The Florida Beef Council recently hosted dieticians at EPCOT this week and we caught up with Deanne Maples with the Florida Beef Council to learn more.
“Sunday night, the Florida Beef Council hosted what we called the Beef Passport at Epcot. And honestly, it quickly became one of the coolest nutrition outreach programs we’ve done in my time at the Beef Council. We brought together a dozen Florida registered dietitians; all were in town for a national nutrition conference. And these folks are really incredible voices in today’s conversation surrounding food, nutrition, wellness, and healthy living. And some of these folks work directly with patients in private practice, others are in healthcare systems, communications, larger organizations. So they really are hearing firsthand the kinds of questions consumers are asking every day. And of course we want to know what those questions are too. But what made this event so unique is that we intentionally wanted to think outside of the box a little bit,” said Maples.
“The global cuisine, internationally inspired flavors are huge trends right now in the nutrition community. And of course, extremely relevant in a state like Florida, which is a cultural melting pot to begin with. And so having a place like Epcot right here in our backyard really gave us the perfect opportunity to bring those conversations to life and a fun and engaging setting. And the dietitians, we paired them up, they explored countries throughout the park and also at some of the food outlets for the Flower and Garden Festival. And they sampled beef dishes inspired by cuisines from around the world. And along the way, it sparked some really great conversation. Things around nutrition, of course, flavor, the versatility of beef, what it looks like to raise cattle these days, animal welfare, and the role that beef really plays in everyday lifestyles and food culture,” said Maples.
“And at the end of the day, what I really liked was, we could say that we’re meeting consumers where they are. We know that people connect over experiences and that’s travel and that’s food festivals and food. And so beef always naturally fits into those moments. So really awesome event, really proud of it. I think it speaks to the fact that at the Florida Beef Council, we’re always striving to create programming that’s progressive and that builds really authentic connection and Sunday night was a pretty, we’ll say magical evening for beef,” said Maples.
Audio Reporting by Dale Sandlin for Southeast AgNet.