FAPC hosts class to improve barbecue-judging skills
By Ruth Bobbitt
FAPC Communications Graduate Assistant
4-22-2008
STILLWATER, Okla. – Thirty-three people learned how to properly judge and score barbecued meats at the Certified Barbecue Judging Class held April 12 at the Robert M. Kerr Food & Agricultural Products Center on the campus of Oklahoma State University.
Participants also gained valuable judging experience, improv ed their taste-testing skills, received a certified judging manual and earned a judging badge. The Oklahoma Beef Council, the Okla homa Pork Council and the Oklahoma Poultry Federation co-sponsored the event.
The course was taught by Ed Roith of the Kansas City Barbeque Society, which is the world’s largest barbecue and grilling association and sanctions 150 contests across the United States each year. Roith developed the course after several years as a competi tive barbecue cook and judge. He has won more than 375 awards, including 11 state championships.
“This was an informative and fun event and a great way to experience the fine intricacies of barbeque,” said Chuck Willoughby, FAPC business and marketing relations manager. “Competitors that attended the class learned what judges look for and may therefore improve their cooking abilities. In addition, many champion barbeque cooks often consider marketing their award-winning products.”
Willoughby said the FAPC is well prepared to help in these efforts, as the center has assisted more than 30 Oklahoma barbecue sauce businesses.
The FAPC is a 96,000-square-foot stand-alone building that houses animal harvesting, food manufacturing, grain milling, sensory profiling, food microbiology and analytical laboratory facilities, as well as conference facilities and applications laboratories for demonstration and prototype testing.
By offering large and small businesses, producers and entrepreneurs access to faculty and staff with expertise in business and technical disciplines, the FAPC strives to discover, develop and deliver information that will stimulate and support the growth of value-added food and agricultural products and processing in Oklahoma.
For more information, please visit www.fapc.biz or call Willoughby at 405-744-6071.
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Oklahoma State University, U.S. Department of Agriculture, State and Local Governments Cooperating. The Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service offers its programs to all eligible persons regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, age, disability, or status as a veteran, and is an equal opportunity employer.
