Pastry Smart Announces Two New Organic, Humane Brands

SAN MATEO, Calif. and LOS ANGELES — Pastry Smart LLC, announced at Natural Products Expo West the launch of two new brands, Le Culture and Mission Blue Confections. Produced by Pastry Smart, the first bread, pastry and confectionary producer to be American Humane Certified, Le Culture and Mission Blue Confections use all natural, organic, and local ingredients.

"In most grocery stores, you walk down the produce aisle and there are many options for organic and local products. In the bakery aisle, however, customers rarely see such options. Crackers, cookies and bread almost always contain a laundry list of ingredients that are difficult to pronounce," said Mark Ainsworth , president and founder of Pastry Smart. "You look at our labels and there's less than nine ingredients. We offer best in class products, buying the best ingredients on the planet."

Le Culture—A Certified Organic Solution for Retail Bakeries

Le Culture offers a complete organic bread program to retailers and food service providers with its unique bake-able bag. The breads are par-baked and shipped, in the bag, to retailers. Retailers are able to bake the breads in their ovens and sell it to their customers, as a certified organic product. For retail bakeries or grocery outlets who want to offer a fresh, organic product to their customers but do not have a certified organic kitchen, Le Culture delivers the solution.

"Our customers love Pastry Smart Bread because it's certified organic, it has an affordable price point, and great fresh baked flavor! Our bakers love it because it is easy and it sells!" said Nancy Weimer, New Leaf Community Markets.

Mission Blue—A New "Species" of Chocolate

Mission Blue Confections is reviving the tradition of quality craftsmanship and art within confectionary candy making, and introducing a non-bar product option to the emerging organic chocolate market. The molded chocolate truffles are made with local ingredients, including dairy direct from California farms and include unique flavor forward concoctions, such as Esoteric-a banana french toast combination, Ruby Julep-raspberry white chocolate puree, and Hypnotik-a creamy blend of coffee and milk chocolate.

"The current state of the chocolate industry, when you think about organic chocolate, is product that's always in a bar form. Our goal is to go beyond offering just another chocolate bar, and really create an experience for our customer within the organic chocolate world. We're crafting all natural, humane certified, molded chocolate truffles with the perfect formulation of texture, sweetness, and flavor," said Ainsworth.

Mission Blue Confections is a brand native to the city of San Mateo, located along the Peninsula in the San Francisco Bay Area. The name "Mission Blue" is derived from the Mission Blue Butterfly, an endangered butterfly species indigenous to the area. The name also speaks to the rarity of the type of European crafted confections offered in the Mission Blue line.

About Pastry Smart

Baking a difference since 2006, Pastry Smart (pastrysmart.com) is proud to be the first and only pastry, bread and confectionary producer to be American Humane Certified, an exclusive food supply chain that ensures humane animal husbandry, from farm to table.

Pastry Smart's commitment to quality focuses on sustainability, sourcing local ingredients whenever possible and infuses the traditional handcrafted elements of baking with state of the art manufacturing technology, that uses renewable energy sources.

With the artistry + innovation approach, Pastry Smart is disrupting the baking industry, marrying the disciplines of craft baking and science to bring local, organic value to retail and foodservice. More information is available at www.pastrysmart.com, email info@pastrysmart.com or by calling 650.384.0596.

Source: Pastry Smart LLC