real dangers climate change and pollution pose. This initiative builds on Sabatino Tartufi’s 110-plus year history of striving to become a better, greener truffle company.
“Our drive toward a more sustainable future is critical for future generations of truffle lovers. We are seeing each year, how the effects of global climate change is transforming our industry as well as other food products. In 2021, we saw some of the highest prices ever for white truffles due to the drought conditions driving lower occurrences of white truffles. For the long-term, we owe it to ourselves and future generations to do all we can. Being the global leader in the truffle industry means we have a responsibility to set the standard for sustainability,” says Federico Balestra, CEO, Sabatino Tartufi. “We simply cannot wait for the change to come to us. We have to take a proactive approach to ensure there are truffles for generations to come.”
Many truffles like these are found at the roots of trees throughout Italy’s forested areas. (photo by Alessandro Pellicciari)
The Sabatino Tartufi sustainability initiatives are comprised of the following programs:
Tree-Planting Program: With each new order placed on SabatinoTruffles.com, the company plants a new tree in one of their estate truffieres, the truffle orchards where the company’s Black Winter truffles (tuber melanosporum) and Black Summer truffles (tuber aestivum) are grown.
Greener, More Sustainable Packaging: Sabatino Tartufi are committed to removing all non-renewable or non-recyclable packaging from Sabatino Tartufi and Truffle Zest brand and products by 2024. This includes removing all use of styrofoam / polystyrene in packages by 2024.
Zero Waste from Operations: Across all facilities, the company has focused on reducing waste to minimize the environmental impact of its operations. To date, Sabatino has achieved zero waste in its fresh truffle operations and is committing to find new ways to get to zero waste in its truffle products.
Reduce Carbon Footprint: The company will focus on reducing its carbon footprint by reducing greenhouse gas emissions in its supply chain. With a physical footprint in the U.S., the firm is able to manufacture and ship more of products locally without the use of excessive shipping.
“These initiatives are just the start. We have continue to look closely at every area of our business to ensure its operating not only efficiently, but sustainably. With that in mind, I am challenging my teams to constantly find new solutions that can help us reduce our carbon footprint and be more environmentally conscious,” says Federico Balestra.
@Boisset Collection and @American Truffle Company® Announce Partnership To Cultivate Périgord Black Truffles at @Raymond Vineyards
Boisset Collection and American Truffle Company Announce Partnership To Cultivate Périgord Black Truffles at Raymond Vineyards
Boisset Collection, the leading Franco-American, family-owned fine wine company, and the American Truffle Company® (ATC), one of the leaders in truffle science and cultivation in North America, announced their partnership to cultivate Périgord black truffles at Raymond Vineyards in Napa Valley in California. The truffles produced will be marketed by Boisset Collection and ATC to both professional chefs and consumer home chefs alike. This special partnership is a marriage of Boisset’s luxury wine and spirits, food, and home and lifestyle goods portfolio and ATC’s leading truffle brand, advancing Old and New World traditions with the best cutting-edge truffle science possible.
“We are thrilled and honored to partner with Jean-Charles and his team at Boisset Collection,” says Robert Chang, ATC’s Chief Truffle Officer. “We’re confident that our extensive cutting-edge science will help him realize his vision of producing European black truffles here in the U.S., in the same way that his vision brought his family wine business from France to North America. We look forward to forging and deepening our synergies for decades to come.”
Périgord black truffles are among the most expensive foods in the world, with soaring demand continuing to far exceed declining supply. Routinely commanding over $1,000 per pound, they have been produced almost exclusively in Europe. Using extensive science, however, ATC has been producing this culinary treasure (aka black diamond) in many areas outside of its native European habitat, including Northern California where the wine growing regions offer particularly suitable climates and soil.
“We are ecstatic to partner with American Truffle Company and fortunate to be an early pioneer for growing Périgord black truffles in the Napa Valley,” said Jean-Charles Boisset, Proprietor of Boisset Collection. “We have always believed in providing the very best, highest quality products and ingredients to passionate food and wine lovers… To be able to revel in the experience of cultivating truffles in harmony with nature; to be able to grow them on our own land and make an epicurean delicacy from the Old World locally available to the New; and to share it all with our guests at dinners and events is a dream!”
Cultivating truffles, like growing grapes, requires extensive science and technology.
The key difference is while the science for growing conventional crops like grapes is widely available publicly, the substantial science for successfully cultivating truffles is not. ATC shares its proprietary scientific methodologies and data developed by Chief Scientist Prof. Paul Thomas by partnering with its client-partner growers to bring these rare fungi to the forefront of global truffle cultivation. Part of ATC’s rapid growth, Boisset has been an avid supporter since 2010, participating repeatedly as a host winery for ATC’s annual Napa Truffle Festival. Now, in 2022, Boisset has taken on the exciting mantle of truffle cultivation with soil preparation to begin this spring and planting to follow later in the year. Born in Burgundy, France, Boisset is no stranger to truffles.
@americantruffle.com/
