No fewer than 76% of French consumers think that organic foods are part of a solution for the future, faced with environmental problems, an approach that Isigny Sainte-Mère fully supports, naturally. As part of encouraging consumers’ interest in organic farming, Isigny Sainte-Mère is bringing out one of its signature products, crème fraîche in an organic version. Isigny Sainte-Mère’s organic crème fraîche is made exclusively from milk that comes from certified organic farms. Every 48 hours, these milks are collected and taken to reception tanks, where they are held for a series of tests to ensure that they meet Isigny Sainte-Mère’s high quality requirements.

Then they are sown with lactic starter cultures that have been carefully selected, before undergoing a slow, traditional ripening. Made with the greatest care and respect of tradition, the organic crème fraîche has some rare and incomparable taste and texture qualities: a round mouth feel, silky texture and delicate acidulated flavour notes.

An exceptional terroir, extensive know-how and a dairy tradition that goes back for generations have all been watch words for Isigny Sainte-Mère since the 16th century, when the Isigny terroir first earned its reputation as a dairy grand cru. Isigny Sainte-Mère’s premium range has just welcomed two new arrivals After 2009’s raw milk Camembert, Isigny Sainte-Mère has just topped out its premium range with raw butter and raw butter with crystals of Guérande salt. Made exclusively with raw milk, the raw butter is made from some of the finest milks to be collected in the Isigny region, which are distinguished by their vitamin and protein content. These even and soft butters are produced by churning creams that have been matured naturally. A marriage of two exceptional terroirs, the Guérande salt crystals are added at the end of the churning process and give the lightly salted raw butter its distinctive flavour.

These premium butters are best of breed and authentic, with a distinctive melting and smooth texture, with an attractive deep tint and a unique taste.

May 12 was an evening of celebration to remember, between 7pm and 10.30. For the festival visitors it was a unique occasion to link jazz and good food, to enjoy an eclectic programme of music while sampling Normandy’s finest dairy tradition. There was record attendance for this 29th édition, more than 37,000 spectators turned out to enjoy the top acts: Mélody Gardot, Naby, and the Roy Hargrove Quintet. As a partner for one of Normandy’s major musical events, for the past five years Isigny Sainte-Mère has presented a selection of its top products, with a giant cheese sampling event, organised by 50 members of the cooperative’s staff and open to all the festivalgoers from 7pm. At the foot of two very lively stages, the theatre and the Marcel Hélie room, two tables – each more than 20 metres long – were laid out with Isigny Sainte-Mère cheeses to tickle the concertgoers taste buds. The array included Isigny Camembert, Pont l’Evêque, Camembert fondue prepared on a barbecue, Camembert ripened with Calvados, small Pont l’Evêque with cider and five spices, mature Red Label Mimolette prepared for a cocktail. At the same time, the master buttermakers and cheesemakers from the cooperative were on hand to talk about their terroir, their know-how and the taste of the products, with demonstrations of how they are made, too.

The event was organised in partnership with the bakers of Coutances, who turned up with speciality breads alongside and the Regional Association for the Lower Normandy Cider Development (ARDEC), offering for the occasion a chance to sample Cotentin ciders. In all, these were shared moments with a musical background, anchored in the warm and varied spirit of this festival.

We can’t wait for the 30th festival to come round!

The Regional heats for the 2010 competition to find the Best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter have just been completed. Those taking part are all students at specialist training centres. This is the fifth competition, which has kept its original philosophy, that is a competition that is revolves around people and is looking to develop the future. Its aim is to make future bakery professionals of the values of work well done and the taste of good things. It was started by the Isigny Sainte-Mère Cooperative in partnership with the National Association of Bakery Tutors (AAINB). The competition to find the Best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter is an event which is gaining momentum: this year seven regions are taking part, representing about 50 baking training centres. The grand final will take place in Paris during September: it will see 14 finalists in a bake-off to make “The Best Croissant made with Isigny AOP Butter 2010”.The competition is open to students on CAP or BEP level 5 courses, from whom one or two students have been reselected at every centre. The seven regional heats were held between April and May this year. The students, aged between 17 and 25, were particularly motivated and very focussed, while in every heat there was the same blend of camaraderie tinged with a competitive edge. The judging panels were presided over by tutors responsible for each region, drafted from the competition organisers, teachers including a number of former Best Workers of France in their category and representatives of the cooperative. Together they had an hour to judge the technical standards of the candidates, their ability to exploit the qualities of Isigny Sainte-Mère AOP Butter and, above all, the taste of the croissants and their presentation. This is not such a simple exercise when you take into account the multitude of recipes and knowledge that can be applied to this one product, sometimes a bit over standardised today.

