Quebec veal, lamb and beef processor Delimax-Montpak is set to launch a new consumer brand across Canada featuring what it bills as the only GMO-free milk-fed veal on the market.
The company said Tuesday it expected to have the new brand — Fontaine Family, named for the company’s founding family — available via “most major supermarket banners” by week’s end.
With the new product line, “we want to address consumers directly and help them appreciate the subtle and refined taste of veal, but also raise awareness on the many benefits this lean and nutritious meat provides,” Montpak president Alex Fontaine said in a release.
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To “meet our customers’ needs,” he said, the line includes “ready-to-cook products made from fresh meat, preservative-free, gluten-free and containing a minimum of salt. They are quick to cook and have a maximum of five ingredients.”
“All our animals are raised without the use of hormones, in accordance with the highest standards of animal welfare and our milk-fed veal is GMO-free,” Delimax president Fabien Fontaine said in the same release. “We are proud to stand alone in offering this milk-fed veal product.”
Asked via email about the specifics of the new veal line’s non-GMO label claim, the company replied that its packaging notes the livestock used for the new product line are non-GMO-fed.
“We do control our source of feed by growing our own solid feed. This is how we can assure strict controls that differentiate ourselves form other producers of milk-fed veal.”
The company noted it meets Canadian rules to make a non-GMO fed claim, but it has developed its own logo, since “no federal certification logo… exists that we could use.”
The Delimax-Montpak group, which bills itself as “North America’s veal leader,” sources livestock from 105 company-owned farms and affiliates and owns or is affiliated with companies up and down the meat value chain, including Abattoir Saint-Germain, Transport Dofax, processing and distributing arms Montpak and Catelli Bros. and milk replacer manufacturers NRV and Serval.
“We really waited until we had all the right elements in place to ensure the success of the launch: farmland, feed production, livestock and processing plants,” Donald Fontaine, president of the Delimax-Montpak group’s transportation division, said in the same release.
“This allows us to ensure that we have a high level of quality control throughout the production line through all stages of the process.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network
