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 | | CHICORY CHALLENGE LAUNCHES RECIPE BOOK | | | Smye Holland Associates Limited | | 26/02/2008 | | | The Dutch Produce Association, the organisation behind the Chicory Challenge competition, has launched its Chicory Challenge recipe book to raise money for charity.
The book includes a selection of the competition's top entries and the recipes from the three finalists.
The recipe book will be sold by the competition's chosen charity, BDF Newlife.
BDF Newlife is the UK's leading child health charity specialising in research and support to aid those affected by inborn conditions, otherwise known as birth defects. In addition to funding research, the charity also offers support services operated by specially trained nurses.
BDF Newlife's experience is that many pregnancies are unplanned, so pre-conceptual taking of supplements is not possible prior to pregnancy and is not taken up early during pregnancy.
Sheila Brown OBE, chief executive of BDF Newlife, said: "Advising women to take supplements when planning a pregnancy is of no use for those women who are surprised to find them pregnant. By the time a woman suspects she may be pregnant, it is too late to prevent a neural tube defect."
Last year BDF Newlife backed calls for folate (folic acid) to be added to bread in a bid to tackle this problem by ensuring good levels of folate in people's normal diets.
BDF Newlife has been working for almost 12 years to highlight the need to take folic acid prior to and during early pregnancy. Chicory is a natural source of folic acid.
Folic acid has been shown to reduce the risk of neural tube defects such as spina bifida. Women are advised to start taking folic acid supplements, as well as consume natural sources of folate, from the time they stop using contraception because folic acid is particularly important in early pregnancy.
Despite the link between chicory and folate, the Chicory Challenge was not a health campaign and the Dutch Produce Association is being careful not to make claims about any health benefits of eating chicory.
The Chicory Challenge competition offered amateur and professional cooks in England the chance to win up to £5,000 for a charity of their choice. Its aim was to draw attention to chicory's potential and inspire English cooks to create some great new chicory recipes.
Susie Carter, who works for Hampshire Fare, won the £5,000 top prize with her recipe for chicory tarts with goat’s cheese & thyme. The prize money has been donated to Hampshire Fare where it will be used to develop courses to encourage more people to use fresh local produce.
The two other teams in the final - one from Waddesdon Church of England School in Aylesbury and one from Acklam Grange School in Middlesbrough - came second and third, respectively. The £1,000 and £500 second and third prizes will be spent on the schools' food technology departments.
Chicory is little known and little used in the UK but it is a versatile vegetable which can be used raw in salads or cooked in a wide variety of dishes. In continental Europe, people eat far more chicory than we do in the UK. | |
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