And the winners are...?
Each of the winners in their regional heats delivered beautifully puffy pastries, as crisp as you could wish for and above all, with the subtle and inimitable taste of fresh butter. Here are the 14 finalists :

Bretagne-Pays de Loire
Held on April 7 2010 at the Lycée St Michel de Priziac (56) organised by Ludovic Richard
Winner: Mélanie VILLANOYA from CIFAM, Nantes
Second place : Maxime LE ROY from Chambre des métiers at Vannes

Alsace-Lorraine
Held on May 3 2010 at the école de Boulangerie d’Epinal (88) organised by Stéphane Georgeon
Winner: M. Brino
Second place : Fabien MENUDIER from CEPAL at Laxou

Nord-Pas de Calais
Held on May 3 mai 2010 at the CFA in Valenciennes (59) organised by  Alexandre Lecuyer and Philippe Bazin
Winner: Romuald REAL of the CFA in Valenciennes
Second place: Remy MARTIN fo the CFA in Arras

Ile de France
Held on May 6 2010 at the Ecole Grégoire Ferrandi in Paris (75) organised by Yannick Serbource, Christian Maurice and Lucien Megel
Winner: Elasri LAHOUCINE, CFA Rabelais in Paris
Second place: Nicolas VAINUNSICA, Ecole Grégoire Ferrandi in Paris

Rhone-Alpes
Held on May 7 2010 at the CECOF in Ambérieu en Bugey (01) organised by Philippe Josse, Emmanuel Bouvard and Olivier Aimasso
Winner: Aymeric GUILLON of the  CFA in Dardilly
Second place: Simon CHARRETIER of the CFA in Mably

Normandie
Held on May 19 2010 at the Lycée Laplace in Caen (14) organised by Alain Marie et Yann Tabourel
Winner: Pierre ADAM of the CFA in Rouen
Second place: Anthony BACHELIER of the CFA in Rouen

Aquitaine
Held on May  21 mai 2010 at INSAV in Bordeaux (33) organised by Bernard Cadiot
Winner: Florian DELGADO of the CFA in Boulazac Périgueux (24)
Second place: Vincent BAPPEL of the CFA in Boulazac Périgueux (24)

The winners have already won a complete baker’s uniform and are now aiming for the first prize. This will be a training course worth €1,500. Well done and congratulations to their tutors. Their ability to transmit skills and know how will take centre stage at this year’s finals, which will be held in September. There is a trophy that will go to the winning training establishment. This cup is currently passing its last few weeks at the CFA in Livron, following the success of last year’s winner, Aurélien Russias.

We will see you in September 2010 for the Grand Final, which will be held in Paris.

The Isigny Sainte-Mère Cooperative earned ISO 9001 status (previously ISO 9002) for its sites at Isigny (1990) and Sainte-Mère Eglise (1992). This accreditation was awarded by the French quality assurance association AFAQ (Association Française pour la certification des Assurances Qualité) and is monitored by BVQI (Bureau Véritas Qualité International). At the time, Isigny Sainte-Mère became the first French food firm to hold this accreditation, thanks to its implementation of HACCP workflow management principles.

This recognition confirmed the cooperative’s total commitment to the highest quality standards, constituting a new focus for the industry, while putting Isigny Sainte-Mère well ahead of its rivals.

Today, Isigny Sainte-Mère has been accredited for the ISO 14001 environmental scheme, underlining the commitment of the business to balancing profitability and reduced environmental impact.

A number of environmental strong points demonstrate the cooperative’s will to actively consider these issues. They include the construction of Isigny Sainte-Mère’s own water treatment plant as long ago as 1998.

This was followed, 10 years later, by the French food industry’s first ever biomass boiler installation. A large facility, this unit has allowed Isigny Sainte-Mère to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by a factor of four.

By investing in renewable energy on this scale, Isigny Sainte-Mère has already met a French government target more than 40 years ahead of schedule! Renewable energy was backed by an overwhelming majority of those who took part in the French government’s 2007 environmental summit, the Grenelle de l’Environnement in 2007, after which the French government set a target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by a factor of four by 2050.

A similar effort has been made in the area of waste sorting: the cooperative sorts and manages its recyclable waste into no fewer than eight separate waste streams for effective recycling of materials such as cardboard, plastic and ferrous waste. These are all collected and recycled by specialisst companies, all of which are ISO 14001 accredited!