It’s been nearly 18 years since the Peanut Advisory Board (PAB), the non-profit trade association representing peanut growers in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, was formed to educate American consumers about the U.S. peanut industry and its products. Today, the PAB is as busy as ever creating partnerships, promoting menu items and products and spreading the good news about the health aspects of peanuts and peanut butter. Following are a few of their recent activities.

Partnership Promotes New Entrée
The PAB is partnering with Jazzman’s Café to promote a new peanut item, Sesame Noodle Salad with Roasted Chicken, in their 205 restaurants. The prominent point-of-sale materials in all locations feature a color photo of the dish that clearly features peanuts and also contains the PAB logo.

Jazzman’s Café is an authentic coffeehouse experience with a full line of proprietary coffee imported entirely from sustainable sources, espresso and specialty drinks, complemented by the latest tastes in sandwiches, piping hot soups, cool salads, hot-pressed paninis and gourmet baked goods.

New Peanut Butter At Cooking Show
Peanut Advisory Board exhibited at The Metropolitan Cooking and Entertaining Show in Atlanta on May 3-4 and introduced Chet’s, a new squeezable, flavored peanut butter, to the Atlanta market. Chet’s comes in four flavors: roasted peanut, banana, cinnamon nutmeg and chocolate.

Chet’s was introduced by Harris Family Foods in January. It’s available on their Web site www.chetspb.com and is making its way into grocery and specialty food stores.

“The new squeeze packaging and flavors of a beloved product created a lot of buzz at the show,” says Leslie Wagner, PAB executive director. “And our sponsorship of The Cooking Stage really rounded out our presence.”

Jonathan St. Hilaire, the executive pastry chef for the Concentrics Restaurant Group in metro-Atlanta, demonstrated Peanut Butter Bars that won a prize in the 2007 PAB Chef’s Recipe Contest.

Nearly 10,000 people attended the two-day event, featuring celebrity appearances by Paula Deen, Jamie Deen and Bobby Deen; more than 100 exhibitors; demonstrations by 34 chefs; and 25 tasting and entertaining workshops.

Peanuts On Health Training Videos
The PAB is working with Health Opera in Huntsville, Ala., on a series of new health training videos for the Video Professor. Video Professor has been the leader in comprehensive, self-paced computer software tutorials for almost 20 years. Students can choose from a variety of courses, which they can take on-line at their convenience. Video Professor has partnered with Health Opera to offer a new series of health videos.
The PAB sponsored and helped with the first two topics – healthy weight loss and living with diabetes.

Wagner made a guest appearance on the diabetes video where she prepared Southwestern Peanut-Cilantro Dipping Sauce and discussed the latest diabetes research, featuring peanuts and healthy diet. PG